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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
It was ok. I did get more engaged as it went along, but I got really angry when a book that I thought was going to be about a strong female protagonist turned into one about a mopey girl pining after a guy.
January Uppercase Box pick was a 4 star wonderful read.
Britta is a fierce and brave heroine. It's refreshing to read characters that are not consumed by looks, status, and love. Britta is an outcast in her land after her fathers passing. While her father was in very good favor with the king, due to Britta's mother being from a rival country; she is considered a Shaerdan instead of Malam. She will not inherit her fathers lands, nor his money. She spends her days hunting for food in the Ever woods, which is forbidden.
To keep from being killed from poaching in the Ever woods, she is offered a chance at redemption by helping the kings guard find her fathers killer. Evidence points to it being her childhood friend Cohen. Cohen is also the love interest in the story.
There is a magical element to this story in the form of Channelers. There is a lot of action in the story. Britta is not a fragile and weak character. She is level headed and seems to make sound decisions.
I liked how everything was woven together, and I am very much looking forward to the second book.
Britta is a fierce and brave heroine. It's refreshing to read characters that are not consumed by looks, status, and love. Britta is an outcast in her land after her fathers passing. While her father was in very good favor with the king, due to Britta's mother being from a rival country; she is considered a Shaerdan instead of Malam. She will not inherit her fathers lands, nor his money. She spends her days hunting for food in the Ever woods, which is forbidden.
To keep from being killed from poaching in the Ever woods, she is offered a chance at redemption by helping the kings guard find her fathers killer. Evidence points to it being her childhood friend Cohen. Cohen is also the love interest in the story.
There is a magical element to this story in the form of Channelers. There is a lot of action in the story. Britta is not a fragile and weak character. She is level headed and seems to make sound decisions.
I liked how everything was woven together, and I am very much looking forward to the second book.
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.
Summary: A strong-willed, sharp-shooting girl goes on a journey to find lost "childhood" crush suffering heartache and angst. To prove his innocence from a terrible crime, they must find the real murderer before the king's guards catch them. Throw in some forbidden magic, treason, and political skirmishes to have the generic plot for just about every YA fantasy novel.
As a fantasy, the story falls short because it lacks world-building, convincing characters and quite frankly a decent plotline. But as a teen romance, I think it did an OK job and is in keeping with the dystoypian-hallmark-smut that overwhelms the YA shelves. Thankfully, there is no love triangle, but I would guess that we would see one in future installments. I am not the target teen audience, so I feel that the two star rating is probably generous, but for the intended audience with limited fantasy genre knowledge, I think I might have rated it 3 stars.
Summary: A strong-willed, sharp-shooting girl goes on a journey to find lost "childhood" crush suffering heartache and angst. To prove his innocence from a terrible crime, they must find the real murderer before the king's guards catch them. Throw in some forbidden magic, treason, and political skirmishes to have the generic plot for just about every YA fantasy novel.
As a fantasy, the story falls short because it lacks world-building, convincing characters and quite frankly a decent plotline. But as a teen romance, I think it did an OK job and is in keeping with the dystoypian-hallmark-smut that overwhelms the YA shelves. Thankfully, there is no love triangle, but I would guess that we would see one in future installments. I am not the target teen audience, so I feel that the two star rating is probably generous, but for the intended audience with limited fantasy genre knowledge, I think I might have rated it 3 stars.
This was such a slow burn of a book. Literally 70% of the book was travelling and trying to get from point A and point B. Little Easter-Eggs were thrown here and there and it kept you trying to put things together but the puzzle doesn’t fit until the last 30%.
I went into this knowing that it was a girl who loved to do archery and who braided her hair and loved to be in the woods and blah blah blah... sounds like a knock off of The Hunger Games, right? Because that was what I was thinking going into it.
Thankfully, the story was absolutely nothing like that and had some unique elements to it; however, it does feel like a lot of books in its general genre.
There’s some division between two kingdoms: one accepts people who have supernatural abilities and one does not. Our heroine’s, Britta, dad has died in the beginning; she is all alone and trying to survive off the land (which is against the law to take from the kingdom). In exchange for her freedom and her father’s land, she has to hunt down her father’s killer (because it turns out he was actually murdered) Plot Twist: it was her childhood friend who is also someone she has had a major crush on.
There are a lot of secrets in this book. Britta is in the dark with all of them, so in turn, so were we. The book is slow, but it doesn’t bore you (which is new to me). I was reading more and I did roll my eyes at some things, but I am very eager to know what is going to happen from this point on. This whole book felt like a set-up book. It felt like it was getting everything in place for us to get our hearts pierced in the rest of the series.
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Slow but steady! I liked it and I will continue on with the series! It was just really-slow coming if that makes sense. RTC!!
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Oh she wears a braid. Didn’t see that coming...
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I hope this isn’t a typical “I’m an introvert girl who loves archery and I’m unexpectedly going to change the world” type of book.
I went into this knowing that it was a girl who loved to do archery and who braided her hair and loved to be in the woods and blah blah blah... sounds like a knock off of The Hunger Games, right? Because that was what I was thinking going into it.
Thankfully, the story was absolutely nothing like that and had some unique elements to it; however, it does feel like a lot of books in its general genre.
There’s some division between two kingdoms: one accepts people who have supernatural abilities and one does not. Our heroine’s, Britta, dad has died in the beginning; she is all alone and trying to survive off the land (which is against the law to take from the kingdom). In exchange for her freedom and her father’s land, she has to hunt down her father’s killer (because it turns out he was actually murdered) Plot Twist: it was her childhood friend who is also someone she has had a major crush on.
There are a lot of secrets in this book. Britta is in the dark with all of them, so in turn, so were we. The book is slow, but it doesn’t bore you (which is new to me). I was reading more and I did roll my eyes at some things, but I am very eager to know what is going to happen from this point on. This whole book felt like a set-up book. It felt like it was getting everything in place for us to get our hearts pierced in the rest of the series.
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Slow but steady! I liked it and I will continue on with the series! It was just really-slow coming if that makes sense. RTC!!
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Oh she wears a braid. Didn’t see that coming...
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I hope this isn’t a typical “I’m an introvert girl who loves archery and I’m unexpectedly going to change the world” type of book.
It was aight’ 🤷🏽♀️ I mostly stayed engaged in the story, but I wasn’t sad when it ended. Unlikely to finish the series.
Everything about this book appealed to me prior to reading: a strong female character tracking criminals and just being a general badass amidst black magic, warring kingdoms, and mad kings. I am here for this! However, I ended up being really disappointed, and it was a fight to finish. Pain points include: shoddy dialogue, static characters, a weak romance and rushed magical abilities/knowledge.
On that last point, in some ways I felt like I was reading the screen play for Star Wars: The Force Awakens when Rey begins using the force to escape prisons and defy dark jedis with no prior training. Britta's discoveries about her heritage and abilities elicited a similar feeling for me - characters should work for the skills/abilities they have, and Summermill lost me here.
Finally, this could have been a stand alone novel - truly it could have been. The end of the novel left me feeling frustrated, particularly with the foundation she builds to justify writing a second novel, "Ever the Brave."
On that last point, in some ways I felt like I was reading the screen play for Star Wars: The Force Awakens when Rey begins using the force to escape prisons and defy dark jedis with no prior training. Britta's discoveries about her heritage and abilities elicited a similar feeling for me - characters should work for the skills/abilities they have, and Summermill lost me here.
Finally, this could have been a stand alone novel - truly it could have been. The end of the novel left me feeling frustrated, particularly with the foundation she builds to justify writing a second novel, "Ever the Brave."
This was an okay book for me. It went by a lot faster listening to it on an audio book.
There was nothing wrong with the book but I often found myself lacking motivation to read it. As a result, the story was forgettable. The ending sounded like it’d be a good one if I had more interest in the story so I think I’ll reread this in the future only to see if my lack of motivation was a one-time thing.
This book was enjoyable but not memorable. But the way the ending was set up to continue on to the sequel... is interesting. I’ll definitely be reading the second book to see how it plays out!