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4.19 AVERAGE
4.19 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Disappointed. In theory, it should have had everything I love in a romantasy but for some reason, didn't vibe with this one. I felt like there was a lot of telling and little showing.
The plot moved soo slowly. think would have enjoyed this book more if it had beern high fantasy and not romantasy. It has battles, ancient magic, and political unrest all great fantasy elements. Whereas on the romance side, I felt zero tension, angst or chemistry between the MCs. Nothing was earned.
The magic system was very cool. I liked that it was a little gruesome. Unfortunately, it isn't clearly explained. I think more examples of characters using it would have helped solidify the differences between them and why Lyra's magic was so special.
Overall, just wasn't captivated by the setting, the characters, the relationships, or the conflict.
The plot moved soo slowly. think would have enjoyed this book more if it had beern high fantasy and not romantasy. It has battles, ancient magic, and political unrest all great fantasy elements. Whereas on the romance side, I felt zero tension, angst or chemistry between the MCs. Nothing was earned.
The magic system was very cool. I liked that it was a little gruesome. Unfortunately, it isn't clearly explained. I think more examples of characters using it would have helped solidify the differences between them and why Lyra's magic was so special.
Overall, just wasn't captivated by the setting, the characters, the relationships, or the conflict.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to read Broken Souls and Bones by LJ Andrews.
We are following Lyra and Roark in this story. We get both povs throughout the book.
There is a war in Stigandr and Lyra is soon discovered as a melder. She is then taken to help the King and Roark is deemed the task as Lyra’s bodyguard.
I enjoyed this authors work before, when I read The Ever King. However, I struggled a bit with this story. The pacing was slow and it was difficult to connect with the characters. To summarize this story isn’t for me.
We are following Lyra and Roark in this story. We get both povs throughout the book.
There is a war in Stigandr and Lyra is soon discovered as a melder. She is then taken to help the King and Roark is deemed the task as Lyra’s bodyguard.
I enjoyed this authors work before, when I read The Ever King. However, I struggled a bit with this story. The pacing was slow and it was difficult to connect with the characters. To summarize this story isn’t for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for the advance reader copy.
This is the first in a series (I’m not sure how many books there will be) and I found that this book fell into a similar category that I have noticed with romantasy books as of late, there’s not a lot of world building and understanding of the magic system and a lot is put on setting up the next book.
I had considered DNFing this book a few times as I found it dragged and the ‘twist’ felt obvious.
I know a lot of people will enjoy reading this and the remainder of the series but for me it was a let down.
I did enjoy the disability representation from the MMC and that is why the book has 2 stars instead of 0.5/1.
This is the first in a series (I’m not sure how many books there will be) and I found that this book fell into a similar category that I have noticed with romantasy books as of late, there’s not a lot of world building and understanding of the magic system and a lot is put on setting up the next book.
I had considered DNFing this book a few times as I found it dragged and the ‘twist’ felt obvious.
I know a lot of people will enjoy reading this and the remainder of the series but for me it was a let down.
I did enjoy the disability representation from the MMC and that is why the book has 2 stars instead of 0.5/1.
I’ll start this by saying I will read (and love) anything LJ Andrews writes, and I was SO excited to read this book!!I ended up loving the story and characters so much, and I am SO looking forward to the next book. The only downside with this book, though, is that the world building and lore were HEAVY, so it took me a little while to get into, but once the story got going, I was hooked!!
This book had a good balance of plot and romance, but the romance was still the priority. It wasn’t a slow burn, but it was still done really well. The main characters were immediately drawn to each other, and it’s explained later on. I absolutely loved Roark’s sign language, and how Lyra’s soul knew what he was saying. “Tap tap tap” was truly so beautiful.
Lyra was an absolutely wonderful FMC. She’s kind and selfless, but still has a badass vicious streak. I loved the bone magic in this book and found it to be so interesting. The found family was wonderful, so the ending did hurt a bit, ngl 😭 something I really liked is that the other crafters didn’t hate Lyra for being sent to stonegate idk I just found her friendship with Hilda and her brother to be really wholesome. Thane and Emi absolutely deserve, and Yrsa was a wonderful surprise too. At the end of the book, relationships and alliances got so much more complicated, so I can’t wait to see how everything pans out in book 2
This book had a good balance of plot and romance, but the romance was still the priority. It wasn’t a slow burn, but it was still done really well. The main characters were immediately drawn to each other, and it’s explained later on. I absolutely loved Roark’s sign language, and how Lyra’s soul knew what he was saying. “Tap tap tap” was truly so beautiful.
Lyra was an absolutely wonderful FMC. She’s kind and selfless, but still has a badass vicious streak. I loved the bone magic in this book and found it to be so interesting. The found family was wonderful, so the ending did hurt a bit, ngl 😭 something I really liked is that the other crafters didn’t hate Lyra for being sent to stonegate idk I just found her friendship with Hilda and her brother to be really wholesome. Thane and Emi absolutely deserve, and Yrsa was a wonderful surprise too. At the end of the book, relationships and alliances got so much more complicated, so I can’t wait to see how everything pans out in book 2
The world building was intense and hard to follow at times, however, the ending!!!!! 🥲
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced