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mariewithabook's review against another edition
1.0
not such a great start to the year, i don't think i would even be able to tell you what happened. The characters were meh, the writing felt like two different author wrote the book which was pretty weird and really no world building or information as to what's happening outside of the main plot. Overall not enjoyable to me.
kappareads's review
1.0
Update: 1/2/2019
OK i know i don't need to beat a dead horse and I should just forget this shitty book BUT I was trying to go to sleep last night and a thought occurred to me
The gay relationship still has problems but in terms of the forbidden romance, it would have been WAY better.
Original: 9/3/2018
TW: Gore, death, casual abelism, men being creepy at women, women being creepy towards men, sexual assault on both ends, excessive cursing (in the book and I do quote sections in the review)
Oh boy.
Oh fucking boy.
How Jenna got so many 5 star reviews will forever haunt me.
THE SAVIORS CHAMPIONS takes place in the fictional fantasy world of Thessen. Thessen is ruled by a holy queen, the Savior, who's magic protects the lands from famine and war. On The Savior's 20th birthday, 20 men are selected to fight int he Savior's Tournament in order to win her hand in marriage.
Quick and dirty review: Awkward dialogue, little to no world building, decent romance. It was a train-wreck like THE CAPTIVE PRINCE was a train wreck, hated it but it was engaging. Overall, it's THE HUNGER GAMES but with more cursing, more explicit bloody scenes, and done less well. Save your money.
Full review:
PLOT:
Tobias enters the tournament for his family. His sister was injured in an accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. She has from chronic pain. That's about her own character, besides "loves her brother." I;m interested in seeing a review from a reviewer who has chronic pain and a physical disability to see how it was handled because, in my own abled perspective, her character felt flat.
My main issue with his motivation is, what does Tobias think money is gonna buy him in terms of alleviating his sisters chronic pain? He states that he can get something from the apothecary, but that just makes her sleepy. He never explains what money could do to help his sister, which made his deliberation as to whether or not he should enter or not useless. Not to mention, at the very end of the book, on the last page, Leila meets his sister and I'm scared she's going to make his sister able to walk again.
In the tournament, for the majority of the events take place away from the public eye, which begs the question, why do they care so much? Why are they cheering and rooting for specific men? How do they find out the information from the events?
And as the first half of the challenges take place in a dark, straight tunnel (not a proper labyrinth), why did the strongest ones just keep killing other competitors in the Labyrinth? Like, three of the competitors were even hired to do just that! So! What stopped them!? At the end, when it's just one of the hired, murder-loving, bisexual competitors (i shit you not), Tobias, and the Sovereign, the Sovereign states that Tobias has to be murdered in front of the crowd. But??? The majority of the other people didn't have to be killed live? Like, about 16 out of the 20 died just fine with no audience?
So, in the Labryinth, Tobias' friend dies thanks to hired, murder-loving, bisexual killer, Kaleo. And so, mild-mannered Tobias goes ballsitic and ineffiectively tries to beat up Kaleo. Kaleo puts him down easily enough, and then is very close to killing Tobias, but then another competitor saves Tobias? Why? They had made no connection up to this point and yes, the man who does it it later shown to be a good guy, but?? He didn't do that for the other competitors killed shortly before hand.
I'm not gonna comment on the alliances the competitors made because Moreci kind of made it work. They staretd falling appart as there were less people, which makes sense. It felt kind of sudden for the happy go lucky leader to turn on the protagonist when he did, but it's not what I'm the most angry about.
I will comment of how the person who convinced Tobias to join an alliance just expressly told him their personalities, which irritated me.
The men are fed in the labryinth, but why do these men only eat bread, apples, grapes, and cheese? Surely Moreci could find some information of Ancient Greek/Roman eating habits? Like, Tobias only has bread/apples/cheese in the Labryinth and he's supposed to be fighting for his life and surviving being poisoned and stay standing? They only got meat as a prize once.
On the romance, they include the meaning of Tobias and Leila's names in text... for some reason.
They have decent chemistry, but they still fell head over heels in a week and said "I love you" in a month (but Tobias was doing this dumb "but do i love her?" three weeks in, which felt pretty dumb because it was obvious).
There are two miscommunication subplots. The one in the middle was handled quickly, which i liked. The one at the end made me furious.
