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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Book Club: This was hard to get through. About 100 pages in I started treating the story like a dnd campaign. It gave reason to why the characters felt like walking troupes. Or how the connections felt forced. Or the overall pacing, a story session then a combat session. Or the surprise twist villain. Why would you make babygirl the villain? I am pissed that the book wasn't a complete story. I want to know how the story ends but I don't know if I can commit to that much story.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fast read, finished it in one sitting because I wanted to find out what happens. The worldbuilding and mythology isn't as extensive as I wanted it to be--it gives me a Serpent&Dove trilogy feel a bit, where the characters don't have knowledge of the backstory of all the gods, so the gods just kind of feel like they exist, but aren't really woven into the story, if that makes sense.
There's a bit of insta-attraction that turns pretty rapidly into insta-love, and I was frequently raising my eyebrows at how often the main characters were totally ignoring that everyone else was around, just to pay attention to each other.
All that said, I'm curious to see where the story goes in the next book, because they're in quite a predicament.
There's a bit of insta-attraction that turns pretty rapidly into insta-love, and I was frequently raising my eyebrows at how often the main characters were totally ignoring that everyone else was around, just to pay attention to each other.
All that said, I'm curious to see where the story goes in the next book, because they're in quite a predicament.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
tense
fast-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:
Yes
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Alright, I needed to let this sit a little before writing down my thoughts and at the end of the day, this just wasn't my cup of tea.
It feels like in multiple places, choices where made to remove anything from the story that might cause people to call elements or characters "problematic" and it just makes it boring/flat.
I feel like the appeal of a recruit/commander romance is partially in the tension arising from the potential conflicts of interest, tricky to navigate power dynamics and their potentially different stations in life. The book sidesteps this by making the recruit not really care about hierarchy with next to no consequences, the commander immediately respecting her as an equal and oh, also somehow they're the same age. The recruit is the only woman among the recruits but the story is very obviously not interested in exploring that in any way because it's convenient for the plot. ("Oh it's not because we are not allowed to recruit women, the king is just kinda misogynist and prefers we don't, dw about it tho.")
The world building and lore is interesting(ish) and the main characters are fine on their own, but together they just have zero chemistry. This was somewhat tied to the writing style for me which constantly told me how hot these two were for each other while I was sitting there wondering why.
Also if you got curious about this because you saw it tagged as LGBT - don't bother. It's the "1 throwaway line about an ex and a side character is gay" kind of rep.
It feels like in multiple places, choices where made to remove anything from the story that might cause people to call elements or characters "problematic" and it just makes it boring/flat.
I feel like the appeal of a recruit/commander romance is partially in the tension arising from the potential conflicts of interest, tricky to navigate power dynamics and their potentially different stations in life. The book sidesteps this by making the recruit not really care about hierarchy with next to no consequences, the commander immediately respecting her as an equal and oh, also somehow they're the same age. The recruit is the only woman among the recruits but the story is very obviously not interested in exploring that in any way because it's convenient for the plot. ("Oh it's not because we are not allowed to recruit women, the king is just kinda misogynist and prefers we don't, dw about it tho.")
The world building and lore is interesting(ish) and the main characters are fine on their own, but together they just have zero chemistry. This was somewhat tied to the writing style for me which constantly told me how hot these two were for each other while I was sitting there wondering why.
Also if you got curious about this because you saw it tagged as LGBT - don't bother. It's the "1 throwaway line about an ex and a side character is gay" kind of rep.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes