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mikasana's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Welp. This one was fine, but not much more than fine. If you like this, skip this review because I am going to be a bit critical of some points. These are just my opinions and not everyone is going to agree and that is OKAY. Anyways…
Pacing was a bit of a rollercoaster and I truly feel like 150-200 pages could have been removed to fix it. It also felt like there were some points where the story just went off track and lost its sense of self and plot. Too much filler, in my opinion. At points it was fun, and then at other points it was a snoozefest.
I also did not care for the insta-love (or insta-lust in this case). There was NO romance. Let me repeat that: there was NO romance. There was spice, oh yes, but NO romance. If you want a beautiful blossoming relationship full of push and pull, playful banter, and developing feelings this is not going to make you happy. This was “ohh he is hot and I can feel his bulge” instalust story. No description of feelings developing from the stomach or center of the chest, only the feelings emanating from their family jewels. If you like that, then this is perfect for you.
As for the rest of it… I liked the adventure, but it did remind me a lot of the Witcher so I pictured a bunch of the characters and monsters having a Witcher-like aesthetic.
Are you familiar with the Witcher and want to know more on what this is book is about? If no, skip this next part. If yes, picture this:
This is like the plot of the Witcher except the main character aka FMC is the combination of both Ciri and Yennefer. FMC also wants to be a Witcher *really* badly to make something of herself, beat up monsters both human and inhuman alike (unlike her conventionally prettier and bossier younger sister who tut-tuts her consistently).
Geralt is still the MMC but is a bit grumpier, broodier and 100x the beefcake. This time he has silver eyes and is known for cutting the heart out of monsters. Personality? His eyes.
Combo Ciri/Yennefer is the same age as Geralt and meets him during his witcher-ly duties. They instantly get the hots for each other and succumb to instalust and a few other predictable tropes.
Combo Ciri/Yennefer makes some friends along the way to becoming top Witcher and form a small friendship battle squad of misfits. They participate in trainings here and there (probably the parts of the book that drag the most) but all that effort doesn’t seem to help much as they are consistently the victims of “hazing” by their fellow platoon. We also are graced with a token bully by the name of Sebastian who is a professional hazer and hater.
I’ll leave it at that and won’t spoil the ending.
Overall? 3.5/5. Fine, but just fine.
Pacing was a bit of a rollercoaster and I truly feel like 150-200 pages could have been removed to fix it. It also felt like there were some points where the story just went off track and lost its sense of self and plot. Too much filler, in my opinion. At points it was fun, and then at other points it was a snoozefest.
I also did not care for the insta-love (or insta-lust in this case). There was NO romance. Let me repeat that: there was NO romance. There was spice, oh yes, but NO romance. If you want a beautiful blossoming relationship full of push and pull, playful banter, and developing feelings this is not going to make you happy. This was “ohh he is hot and I can feel his bulge” instalust story. No description of feelings developing from the stomach or center of the chest, only the feelings emanating from their family jewels. If you like that, then this is perfect for you.
As for the rest of it… I liked the adventure, but it did remind me a lot of the Witcher so I pictured a bunch of the characters and monsters having a Witcher-like aesthetic.
Are you familiar with the Witcher and want to know more on what this is book is about? If no, skip this next part. If yes, picture this:
Geralt is still the MMC but is a bit grumpier, broodier and 100x the beefcake. This time he has silver eyes and is known for cutting the heart out of monsters. Personality? His eyes.
Combo Ciri/Yennefer is the same age as Geralt and meets him during his witcher-ly duties. They instantly get the hots for each other and succumb to instalust and a few other predictable tropes.
Combo Ciri/Yennefer makes some friends along the way to becoming top Witcher and form a small friendship battle squad of misfits. They participate in trainings here and there (probably the parts of the book that drag the most) but all that effort doesn’t seem to help much as they are consistently the victims of “hazing” by their fellow platoon. We also are graced with a token bully by the name of Sebastian who is a professional hazer and hater.
I’ll leave it at that and won’t spoil the ending.
Overall? 3.5/5. Fine, but just fine.
dury_au_lait's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
jessica_lb's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
3.75
I found this to be a generally good read!
This follows Thea, a girl, fated to die in 3 years, wanting to become a Warsword - basically a highly ranked a soldier - in a world where women are not allowed to wield blades due to a prophecy suggesting there would be a woman wielding a blade who would pretty much bring about the end of the world?
I love this concept - the way that Thea’s limited time had her fighting so much harder for what she wanted than everyone else. She wasn’t reckless, didn’t needlessly put her life in danger, yet took some risks which kept things interesting.
The plot was intriguing and felt similar to fourth wing in some ways, however something about the writing put me off a bit. Sometimes I felt as though it was overly descriptive at times, so some parts of the book dragged.
I felt as though the relationship could have developed between the MMC and FMC slower, like it was trying to be enemies to lovers, but things switched to this point of hating each other to kind of liking each other (while also lusting after each other) quite quickly. I think it just lost some of the tension that could have been there.
