3.93 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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: Yes
adventurous dark emotional 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

I couldn't put this book down! Keera is such a well-written main character. She is full of trauma, bad coping mechanisms, an impressive skill set, stubbornness, and a bleeding heart. She is the weapon the king made her, but she is also so much more. She toes a dangerous line, always having to stay one step ahead of the king and his bloodthirsty son, and is constantly having to decide when to follow the king's orders or when she can't get away with just pretending to. Her past is clouded in mystery, and she struggles to grow close to people after losing so many. Watching her choose a found family was so heartwarming. The tension between her and Riven is sizzling! I found myself really looking forward to the romantic scenes between the pair, which is rare for me in a fantasy saga as epic and high stakes as this one, but there was an excellent balance so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Onto the next one!
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
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Is this a safe space to reveal that I thought the book would be about the dnd kind of halflings?
adventurous dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
fast-paced

Pros:

- I love the enemies to lovers romance in this
- Keera was such a beautifully flawed character
- the author did a good job bringing real life issues into a fantasy world
- the world building was very interesting for me but I also haven’t read a lot of elf stories
- I liked that the author chose to diversify the elves. Often times they are always portrayed as white with long white hair but not in this book.

Cons:

- the romance between Keera and Riven felt rushed. I actually think nothing should have happened with them in book 1. It should have slow burned into book two.
- this book should have been dual POV once Riven was in the mix more. I wanted to know more about him so I could connect with him more as a character.
- for all the world building it felt present day. I wish I had learned more about the history and politics.
- there was a lot of description, which wouldn’t be a bad thing but it was a bit overboard for me and made the book run on longer than it needed to.

Also I’m pretty sure another fantasy author stole the cave scene that leads into the next chapter where Keera finds out everything…I know authors take inspiration from each other but not that other author basically stealing their ending from this book.

Overall this book was good but I am worried that I’m not going to like the series as a whole because I don’t get that this author is strong when it comes to character development…we shall see.
adventurous dark 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

"With the right motivation, that unrest could spread like a fire across the entire Kingdom."

This is a proper slow burn enemies to lovers with stabby banter, a flawed and complex (yet badass) FMC, betrayal, one bed/one horse, and sexually fluid characters. I loved the real life elements brought into to a fantasy world (TW colonialism/substance abuse/systemic violence/self harm/grief and depression) Keera's character arc was beautiful to watch unfold. 

The plot twists had my heart raaacing. I immediately put the next two books of the series on hold at the library because I NEED to know what happens next and we still have more information to uncover with Keera's backstory. 

I'm so excited to continue this series and support a Canadian author.