Leila is keeping a secret from Tobias and he gets angry she won't tell him. He then yells at her... and doesn't let her explain herself. This continues for several chapters and Tobias is told "hey, go to her and just shut up and listen." He's sexually assaulted by Cosima, runs to Leila and then doesn't shut up. They make up, they make out, but she still can't tell him because she needs to be consoled. They sleep and when they wake up, she says she's gonna tell him, but then, in the icing on the cake and the reason i now hate her, she admires his penis for too long and she's forced to leave without telling him the truth. I threw a pen and my fucking Kindle at that.
It started to drag once they got in the palace/there were a lot of romantic scenes in a row.
Despite having 20 men to keep track of, I was kinda able to do so, but I often caught myself, when she described a death to just go "Oh he was still alive? Well, no longer."
And Tobias as an artist didn't really sell me. He had a couple decent moments, but I expected more than "Here I am painting. Here I am with no inspiration. Here's me recognizing paintings even though I've given no indication as to how I've seen this painting."
Okay, the good parts: It was very relatable when Tobias had no inspiration after sitting down to try and draw after years of not. The fight between The Giant and Tobias was entertaining. It was the only good fight. Tobias and Leila's early romance was nice. Some dialogue had me giggling.
Overall, the dialogue flip-flops from formal Greek "Apologies" and fancy, well-formed sentences that often feel awkward and out of place to modern day middle school boy "breASTS! BREASTS!! COCK! BALLS! CUNT!"
Speaking of-
Grammer
The words "cunt" and "cock" are overused. Like, everyone has a hand in saying it. There are no unique insults. Even the Sovereign, the fucking king is all "my daughter's a bitch," "she's a cunt." Like, nothing felt biting, there were no insults that had me excited. It was boring.
Some sentences were also just... bad. Dialogue was either awkward and choppy or like middle school kids. And the over explanation of mundane things... Here is my favorite example:
"Tobias drank from his drinking bowl, savoring the taste of nothing." (Ch 15)
Like... you can just say he drank water. You don't have to be that extra. There were a lot of instances like that, but this made me laugh out loud.
She also overused the words "sour," "plodded," and "plopped," to describe people or actions. Especially "plodded" and "plopped" stuck out to me a lot. They just took me out of this supposed "Ancient Greek"-esque fantasy world. Speaking of-
Worldbuilding:
It's not there. Like, she kinda describes buildings, but not in enough detail for me to see "oh yes, I see the ancient Greek/Roman influence!" And she had the perfect excuse as Tobias is an artist. He could've commented on the style of architecture!
Also, he recognized paintings and poetry in the palace, but how? He's labeled as a commoner. Do most commoners know how to read? Are they're distributions of the poems? Are the paintings reprinted for the masses? Or does only Tobias know the paintings because he apprenticed with the best artist in Thessen (who is, for some reason, in Tobias's village? Which is supposed to be lower class?)
Oh, and sometimes she takes names directly from Greek myth. There's a statue of the first Savior, but her name is the same as a Greek goddess. There's a hunter names Orion. Just saying
On the topic of diversity, it is very diverse. Many of the competitors have different skin tones, Tobias' sister has a physical disability, the Savior has a sister who has a mental disability, and there are several LGB characters.
I'm going to focus on the LGB characters as that's what I know best.
So, another of the Savior's sisters is a lesbian. She is Tobias' ally and helps him. I overall enjoyed her character. She confirmed the identities of two other wlw, two servants, as she bedded both of them. There wasn't enough time spent with those servants for me to get a hold on their character, so overall, the gay women were handled well.
Now the men.
Gays die. Gays are buried. Two competitors engaged in a sexual (and implied romantic) relationship and one of them is killed by another competitor because he was gaining too much favor of the Savior. Their relationship is mostly portrayed sexual; Tobias accidentally catches them having oral sex and a little later, Tobias talks to one of the men and he confirmed they just "clicked." I'd argue they are having a far more "forbidden romance" than Tobias is having with Leila.
I'm always opposed to dead gays, but what threw me off was that one of the men in the relationship is one of the beasts, he's nicknamed "The Dog." He's bald, all muscle, and quiet. The other man in the relationship is thin, kind to everyone, and is thinner... and weaker. The Dog tells Tobias that, here in Thessen, the men are thin and pretty "Like women, but men." (CH 15). I got REAL mad about that stereotype, with people in a same sex relationship take up heterosexual gender roles.
Now Kaleo, the hired assassin who loves murder and violence and is also bisexual/pansexual. This got me fucking pissed. Kaleo taunts and teases Tobias for getting so worked up over death. He flirts with him, saying, in a middle of a fight when he was previosuly holding down Tobias to drown him:
"A bit handsy, are we? You know, if you're going to touch me there, you should at least court me first." (Ch 14)
Fuck. That. And even more fuck that, at the end, when the Sovereign wants Kaleo to beat Tobias up so he can't fend for himself, Kaleo asks if he can rape Tobias first"
"Do we have time for a little fun? I've always enjoyed this face of his... Come on, it can be part of the torture. I'll fuck him bloody. He won't like it." (Ch 27)
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to unfollow Jenna Moreci from every account I can and judge anyone who supports her from now on.
Never mind the fact that this is the second book she has with an antagonist who threatens to rape the MC, but you can't have your own confirmed bisexual character on page do that. Like, why the fuck would you think that's okay? What beta went "yeah, have your antagonist openly flirt with the protagonist and then threaten to rape him, continuing a long line of propaganda that gay/bisexual men are rapists."
Fuck. That.
OK i know i don't need to beat a dead horse and I should just forget this shitty book BUT I was trying to go to sleep last night and a thought occurred to me
Spoiler
The gay participates I talk about at the end of the review would have made a way better relationship to focus on than Tobias and Leila. The two men are complete opposites, seem like they have nothing in common, but they grow a bond. And we have been hit over the head with the fact that participants in the Savior's Tournament need to only be there to serve the Savior, joining for other reasons or falling for someone else is blasphemy. AND the fact that Leila is the Savior, making Leila and Tobias' relationship, you know, NOT FORBIDDEN, makes the gay relationship WAY BETTER for the trope Moreci is proclaiming is her favorite.The gay relationship still has problems but in terms of the forbidden romance, it would have been WAY better.
Original: 9/3/2018
TW: Gore, death, casual abelism, men being creepy at women, women being creepy towards men, sexual assault on both ends, excessive cursing (in the book and I do quote sections in the review)
Oh boy.
Oh fucking boy.
How Jenna got so many 5 star reviews will forever haunt me.
THE SAVIORS CHAMPIONS takes place in the fictional fantasy world of Thessen. Thessen is ruled by a holy queen, the Savior, who's magic protects the lands from famine and war. On The Savior's 20th birthday, 20 men are selected to fight int he Savior's Tournament in order to win her hand in marriage.
Quick and dirty review: Awkward dialogue, little to no world building, decent romance. It was a train-wreck like THE CAPTIVE PRINCE was a train wreck, hated it but it was engaging. Overall, it's THE HUNGER GAMES but with more cursing, more explicit bloody scenes, and done less well. Save your money.
Full review:
Spoiler
PLOT:
Tobias enters the tournament for his family. His sister was injured in an accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. She has from chronic pain. That's about her own character, besides "loves her brother." I;m interested in seeing a review from a reviewer who has chronic pain and a physical disability to see how it was handled because, in my own abled perspective, her character felt flat.
My main issue with his motivation is, what does Tobias think money is gonna buy him in terms of alleviating his sisters chronic pain? He states that he can get something from the apothecary, but that just makes her sleepy. He never explains what money could do to help his sister, which made his deliberation as to whether or not he should enter or not useless. Not to mention, at the very end of the book, on the last page, Leila meets his sister and I'm scared she's going to make his sister able to walk again.
In the tournament, for the majority of the events take place away from the public eye, which begs the question, why do they care so much? Why are they cheering and rooting for specific men? How do they find out the information from the events?
And as the first half of the challenges take place in a dark, straight tunnel (not a proper labyrinth), why did the strongest ones just keep killing other competitors in the Labyrinth? Like, three of the competitors were even hired to do just that! So! What stopped them!? At the end, when it's just one of the hired, murder-loving, bisexual competitors (i shit you not), Tobias, and the Sovereign, the Sovereign states that Tobias has to be murdered in front of the crowd. But??? The majority of the other people didn't have to be killed live? Like, about 16 out of the 20 died just fine with no audience?
So, in the Labryinth, Tobias' friend dies thanks to hired, murder-loving, bisexual killer, Kaleo. And so, mild-mannered Tobias goes ballsitic and ineffiectively tries to beat up Kaleo. Kaleo puts him down easily enough, and then is very close to killing Tobias, but then another competitor saves Tobias? Why? They had made no connection up to this point and yes, the man who does it it later shown to be a good guy, but?? He didn't do that for the other competitors killed shortly before hand.
I'm not gonna comment on the alliances the competitors made because Moreci kind of made it work. They staretd falling appart as there were less people, which makes sense. It felt kind of sudden for the happy go lucky leader to turn on the protagonist when he did, but it's not what I'm the most angry about.
I will comment of how the person who convinced Tobias to join an alliance just expressly told him their personalities, which irritated me.
The men are fed in the labryinth, but why do these men only eat bread, apples, grapes, and cheese? Surely Moreci could find some information of Ancient Greek/Roman eating habits? Like, Tobias only has bread/apples/cheese in the Labryinth and he's supposed to be fighting for his life and surviving being poisoned and stay standing? They only got meat as a prize once.
On the romance, they include the meaning of Tobias and Leila's names in text... for some reason.
They have decent chemistry, but they still fell head over heels in a week and said "I love you" in a month (but Tobias was doing this dumb "but do i love her?" three weeks in, which felt pretty dumb because it was obvious).
There are two miscommunication subplots. The one in the middle was handled quickly, which i liked. The one at the end made me furious.
Leila is keeping a secret from Tobias and he gets angry she won't tell him. He then yells at her... and doesn't let her explain herself. This continues for several chapters and Tobias is told "hey, go to her and just shut up and listen." He's sexually assaulted by Cosima, runs to Leila and then doesn't shut up. They make up, they make out, but she still can't tell him because she needs to be consoled. They sleep and when they wake up, she says she's gonna tell him, but then, in the icing on the cake and the reason i now hate her, she admires his penis for too long and she's forced to leave without telling him the truth. I threw a pen and my fucking Kindle at that.
It started to drag once they got in the palace/there were a lot of romantic scenes in a row.
Despite having 20 men to keep track of, I was kinda able to do so, but I often caught myself, when she described a death to just go "Oh he was still alive? Well, no longer."
And Tobias as an artist didn't really sell me. He had a couple decent moments, but I expected more than "Here I am painting. Here I am with no inspiration. Here's me recognizing paintings even though I've given no indication as to how I've seen this painting."
Okay, the good parts: It was very relatable when Tobias had no inspiration after sitting down to try and draw after years of not. The fight between The Giant and Tobias was entertaining. It was the only good fight. Tobias and Leila's early romance was nice. Some dialogue had me giggling.
Overall, the dialogue flip-flops from formal Greek "Apologies" and fancy, well-formed sentences that often feel awkward and out of place to modern day middle school boy "breASTS! BREASTS!! COCK! BALLS! CUNT!"
Speaking of-
Grammer
The words "cunt" and "cock" are overused. Like, everyone has a hand in saying it. There are no unique insults. Even the Sovereign, the fucking king is all "my daughter's a bitch," "she's a cunt." Like, nothing felt biting, there were no insults that had me excited. It was boring.
Some sentences were also just... bad. Dialogue was either awkward and choppy or like middle school kids. And the over explanation of mundane things... Here is my favorite example:
"Tobias drank from his drinking bowl, savoring the taste of nothing." (Ch 15)
Like... you can just say he drank water. You don't have to be that extra. There were a lot of instances like that, but this made me laugh out loud.
She also overused the words "sour," "plodded," and "plopped," to describe people or actions. Especially "plodded" and "plopped" stuck out to me a lot. They just took me out of this supposed "Ancient Greek"-esque fantasy world. Speaking of-
Worldbuilding:
It's not there. Like, she kinda describes buildings, but not in enough detail for me to see "oh yes, I see the ancient Greek/Roman influence!" And she had the perfect excuse as Tobias is an artist. He could've commented on the style of architecture!
Also, he recognized paintings and poetry in the palace, but how? He's labeled as a commoner. Do most commoners know how to read? Are they're distributions of the poems? Are the paintings reprinted for the masses? Or does only Tobias know the paintings because he apprenticed with the best artist in Thessen (who is, for some reason, in Tobias's village? Which is supposed to be lower class?)
Oh, and sometimes she takes names directly from Greek myth. There's a statue of the first Savior, but her name is the same as a Greek goddess. There's a hunter names Orion. Just saying
On the topic of diversity, it is very diverse. Many of the competitors have different skin tones, Tobias' sister has a physical disability, the Savior has a sister who has a mental disability, and there are several LGB characters.
I'm going to focus on the LGB characters as that's what I know best.
So, another of the Savior's sisters is a lesbian. She is Tobias' ally and helps him. I overall enjoyed her character. She confirmed the identities of two other wlw, two servants, as she bedded both of them. There wasn't enough time spent with those servants for me to get a hold on their character, so overall, the gay women were handled well.
Now the men.
Gays die. Gays are buried. Two competitors engaged in a sexual (and implied romantic) relationship and one of them is killed by another competitor because he was gaining too much favor of the Savior. Their relationship is mostly portrayed sexual; Tobias accidentally catches them having oral sex and a little later, Tobias talks to one of the men and he confirmed they just "clicked." I'd argue they are having a far more "forbidden romance" than Tobias is having with Leila.
I'm always opposed to dead gays, but what threw me off was that one of the men in the relationship is one of the beasts, he's nicknamed "The Dog." He's bald, all muscle, and quiet. The other man in the relationship is thin, kind to everyone, and is thinner... and weaker. The Dog tells Tobias that, here in Thessen, the men are thin and pretty "Like women, but men." (CH 15). I got REAL mad about that stereotype, with people in a same sex relationship take up heterosexual gender roles.
Now Kaleo, the hired assassin who loves murder and violence and is also bisexual/pansexual. This got me fucking pissed. Kaleo taunts and teases Tobias for getting so worked up over death. He flirts with him, saying, in a middle of a fight when he was previosuly holding down Tobias to drown him:
"A bit handsy, are we? You know, if you're going to touch me there, you should at least court me first." (Ch 14)
Fuck. That. And even more fuck that, at the end, when the Sovereign wants Kaleo to beat Tobias up so he can't fend for himself, Kaleo asks if he can rape Tobias first"
"Do we have time for a little fun? I've always enjoyed this face of his... Come on, it can be part of the torture. I'll fuck him bloody. He won't like it." (Ch 27)
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to unfollow Jenna Moreci from every account I can and judge anyone who supports her from now on.
Never mind the fact that this is the second book she has with an antagonist who threatens to rape the MC, but you can't have your own confirmed bisexual character on page do that. Like, why the fuck would you think that's okay? What beta went "yeah, have your antagonist openly flirt with the protagonist and then threaten to rape him, continuing a long line of propaganda that gay/bisexual men are rapists."
Fuck. That.
zabthefab's review
3.0
A really good book and I couldn't stop reading until it was over. It's right up my lane, I'm just a SUCKER for an angsty romance where one of them is about to die and the other is sick with worry (but obv they are both very capable of taking care of themselves!) and tending to each other's wounds. Give me all the drama I revel in it.
nicolerathbone's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, I can’t believe how long I’ve had this on my TBR and I absolutely loved it. I need to get the next one asap
good_girls_read's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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
5.0
justmeareader's review
DNF. This is one of the worst written books I've ever read. Not because of the plot necessarily but for the actual writing itself. Truly, some of the worst written dialogue I've read to date. The writing style and prose were eerily similar to the first draft novel I wrote in middle school. This book didn't just need editing it needed like ten more drafts.
The characters fell extremely flat even though I read over 150+ pages, I couldn't really tell you a single character trait of Tobias.
I wanted to give this book a chance despite knowing the negative reviews, or at least enjoy a campy bad but fun read but I didn't even get that. Reading this book was a chore. It was uninteresting and even worse the poor writing annoyed me so much I just wanted to skip entire pages to be done with it, which I never do.
The pacing of the story was jarring and even though I knew what was going on and everything was over explained, I was somehow still left feeling confused at what was even going on.
Morecci has a serious issue with telling and not showing, despite videos I've seen of hers explaining the importance of showing. But every single thing in this book is explained to an excruciatingly painful degree. The announcer for the tournament explains what the tournament is for six pages and then when Tobias enters the tournament someone else explains even more about the tournament. They never stop explaining. Morecci never shows anything. Even in the Labyrinth, instead of creating tension by allowing the contestants to figure out how to survive the challenges on their own and demonstrating their unique skills and wit in an organic way, the Labyrinth writes instructions on the floor for the contestants to obey, taking away any agency the characters may have had otherwise. It also hindered my ability to see the Labyrinth as a true threat because I never really felt like the characters were in any danger because they never had to quickly outwit the Labyrinth order to save their lives.
The lack of culture in Thessen is criminal. There's so much Morecci could had done to establish the Tournament as this huge cultural event to worship the Savior and create a mythos around part tournaments. Something to make the tournament feel like it fit this world. But that's not what happened. And it made me so disappointed because it felt like a missed opportunity.
I will give Morecci some credit because there was one scene where I felt it was genuinely tense, and that was when the contestants were secretly poisoned with the wine. I'll be honest, when the guy was explaining how to make the cure I thought it was boring and just like the contestants I was fooled into a false sense of safety. So when the wine was revealed to be poison it was the first time I actually felt like the characters were in danger.
Aside from that one scene, however, this book was just awful. I hope Morecci can take the time to actually improve her craft because it's definitely not impossible for her to blow me out of the water with her next book. I doubt it, but I hope she proves me wrong
I wanted to like this book or at least enjoy hate reading it but the writing was so bad I couldn't even do that.
The characters fell extremely flat even though I read over 150+ pages, I couldn't really tell you a single character trait of Tobias.
I wanted to give this book a chance despite knowing the negative reviews, or at least enjoy a campy bad but fun read but I didn't even get that. Reading this book was a chore. It was uninteresting and even worse the poor writing annoyed me so much I just wanted to skip entire pages to be done with it, which I never do.
The pacing of the story was jarring and even though I knew what was going on and everything was over explained, I was somehow still left feeling confused at what was even going on.
Morecci has a serious issue with telling and not showing, despite videos I've seen of hers explaining the importance of showing. But every single thing in this book is explained to an excruciatingly painful degree. The announcer for the tournament explains what the tournament is for six pages and then when Tobias enters the tournament someone else explains even more about the tournament. They never stop explaining. Morecci never shows anything. Even in the Labyrinth, instead of creating tension by allowing the contestants to figure out how to survive the challenges on their own and demonstrating their unique skills and wit in an organic way, the Labyrinth writes instructions on the floor for the contestants to obey, taking away any agency the characters may have had otherwise. It also hindered my ability to see the Labyrinth as a true threat because I never really felt like the characters were in any danger because they never had to quickly outwit the Labyrinth order to save their lives.
The lack of culture in Thessen is criminal. There's so much Morecci could had done to establish the Tournament as this huge cultural event to worship the Savior and create a mythos around part tournaments. Something to make the tournament feel like it fit this world. But that's not what happened. And it made me so disappointed because it felt like a missed opportunity.
I will give Morecci some credit because there was one scene where I felt it was genuinely tense, and that was when the contestants were secretly poisoned with the wine. I'll be honest, when the guy was explaining how to make the cure I thought it was boring and just like the contestants I was fooled into a false sense of safety. So when the wine was revealed to be poison it was the first time I actually felt like the characters were in danger.
Aside from that one scene, however, this book was just awful. I hope Morecci can take the time to actually improve her craft because it's definitely not impossible for her to blow me out of the water with her next book. I doubt it, but I hope she proves me wrong
I wanted to like this book or at least enjoy hate reading it but the writing was so bad I couldn't even do that.
bloopers's review
4.0
Ok, time to finally do my review on this book.
The Saviors Champion was an amazing book, but it does have more flaws than I would like. Let me explain.
First of all the characters. I feel like the author just didn't pay that much attention to them. I can somewhat get why the Savior has a vague backstory, but even the MC doesn't have much. I thought that in the romance between Tobias and Leila, there would be more opportunities to learn about the two, but it was really just focused on the tension without much character development. Yes, there are some conversations here and there, but I feel they only scratch the surface.
Back to the romance, it was nice and lighthearted, with the perfect amount of cringiness. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a smut scene, but I could live with it. I think that it could've been handled better with it just feeling less of a rom-com and a bit more serious like the tone of the book.
I'd also like to touch bases with Tobias. For his relationship with the Savior, I felt that it could also have been handled better. I understood that he didn't really care about the Savior due to lack of information, but in the end of the day, she essentially made you and allowed you to do these things, even if bad. My point is that I know that she wasn't liked, but I didn't think she was disliked *that* much.
With possibly my biggest conflict with the book done, I'll head onto worldbuilding. There wasn't much to it, but it was simple and I liked that. There's a person with magic, a tournament to get that magic, and people in towns. I would've liked a bit more description on the towns or kingdoms, but in the end they weren't needed.
