Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
the book was so mid tbh. the romance felt really forced and out of place because it seemed to just develop from nowhere; it seemed to be rather to fill a checkbox of a trope rather than to develop any meaningful connection between characters.
the writing was also… not great. still don’t really get the whole magic system or worldbuilding but i fr might just be stupid. the whole thing about the obeah and stuff?? don’t get it LMFAO. it also did bring in a lot of anachronisms (existence of leggings and a few other things) that i felt was really forced or out of place for a fantasy book; yes i know ‘suspend your disbelief’ but my immersion </3
that being said i am invested now because i am 100% rooting for these characters now ajd will buy the next book when it drops
the writing was also… not great. still don’t really get the whole magic system or worldbuilding but i fr might just be stupid. the whole thing about the obeah and stuff?? don’t get it LMFAO. it also did bring in a lot of anachronisms (existence of leggings and a few other things) that i felt was really forced or out of place for a fantasy book; yes i know ‘suspend your disbelief’ but my immersion </3
that being said i am invested now because i am 100% rooting for these characters now ajd will buy the next book when it drops
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, War
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Medical content, Alcohol
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
My issue with reading is that I expect every book to be a masterpiece, like the select few I’ve read. This book was pretty good, it just didn’t live up to my standards.
The writing style was good and the author did a great job at invoking emotions. I quickly became attached to the characters, and I feel they had a lot of personality. Though I will say, the romances did feel slightly forced and moved quickly for the characters (in my opinion.) Despite this, I did enjoy the couples together, so I can overlook the lack in development for them.
Overall, it was a good book. Some plot twists were expected, but I think the more important ones caught me so off-guard. I was pleasantly shocked at the end, and I’m looking forward to reading the second book.
The writing style was good and the author did a great job at invoking emotions. I quickly became attached to the characters, and I feel they had a lot of personality. Though I will say, the romances did feel slightly forced and moved quickly for the characters (in my opinion.) Despite this, I did enjoy the couples together, so I can overlook the lack in development for them.
Overall, it was a good book. Some plot twists were expected, but I think the more important ones caught me so off-guard. I was pleasantly shocked at the end, and I’m looking forward to reading the second book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content
Moderate: War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, Alcohol
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, War
Minor: Sexual content
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow, this was not good. Very disappointing. Before I get into the plot, the writing is just plain bad at times. It wasn't the kind of writing I'd expect from an adult novel but more than that, I'm surprised some of this writing passed final edits.
The plot is intensely predictable to the extent where the book felt a little pointless to read. I don't think its bad to write a story where the reader knows what will inevitably happen in the plot, but the whole prophecy thing took the joy out of figuring out what will happen on my own and instead I was just waiting for plot points to fall into place.
This novel is also advertised as being a romantasy. Please do not read this book if that is what you are seeking. The romance has very little build up between MC's and love interests, they are just suddenly totally all over each other with what felt like very little relationship building. I'm all for characters having instant chemistry but it just doesn't feel very romantic to me when you do away with showing me why I should even care about the relationship.
World building seems cool at first glance but if you poke it even a little it falls apart. I am not sure why the duo MCs were elves when they had no characteristics of why being an elf set them apart from the other races except for prophecy telling, which actually made the plot actively worse, as stated previously.
Ultimately, the book is easily readable, so 2 stars it is. I wish this read had gone better for me and I honestly think you should probably read something else instead of picking this up.
The plot is intensely predictable to the extent where the book felt a little pointless to read. I don't think its bad to write a story where the reader knows what will inevitably happen in the plot, but the whole prophecy thing took the joy out of figuring out what will happen on my own and instead I was just waiting for plot points to fall into place.
This novel is also advertised as being a romantasy. Please do not read this book if that is what you are seeking. The romance has very little build up between MC's and love interests, they are just suddenly totally all over each other with what felt like very little relationship building. I'm all for characters having instant chemistry but it just doesn't feel very romantic to me when you do away with showing me why I should even care about the relationship.
World building seems cool at first glance but if you poke it even a little it falls apart. I am not sure why the duo MCs were elves when they had no characteristics of why being an elf set them apart from the other races except for prophecy telling, which actually made the plot actively worse, as stated previously.
Ultimately, the book is easily readable, so 2 stars it is. I wish this read had gone better for me and I honestly think you should probably read something else instead of picking this up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Death of parent
Moderate: Violence, Murder
Minor: Dementia, Alcohol
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I reeeeally wanted to like this, really tried to get into the lore, but the writing didn’t quite do it for me.
