Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

1 review

maregred's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

Faebound was ultimately very disappointing to me. I’ve heard such good things about the author’s first trilogy (which is still on my TBR!) but Faebound didn’t work for me. I think it was originally advertised as an epic fantasy, but it is romantasy. That is no hate to romantasy, I was just expecting something different. 

As a romantasy, it does the job. The romance for both couples was very insta-love, including the “enemies to lovers” one.  For those playing the trope game though, there is a queer “who did this to you?” Which is quite excellent. 

I found the pacing uneven; the first 50% was a slog and the last 50% jammed packed. I also felt the writing read more YA than adult, which the book is advertised as. The characters also act very young, though they are all late 20s and early 30s (there is some in story explanation for this but it was hard for me to translate still). 

However, the world was so interesting! El-Arifi really said “why choose?” And wrote a whole world with Elves, Humans, AND Fae. I liked the mythology behind the races as well. I also really liked how she showed the dark realities of war and what that means for how people are raised during a neverending one. 

I also loved the sheer amount of diverse characters. A+ no notes. 

I received this copy through NetGalley for an honest review. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...