Reading Under the Lilacs discussion

A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

Don't forget to use spoiler tags because not everyone reads at the same pace!

So we have Winter, Danny, JDubs and me. Are we all comfortable with starting tomorrow? Say two chapters per day. After we finish our daily dose of reading we can share our thoughts over here.

This is just a rough idea I'm giving. Feel free to suggest alterations

I’m good with that! I was just able to snag a copy at Barnes & Noble, so I’m good to go!

I'm good with that, even though I'm just seeing this.

I made it to the 5th chapter. No clue who's who or why dragons (& birds?) are talking. Overall very confused but that is how any fantasy book works. How much have y'all read?

Also if any of you do figure it out, can you summarize what's happened so far just so we are on the same page.. we can use spoiler tags for each chapter

I started with the first 2 chapters today! I might try and read a bit more later on and catch up to chapter 5. ☺️ I’m liking it so far! I really like how Samantha Shannon writes. It’s still in the mundane set up process, but she still finds a way to make it interesting enough to keep going.

I am at the 7th chapter now. I dread that there are so many characters. I thought Loth and Sulyard are the same person.

How far along are all of you?

I'm just seeing this, i will try my best to get to your pages. I'll tell you all my progress. ☺️

No worries! I’m still a bit behind too. I’m on chapter 5 I think? This week got busy and got away from me. But I have some time today to catch up, so I’m going to put a dent in these chapters!

I can also pause until all of you catch up

Thank you! I'm still trying to upload it to my kindle but i don't find the right version. In my case, naomi, I don't think it's necessary that you pause, I can catch up, but it also depends of the others

I’ve made it to page 102 chapter 9! I’m loving this book so far! It’s a little hard to keep up with the characters sometimes, both present and from history being explained, but I love Samantha’s writing style so much! The way she describes everything is chefs kiss!

Ok, I've finally been able to have the book, I'm starting now, in what chapter/page are you on?

YaY! I didn’t get to read any today, so I’m still on page 102/chapter 9. I can wait for you to catch up before we keep going. ☺️

I just reached chapter 9. I am reading this after a while so I kinda forgot what was happening. I looked online for chapter summaries but none of them are free

Do we want to start doing 2 chapters a day again starting tomorrow? Now that everyone is pretty much caught up. ☺️

sure but I'm open to increasing the pace as well

I’m down to increase the pace!

I finished chapter 14 now. we can do at least three chapters daily

I am still not very familiar with these characters and there are only more being introduced ༎ຶ⁠‿⁠༎ຶ

I’m good with 3 chapters a day!

And I know! I’m loving the detail, but the characters are a lot to keep up with!

Finally made it to 14! I feel like I’ve been going so much slower than normal, but this week has been crazy.

I’m seriously loving this writing though! I think I’m finally starting to keep up with all the characters -lol- I am obsessed with any scenes that have had the dragons in them! 😍😍

I reached chapter 17. I agree with you 100%. I wish there was more action though. too early to judge nevertheless

do you prefer reading the east or west chapters?

Just to resolve the confusion, you can read at your own pace no need to plan how many chapters to read each day with the other readers. It's easier this way. Just use spoiler tags. Example:
Chapter 15 (view spoiler)[I'm really loving this book so far! But there are so many characters and I can't keep up with all of them. (hide spoiler)]

let's do that then

Hina…………..you’re a genius! 😂😂

Naomi - I thinking I’m liking the East chapters more! But I will say, in the West, Sabran intrigues me a lot!

I meant to say Sabran intrigues me 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️😂😂

I like the east chapters too.
for me ead is intriguing. she reminds me of inej from six of crows. her faith and her spy career just gives inej vibes.
however, whatever is happening with loth is very dull. I can't even remember why he's in a pirate ship

-lol!- yeah I keep forgetting what the heck Loth is doing too. 😂😂

I also love Niclays! His humor is so great.