First some negatives:
- The writing in general wasn’t really my style. It read very YA fantasy, which is not a bad thing, just not what I expected. I kept seeing little similarities to the hunger games, particularly in the character of Golan, who’s superficially a lot like Cinna, and who I liked very much <3
- But using THG as an example, some books do a great job of showing you exactly how high the stakes are and it makes you instinctively want the characters to survive and succeed. In Faebound, the characters kept telling me the stakes were high, but I just didn’t believe them.
Even when the elves were trapped in Mosima with thousands of fae who supposedly hated them, and no means of escape, during most of the scenes they were just… hanging out. in a spacious apartment. There was very little threat or tension, and the plot was predictable to the point where I started getting frustrated. - The two romance storylines were also very predictable from the start, and didn’t do much for me (though I’m starting to think this is a me problem).
- There was one plot twist
(Komi) that I figured out as soon as the character was introduced, and it was so early on I was dreading the main characters not figuring it out, knowing it wouldn’t be revealed until the very end. He was such a silly character and didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the book, so knowing the twist was coming I didn’t find him loveable at all, he just pissed me off!! - Finally this is a real nitpick, but I’ve always thought of elves and fae as synonymous in folklore, so seeing them as different, enemy species took a while to adjust to. It doesn’t help that in Faebound there’s almost no difference between them; fae have sharp canines (which are purely decorative as they are vegetarian**) and use slightly different magic to elves. The elves could’ve easily been replaced by humans for the purposes of the story (in the lore, the now-extinct humans used magic too, so it would’ve made sense!) except it seems like there are plans to introduce humans in the sequels to complete the trifecta.
Things I did enjoy:
- Drumfire, and the importance of a drum as a magic focus to Yeeran. Loved it.
- The two-headed bat god Ewia.
- Lettle’s divination process, and the fact that every prophecy had to come true.
- Golan.
His involvement with the poisoning prophecy was a little obvious, but you could also call it good foreshadowing. - Pila. She was funny and reminded me of my cat.
- The obeah in general. Loved the obeah and the merging of real-life West African folklore with fantasy; they were a cool balance between animal familiars and mounts. But sometimes they felt a bit hollow, like pets or accessories. Give me descriptions of how being faebound actually affects society in Mosima, their lifecycle and social habits, how each obeah is different in size and pattern and horn type. **Related: I can kind of understand the choice of the fae being exclusively vegetarian, but it made no sense for the obeah, who have the bodies and teeth of leopards. I feel like it sanitised them and was a huge missed opportunity to emphasize their power and ferocity!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Beautifully written, with a unique magical world. I could tumble down this story over and over.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, War
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
really liked this and i truly didnt see the plot twists coming. except for the one abt nerad murdering the queens
the world felt very vibrant and interesting, and i was interested in the politics of it all
however the enemies to lovers plot line felt rushed and escalated too quickly in my opinion, and i felt like the sex scenes between yeeran and furi were unnecessary and didnt do much to further the plot. i however feel the opposite about lettle and rayan,, which is annoying bc i dont normally like straight romance but i digress.
i would be interested in reading the rest of the series bc especially bc we dont really figure out how yeeran becomes faebound ? also the magic system is cool
the world felt very vibrant and interesting, and i was interested in the politics of it all
however the enemies to lovers plot line felt rushed and escalated too quickly in my opinion, and i felt like the sex scenes between yeeran and furi were unnecessary and didnt do much to further the plot. i however feel the opposite about lettle and rayan,, which is annoying bc i dont normally like straight romance but i digress.
i would be interested in reading the rest of the series bc especially bc we dont really figure out how
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, War
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thanks to Del Rey Books for the free copy of this book.
- Saara El-Arifi is so good at creating dark fantasy worlds that are full of both war and love. I also love how she seamlessly includes queer and disabled people throughout her stories.
- Yeeran and Lettle are a great pair of sisters, loving each other and also being annoyed as heck with each other because they don’t see eye to eye.
- Here’s the thing about FAEBOUND - I could see exactly where the plot was going at every turn and I loved reading it anyway. Everything was predictable, but I enjoyed by time in this world and am looking forward to the sequel.
- Saara El-Arifi is so good at creating dark fantasy worlds that are full of both war and love. I also love how she seamlessly includes queer and disabled people throughout her stories.
- Yeeran and Lettle are a great pair of sisters, loving each other and also being annoyed as heck with each other because they don’t see eye to eye.
- Here’s the thing about FAEBOUND - I could see exactly where the plot was going at every turn and I loved reading it anyway. Everything was predictable, but I enjoyed by time in this world and am looking forward to the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail