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Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

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esophb's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

fishergf's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

macgbooks's review against another edition

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Premise is interesting, the writing is terrible. If something interesting does happen, then it’s over explained. If someone mundane happens, it’s over explained. I wanted to like this, but in the end I couldn’t get past the first 100 pages

talia012's review against another edition

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4.0

Having a bit of a fae reading moment right now, and this book was my favorite of the bunch! The world is captivating, the writing solid, and the lore is really interesting. I was immediately drawn into the story and invested in the characters. Yeeran is my favorite of course, flaws and all, and I appreciated watching her journey unfold while hurting from the PTSD - from both her military and relationship past - she was fighting through.

The magic system was one of my favorite parts and I love how each character's approach/ability in different forms of magic reflects who they are. There's a lot more to uncover in the lore and curse-breaking and I think it was set up really well. This book covers a lot of ground for a first in a series, and it feels like its going to grow in scale and scope even more over the next books. Can't wait to keep reading!

Two small nitpicks: First, this book is so obvious. Usually I get a jolt of self-satisfaction from figuring out plot twists but here the clues were broadcasted rather than breadcrumbed. They eye-rolling did unfortunately detract from the experience a bit.

And second, I get this is a romantasy book, but these characters are shockingly lusty. It seems to be all they can think about even when their lives are in danger constantly. I feel like the author was caught between writing a fantasy and romantasy and added in the lust to compensate? I rooted for at least one of couples (the sapphics of course) and I was meh on the other (straight) one, so I'm not mad about it per se, but I think the horny levels could have been toned down at least 25%.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

brookereadsoccasionally's review against another edition

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2.0

2.5✨

taylor15809's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

ms_morri1's review against another edition

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3.0

A 3 for me. Thank you NetGalley for providing me a copy. I love this worlds take on the world of fairy, and how it is very different from the traditional tales of elves and fey. I would say to begin with, the worldbuilding is what makes this story worth reading, and might be a bit challenging for a character driven reader to get into, but I promise it is worth the wait. There are some good twists that come at the end of the story that make the story more exciting and I think allowed for Yeeran to possibly grow into a more interesting character than she was at the beginning.