I finally made it to part 2! I feel like I’ve been reading slower than I wanted to. But everything is getting so good now! I’m feel like I’m finally keeping characters straight, and everyone’s plot lines are getting good! I low key get upset when it switches regions before I’m ready. 😂😂

I'm finished chapter 26. finally some action yay
I imagine roos as magnus from the shadowhunter chronicles

I LOVE Roos! I think he’s going to be one of my favs until the end

ch 29 (view spoiler)[I gotta admit that was impactful. I felt that death in my bones. (hide spoiler)]

mild spoiler for ch 33 (view spoiler)[hold on, niclays' (ex) lover is a truyde's grandpa? (hide spoiler)] I really wish there were chapter summaries available online for free.

I am now on page 370. I love that that there's actually stuff going on now. Bring on the action yeah

I’m not far behind you! I’m on ch 27 pg 302! Things are definitely starting to gear up, and I’m loving it!

*ch 25 spoiler*



I’m absolutely loving Tané’s relationship with her dragon so far. It’s just so sweet! 🥹🥹

Also, Ead is a total badass!

omg you have no idea what's gonna go down hehe

I'm in chapter 39 and looks like we won't get anymore west chapters

I’m on chapter 31, so I’m not far behind! I didn’t even think to look if any of the regions stopped having chapters!

I'm just saying.. the narrator may be disposed 乁⁠[⁠ ⁠◕⁠ ⁠ᴥ⁠ ⁠◕⁠ ⁠]⁠ㄏ

I’m on ch36 and I can NOT put this book down! I’ve been waiting for the action to get to this point, and the wait was worth it! So much is going on! 🤯🤯

yaaasss
I however am at the part where the action died down a bit :/

Oh no! Hopefully it’s not for long.

I finished ch 42. omg they're connecting the dots now. all the narrators are gonna cross paths.

it's so demotivating reading for such a long time but still being at only 43/76. it's definitely gonna take longer than a month to finish.

That’s where I stopped too! I left off at ch43!! I was thinking the exact same thing. They keep saying the same or similar things from the different POV’s, and I’m DYING to see how they all intersect!

I think we’re making pretty good progress, tho! We might be able to finish before the month is up. ☺️ I break it down into smaller goals. I goal read to the end of a section/part, and then I see how much of an impact I made on the overall book. We’re over the halfway mark rn! 👏🏻🎉👏🏻🎉

I just read ch43 and I kinda skimmed through. but the ending is so satisfying. I was wondering where loth is since ead is also in the priory.

yes but it's been so long and we've only made it to 57% :'( you're idea sounds good though.

I'm curious to know, are you reading your physical copy still? I switch between my phone, Kindle and the paperback. I can't read the physical book while in bed yk.

what's your rating for the book so far?

PS how are you able to add emojis to your text? Goodreads says "character not supported" whenever I try

I made it to part 4 today! It’s getting really good with everyone about to start interacting!

I’m reading the physical book. I love the feeling of holding a big thick book and being able to see my progress. But I get why a lot of people don’t like it. If I actually hold the book instead of lay it down for a bit while I’m reading it does start to hurt your hands and wrists after a while.

I think after part one I’d give it a 4 to 4.5 stars! I really love her writing, the time she puts into character and world building, and build up of the story. She kind of reminds me a little bit of a female Tolkien, but with more love/emotion in her story. And that’s saying a lot, because Tolkien is my absolute FAVORITE author ever!!

whoa you've surpassed me. I'm two chapters behind. I started two other books yesterday. that's probably why I didn't read much.

I've actually never read lotr but someone in the back of the book does describe it as a feminist lotr.

Omg LOTR is amazing! I’ve read that and The Hobbit twice! I’m about due for another re-read -lol- The Hobbit starts off VERY slow like Priory did, but once it picks up you never slow back down!

And the other 2 books is def understandable. You’ve done great so far tho! You’ve been faster than me the entire time!