Now, the plot. It was actually really interesting, though it was a bit trope-y with the killing game. In the end, I did feel like the situations were unique, but other events like the romance were only lightly touched upon. I do think that some scenes could be shortened to be changed with more meaningful ones or to just be completely deleted since I do think that the book is a bit too long for my tastes.
Finally, the writing. It was nice descriptive writing, though long as I mentioned before. It does a good job at maintaining tension, though I feel that that's the authors main expertise since again, it didn't feel natural with the romance. Other than that, it was fairly good!"
The Saviors Champion was an amazing book, but it does have more flaws than I would like. Let me explain.
First of all the characters. I feel like the author just didn't pay that much attention to them. I can somewhat get why the Savior has a vague backstory, but even the MC doesn't have much. I thought that in the romance between Tobias and Leila, there would be more opportunities to learn about the two, but it was really just focused on the tension without much character development. Yes, there are some conversations here and there, but I feel they only scratch the surface.
Back to the romance, it was nice and lighthearted, with the perfect amount of cringiness. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a smut scene, but I could live with it. I think that it could've been handled better with it just feeling less of a rom-com and a bit more serious like the tone of the book.
I'd also like to touch bases with Tobias. For his relationship with the Savior, I felt that it could also have been handled better. I understood that he didn't really care about the Savior due to lack of information, but in the end of the day, she essentially made you and allowed you to do these things, even if bad. My point is that I know that she wasn't liked, but I didn't think she was disliked *that* much.
With possibly my biggest conflict with the book done, I'll head onto worldbuilding. There wasn't much to it, but it was simple and I liked that. There's a person with magic, a tournament to get that magic, and people in towns. I would've liked a bit more description on the towns or kingdoms, but in the end they weren't needed.
Now, the plot. It was actually really interesting, though it was a bit trope-y with the killing game. In the end, I did feel like the situations were unique, but other events like the romance were only lightly touched upon. I do think that some scenes could be shortened to be changed with more meaningful ones or to just be completely deleted since I do think that the book is a bit too long for my tastes.
Finally, the writing. It was nice descriptive writing, though long as I mentioned before. It does a good job at maintaining tension, though I feel that that's the authors main expertise since again, it didn't feel natural with the romance. Other than that, it was fairly good!"
ishouldbewriting's review
5.0
Spoiler
A lot of people seem to find so many issues with this book that I'm questioning how easily impressed I am. Or maybe I'm biased because I've been a fan of Jenna's YouTube channel for a while. The only parts I found close to boring were the gushy romance, but I went in expecting that because I was reading for the dark fantasy not the romance. Though even my cynic's heart found some of the couples' dialogue adorable or funny.It took me exactly a month to finish and that's only because I was reading it in short bursts whenever I found time before bed or at work. I found the pacing fine, though I'll admit I think I went into it slowly because the size intimidated me a little. It also doesn't make for very comfortable holding while reading.
As for lack of worldbuilding, I found that more of a positive because I got more than a library's worth of worldbuilding from Game of Thrones and frankly, I'm okay taking a break from that. Sci-Fi worldbuilding is still intriguing to me, but when it's a book in some random place like Thessen, I can get on just fine imagining the lesser details. What little explanation we get for the magic system leaves some to be desired, I'll give the reviewers that. I do feel like at least the use of magic was properly explained. If it seemed mysterious and out of place for a moment, it was thoroughly wrapped up with an explanation by the end.
I did enjoy the roller-coaster of character development we got for Tobias, where he didn't just go from a good, quiet guy to a murderous killer. He wavered between the two and settled somewhere in the middle and it was interesting to see the mental strife he went through as he struggled to keep hold to his values and sense of self.
I'd argue for 4/4.5 stars only because of the predictability of the tropes and the events as they unfolded. I am usually horrible at making guesses about TV shows, movies, and books alike, so if I was unsurprised at every turn, the turns were very easy to see coming. As for the big twist ending, however, I liked the predictability only because it wasn't an crazy, outlandish ending that came out of nowhere. Jenna sowed the seeds for that twist very frequently in the book and I found most of them as I went along, so it didn't feel as "boringly predictable" so much as "she clearly had this idea all along and is letting us know from the get-go." And now I feel smarter for being able to pick up on all those little clues, which /is/ a plot twist.
All in all, I had a great time reading this and by the end, was finding every spare moment to read. I am definitely going to read the sequel, just maybe not yet, because I need to take a breather with some smaller, easier books before getting back into Tobias's world.