That said, it was still an entertaining read, I pretty much read it in a day, didn’t want to put it down and found the characters to be interesting!
This follows Thea, a girl, fated to die in 3 years, wanting to become a Warsword - basically a highly ranked a soldier - in a world where women are not allowed to wield blades due to a prophecy suggesting there would be a woman wielding a blade who would pretty much bring about the end of the world?
I love this concept - the way that Thea’s limited time had her fighting so much harder for what she wanted than everyone else. She wasn’t reckless, didn’t needlessly put her life in danger, yet took some risks which kept things interesting.
The plot was intriguing and felt similar to fourth wing in some ways, however something about the writing put me off a bit. Sometimes I felt as though it was overly descriptive at times, so some parts of the book dragged.
I felt as though the relationship could have developed between the MMC and FMC slower, like it was trying to be enemies to lovers, but things switched to this point of hating each other to kind of liking each other (while also lusting after each other) quite quickly. I think it just lost some of the tension that could have been there.
That said, it was still an entertaining read, I pretty much read it in a day, didn’t want to put it down and found the characters to be interesting!
lolo8's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
abz1999x's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
everybody's review
From what I have read this is a simplistic, shallow, overt, and heavy-handed YA romance.
I am frequently baffled by how a story gets labeled "Adult" as the story and its depth is very clearly written for a young teenage audience. I know that the age-group labels of books are almost entirely based on the age of the protagonist, and rarely on the actual target audience for some absurd reason. But I am not any less baffled by it anyway.
I only made it 12% into the story so there might be a lot more depth and wisdom later on that subverts all these shallow tropes and clichées and we only start at this very naive and contained point.
But I honestly doubt it. There are quite a few other things wrong with the basic world-building. Scope and scale are all wrong. The MC is this unremarkable women in a culture in which women are oppressed. But she gets dragged in front of their leader like a naughty child to the school director. But at the same time this is supposed to be a kingdome that has been fighting an ongoing war with armies for years apparently. How does this leader take personal time to deal with a random young woman that had a knife exactly? The setting is a kingdom with armies and also a single small village where everyone knows each other at the same time. And this is just one example of many. None of the scale makes any sense.
And the flimsy justification for the oppression of women doesn't make a lick of sense either.
It's all just so contrived and full of contradiction that I just can not believe it will get any better which is why I ended it at 12%.
I have a hard time not ascribing this to incompetence or laziness.
Kudos to whomever did the marketing. Over 13k ratings is truly impressive for this waste of paper.
I am frequently baffled by how a story gets labeled "Adult" as the story and its depth is very clearly written for a young teenage audience. I know that the age-group labels of books are almost entirely based on the age of the protagonist, and rarely on the actual target audience for some absurd reason. But I am not any less baffled by it anyway.
I only made it 12% into the story so there might be a lot more depth and wisdom later on that subverts all these shallow tropes and clichées and we only start at this very naive and contained point.
But I honestly doubt it. There are quite a few other things wrong with the basic world-building. Scope and scale are all wrong. The MC is this unremarkable women in a culture in which women are oppressed. But she gets dragged in front of their leader like a naughty child to the school director. But at the same time this is supposed to be a kingdome that has been fighting an ongoing war with armies for years apparently. How does this leader take personal time to deal with a random young woman that had a knife exactly? The setting is a kingdom with armies and also a single small village where everyone knows each other at the same time. And this is just one example of many. None of the scale makes any sense.
And the flimsy justification for the oppression of women doesn't make a lick of sense either.
It's all just so contrived and full of contradiction that I just can not believe it will get any better which is why I ended it at 12%.
I have a hard time not ascribing this to incompetence or laziness.
Kudos to whomever did the marketing. Over 13k ratings is truly impressive for this waste of paper.
spiringvenus's review against another edition
2.0
Booktok recommended. I won’t be reading the rest of the series.
Things I liked:
Things I liked:
- Kal
- Kip
- Ren
Things I didn’t like:
- Pacing of the book dragged.
- The back and forth traveling scenes.
- Wilder’s POV
- The tension felt forced- not enjoyable
- Thea was just boring
shanajade's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my gosh, yaaaaaaassssssss!!! It's all so very EXCIIIIIITIIIIINNNNNG!! 😆
Soooooo, this contains elements of loads of other fantasy books... discovered magic, romantasy, mentors, training challenges, battles, rivalries, siblings, besties, ALL the things!! All the oooooooh so good, well written things 🥰 and the slooooooooooooow burrrrrrrrn 🔥🔥
On my way to start book 2. 😁
Soooooo, this contains elements of loads of other fantasy books... discovered magic, romantasy, mentors, training challenges, battles, rivalries, siblings, besties, ALL the things!! All the oooooooh so good, well written things 🥰 and the slooooooooooooow burrrrrrrrn 🔥🔥
On my way to start book 2. 😁
katelinpattison's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
zey2424's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5