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thoughtsontomes's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I preferred this authors other series to this and don’t think it will stick in my mind long enough to continue when the next installment comes out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Death of parent
brotestantethic's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This is a great read. For a fantasy novel, the writing and storyline are really accesible while still being complicated. The magic system is expansive and fascinating. The characters are as lovable as they are diversely different. Love interests play out in an interesting way, with satisfying results. Plot twists are abundant, perhaps too fast and abundant at the very end, but despite myself I found myself gasping at them. This scratched my romantasy itch!
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Murder, Violence, and Death of parent
pointeshoebookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
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
I absolutely loved this book. The world building was breathtaking. The characters, weren't perfect, but definitely loveable and have plenty of room to grow.
The insta-love, just wasn't doing much for me, on either end. And at times, the writing felt a bit underwhelming, particularly when Yeeran was speaking with Pila.
But ultimately, I truly am excited for the sequel announcement and the following announcement from fairyloot.
The insta-love, just wasn't doing much for me, on either end. And at times, the writing felt a bit underwhelming, particularly when Yeeran was speaking with Pila.
But ultimately, I truly am excited for the sequel announcement and the following announcement from fairyloot.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Animal death, Death of parent, War, Death, and Sexual content
pceldridge's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-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? Yes
2.0
I was sucked in by TikTok reviews and a beautiful cover. The story was almost good, but overall, this book just didn’t succeed. I found the writing to be clunky, and it lacked effective world building. I wish the author had utilised the strategy of building the world through story telling or education. I was also very uncomfortable with the frequent descriptions of animal cruelty and abuse for the elves benefit, including graphic descriptions of organs and literal skinning of animals.
The “romance” aspect of this book also fell flat, with big emotional jumps and a lack of development between the characters. This is absolutely not a groundbreaking adult fantasy book, the love scenes were cringey and forced, and the relationships did not develop naturally in any way. They felt very forced and expected, with no chemistry or magic to be found. Every character was one-dimensional, reactive, and without any good common sense and communication to be found.
I listened to this on audio, which also detracted from the book. Bahni Turpin is a great narrator, but her style did not fit this book at all, and made the main characters seem immature and whiney. If you plan to read this book, I recommend reading it on digital or paper.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty
Minor: Death of parent
julalbert56's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
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? It's complicated
4.5
How how how does this book only have 3.7 on goodreads??? I had a blast, the world, the characters, the romance…. It was so good. The only reason for 4.5 and not 5 stars is that the conflict only really started to escalate at the very end. So I’m very excited for the sequel!
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Murder, and Death of parent
linnybear's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
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? Yes
2.0
If someone told me it’s a debut I’d believe them 💀 Completely subjectively speaking, it’s not a well written book, in any possible way. The author definitely fell into a trap of excessive tropification of romantasy and in my opinion it negatively affected the story making it incredibly cliché and predictable. You DO NOT give the reader ‘one bedroom trope’ in chapter 9 while barely establishing any kind of romantic relationship between characters, you DO NOT introduce the new enemy to make the mc swoon over the curves of their body a minute later making the reader go ‘ah so we have enemy to lovers’ (despite said mc apparently still loving her ex partner!). These can be your favorite tropes and I’m not here to judge that but the tropes also exist for a reason and they have their own place and time. This is something that over time made me irritated and yet it doesn’t get better as you progress through the story.
Talking about the storyline, it is so predictable almost from the start and the clues are constantly given away by the author in a form of prophecies. No matter the situation the stakes felt very low making it unengaging and instead we are forced to focus on characters’ internal struggles and romantic affairs, yet… This book has possibly the worst developed (or rather undeveloped) relationships I’ve ever encountered which is somewhat connected to incredibly flat, almost robotic characters. There is no logic in their actions, there is no thought (given their ages and previous positions in the elven society it’s absolutely bizarre), there is no depth, or growth, or complexity. Instead we are left with lots of angst, lust and cringy dialogue. Possibly the biggest red flag in all of this was the normalization of dishonesty, infidelity and abuse making some, if not all, relationships (including those between family members) really toxic as these issues are never properly addressed and resolved.
The only positive aspect of this series so far would be the world building. Don’t get me wrong, it is still severely lacking but I found some of the ideas (like the existence of three races made by three different gods or the fae curse) really interesting and worth expanding. I wish it was enough for me to read the book two once it’s out but I don’t think it’s truly worth my time.
Talking about the storyline, it is so predictable almost from the start and the clues are constantly given away by the author in a form of prophecies. No matter the situation the stakes felt very low making it unengaging and instead we are forced to focus on characters’ internal struggles and romantic affairs, yet… This book has possibly the worst developed (or rather undeveloped) relationships I’ve ever encountered which is somewhat connected to incredibly flat, almost robotic characters. There is no logic in their actions, there is no thought (given their ages and previous positions in the elven society it’s absolutely bizarre), there is no depth, or growth, or complexity. Instead we are left with lots of angst, lust and cringy dialogue. Possibly the biggest red flag in all of this was the normalization of dishonesty, infidelity and abuse making some, if not all, relationships (including those between family members) really toxic as these issues are never properly addressed and resolved.
The only positive aspect of this series so far would be the world building. Don’t get me wrong, it is still severely lacking but I found some of the ideas (like the existence of three races made by three different gods or the fae curse) really interesting and worth expanding. I wish it was enough for me to read the book two once it’s out but I don’t think it’s truly worth my time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Animal death, Racism, War, Murder, and Genocide
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Alcohol
amandaelle's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, and Animal death
Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
Minor: Suicide
deedireads's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
All my reviews live at https://deedireads.com/.
Faebound is the first book in a new fantasy trilogy set in a world where the elves — locked in a neverending war between factions over limited magical resources — are the only race left after the fae and humans vanished long ago. (Or did they?) At the heart of the story are two sisters: Yeeran, the eldest and a seasoned soldier; and Lettle, a dreamer and a skilled seer.
I had a very good time with this book. The world-building is well done, super creative and never info-dumpy. The sisterhood between Yeeran and Lettle is beautiful but also complicated. And I’m always going to be here for a sapphic rivals-to-lovers storyline!!
Also, the audiobook was very well done and easy to follow once the world was established (as with all fantasy audiobooks). I thought Bahni Turpin brought Lettle’s character to life particularly well.
This may be personal preference, but my only complaint was that the book was TOO fast-paced. There’s a lot of worldbuilding, backstory, and mystery here to fit into only 400 pages. I wanted El-Arifi to slow down, give us more time, let the mystery simmer before it boils, and maybe most of all, give the secondary characters more than one or two dimensions. I know a lot of people felt the pacing made it feel unputdownable, but to me it made the story feel somewhat surface-level.
Still, like I said, I had a good time here and will definitely be picking up the second book when it comes out!
Faebound is the first book in a new fantasy trilogy set in a world where the elves — locked in a neverending war between factions over limited magical resources — are the only race left after the fae and humans vanished long ago. (Or did they?) At the heart of the story are two sisters: Yeeran, the eldest and a seasoned soldier; and Lettle, a dreamer and a skilled seer.
I had a very good time with this book. The world-building is well done, super creative and never info-dumpy. The sisterhood between Yeeran and Lettle is beautiful but also complicated. And I’m always going to be here for a sapphic rivals-to-lovers storyline!!
Also, the audiobook was very well done and easy to follow once the world was established (as with all fantasy audiobooks). I thought Bahni Turpin brought Lettle’s character to life particularly well.
This may be personal preference, but my only complaint was that the book was TOO fast-paced. There’s a lot of worldbuilding, backstory, and mystery here to fit into only 400 pages. I wanted El-Arifi to slow down, give us more time, let the mystery simmer before it boils, and maybe most of all, give the secondary characters more than one or two dimensions. I know a lot of people felt the pacing made it feel unputdownable, but to me it made the story feel somewhat surface-level.
Still, like I said, I had a good time here and will definitely be picking up the second book when it comes out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and War
Moderate: Sexual content, Animal death, and Death of parent
volsairine's review
adventurous
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
Ugh. I want to love this book so badly. It would be a five star for me if somethings had been different, because I love the world building so, so, so much and I really am invested in the plot. However, the dialogue was rough and it felt veeeeery YA (which is why I was shocked by the sex lol).
Personally I feel like the author was a little too heavy handed with the plot twist breadcrumbs, so I spotted basically everything really quickly and that was a little frustrating. MAJOR SPOILER about a plot twist:the ink thing frustrated me badly. Golan's association with the ink was mentioned like twice before the poisoning and then twice after "I'm all out of squid ink, conveniently right after it was used to murder the queens". It just being mentioned for dying his beard one time would have been sufficient and a great breadcrumb without holding the readers hand too much. There were so many chances for the author to lead the reader away with red herrings and instead I felt like I was directly led to the twist way before I wanted to be and way before it was revealed. I found myself thinking "No! I don't want to know this!". There was probably only one plot point that genuinely shocked me (which made me excited!). I hope that in the next books she learns to trust her readers a bit more, I promise that we love and appreciate the mystery!
I am very hopeful for the next two books though because I can't wait to see where this goes, I just need the editor to reign it in a little bit pls 😭 Also there was some plot stuff that lost me. MAJOR SPOILER:Where was the brother/Rayan's dad whenever he was killed? Was he in the fae world? Why was his obeah just chillin out there in the wild??? Also learning a language is VERY hard, especially one that is hard to learn and it felt a little too convenient that Lettle was able to pick it up so quickly. .
All that being said, I ADOREEEED the disability + gender fluid rep. And Pila. I love Pila. Pila best character. I want Pila to be my bestie.
Additionally, there is not a single mention of sexual violence in this book which is so refreshing for fantasy. Love that. 100% safe for a survivor to read, imo (if they're cool with sex).
I should probably give this book a 3.75 but I enjoyed the world too much so it's a 4. Probably one of my favorite fantasy worlds yet.
Personally I feel like the author was a little too heavy handed with the plot twist breadcrumbs, so I spotted basically everything really quickly and that was a little frustrating. MAJOR SPOILER about a plot twist:
I am very hopeful for the next two books though because I can't wait to see where this goes, I just need the editor to reign it in a little bit pls 😭 Also there was some plot stuff that lost me. MAJOR SPOILER:
All that being said, I ADOREEEED the disability + gender fluid rep. And Pila. I love Pila. Pila best character. I want Pila to be my bestie.
Additionally, there is not a single mention of sexual violence in this book which is so refreshing for fantasy. Love that. 100% safe for a survivor to read, imo (if they're cool with sex).
I should probably give this book a 3.75 but I enjoyed the world too much so it's a 4. Probably one of my favorite fantasy worlds yet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, and War
Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent
Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, and Classism
karly_ackley's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Confinement, and War