A Vengeful Realm

The Breaker of Chains, Book 2

By: Tim Facciola

Narrated by: Landon Soelberg

New Rheynia has woken from peace’s slumber to a nightmare. Denied the nightly rains, crops fail, people divide, and revolution blooms between every crack in the kingdoms’ failing foundation. King Varros—supposedly dead. Laeden, the traitor, a fugitive. And the Uprising’s patience has ended. Following Zephyrus’s open defiance of the crown, war has come — and no one will emerge unscathed.

While Danella directs Damascus to finish the war her father started, Laeden frees gladiator slaves to raise an army against them. With New Rheynia burning, Vykinallia, a prisoner of the Uprising, attempts to prove herself more valuable than a king’s ransom. And Iylea, after skirting death to become a servant in the divine realm, learns of a treacherous plot amongst the Gods with Zephyrus at the center of it all. Now, with the aid of Iylea in the divine realm and Laeden in the mortal, Zephyrus must claim the lost relics of long dead Gods if he has any chance of facing the Traitor God and breaking the chains that bind all of humanity. But plans are in place…

The Age of the End is coming.

©2023 First Torch Books LLC (P)2023 First Torch Books LLC

Epic Fantasy + the Human Condition

After being left on that riveting cliff hanger from book 1, I was so excited to begin book 2. I started reading it and then went back and forth with it on audible because every moment I could be in the story I HAD to be (driving could not be a reason to not read)! Facciola is a great story teller hands down. He is descriptive yet keeps the scenes moving quickly. He writes dialogue that allows you to easily see the scenes in your mind. The emotions Facciola was able to get me to feel was unlike other stories—twice I cried, twice I stopped dead in my tracks to rewind and listen again because of the tension he created in the chapters. What I love most is the relationships with the characters and how everything continues to unfold. Just like in book 1, everyone has good intentions, but they conflict with one another and to go on this journey to see what happens has helped me to shift some perspective into my own life in regards to “how did I get here.” This story is a true epic fantasy given the plot, duration and characters, the way Facciola has the characters develop feels like being in an intense therapy session—I write that in the best way possible—you’re never bored, you’re on the edge of your seat waiting to see what will happen next, and when stuff goes south Facciola’s reasoning is one that somehow gets you to feel all of the feels. Make sure to read this trilogy if you love epic fantasy and want to explore the human condition!

Even better than the first book!

Even better than the first book! The shift more into fantasy and the world of the gods is awesome!

Epic book 2 of the trilogy

Book 2 of AVR does not disappoint! The world, lore, and magic system greatly expands in this second entry, leaving you wanting more. Excited for The Age of the End!

Truly Epic!!

The breaker of chains makes good on everything promised by book 1 and add so much more. as the conflict among mortals heats up we get an absolutely thrilling look at the conflict among the gods. I loved learning about the gods and their secrets and the surprising interactions and connections between different pantheons felt especially fresh and exciting to me. I also loved watching each of the heroes really come into their own this book as they rally their forces to prepare to face the jackals, the army, the skeleton King, and ultimately the age of the end. ridiculously excited for book 3!!!

A MUST EAD FOR FANTASY LOVERS!

Ignore any review less than five stars that says they haven’t read the first book!!!

This is not a stand alone book, but a trilogy that needs to be read together. With that said, I loved The Breaker of Chains and it is my favorite book (so far!) There is an in depth recap of book 1 that helps you quickly get back into the story. The book picks up right where it left off and we start to see where the characters are headed.

Tim Facciola does a great job with pacing the book. He is detailed and thorough without overdoing it. His mix of politics, action and character development is written so well. You can see and understand why the characters make the choices they do. I also love how the characters' journeys intertwine with one another and how it unfolds throughout the story. At the end of each chapter I couldn’t wait to hear that characters perspective again, but then was immediately enthralled with the next one, never once feeling like the story was choppy. Everything flowed and every little detail was well thought out. There was nothing in this book that didn’t help move the story along. It was exciting and engaging and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time!! When I couldn’t read my hard copy, I jumped right into the audiobook and continued where I left off. The audiobook reader is amazing! I absolutely cannot wait to read the third installment, the Age of the End!

Someone needs to make this series a movie!!!

Pure 🔥

More magic, more gods, more action, more awesomeness. Such a solid book. This will forever be in my category of top reads.

I love the characters!

The Breaker of Chains connected me more to characters I loved in The Scales of Balance and I some characters I didn’t think I ‘liked’ grew on me so much in this second book. This book provides answers but leaves so much more to find out. I read the first half of this book in physical form and then listened to the audio book for the second half. The narration is great - I’d absolutely recommend the audiobook even if you’ve read the physical or ebook. I’m anxiously awaiting the next book. If you haven’t read The Scales of Balance, you’ll definitely want to do that first before jumping in to The Breaker of Chains.

storyline and narrator

What captures me the most is how the narrator brings to life each character through their personality the author has created. i’ve deeply enjoyed the first and second book and can’t wait for the third!

Great!

This trilogy gets better and better. I loved that we got to see the Zeph and Threyna team up!

In this book, we get more worldbuilding, seeing the realm of the gods and what they’re up to through the eyes of a familiar character.

Danella, arguably one of the most interesting characters in the first book, sort of takes a little backseat to Zeph and Threyna and Laeden and Nallia. The pairs really seeing a lot of growth in this book as we (the readers) try to figure out who embodies the different prophets. I’m assuming we’ll learn that in the final book as the intrigue comes to a head. My teen boys and I have some theories.

This was an enjoyable read with wild political machinations and frustrating battles and loss. So many people die, you’ll be gutted.

Really looking forward to the final book in the trilogy.

I am not a family member or paid reviewer

When I was reading the reviews on the first book, I thought there had to be family members or paid reviewers involved. This author gets full credit though. I would put his character development on par with Brandon. His dark and gritty world feels real. The problems monumental. There is no useless dialogue dumping and everything feels normal. To the point that when say a character stabs someone you picture what he/she will do next and then the author puts the action you imagined on the proverbial page (since its audio). Anyways loved the book can't wait for the finish.