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kaylaswhitmore's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
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? It's complicated
3.5
This was a fun read with lots of rich world-building. The system of gods and humans felt both wondrous and intuitive, often making me curious about just what other gods there are out there and how much their power stretches (which I suppose I should simply read the next book sooner rather than later, then). I also enjoyed the characters in the story, from the lovable side characters to our main cast of heroes. Their voices all felt starkly unique to each other and I appreciated how their bonds grew over time.
That being said, I did have some critiques of the narrative and style. First, I felt that Skediceth’s point of view—while it shed light on a god’s perspective—did take away from the pain of his betrayal to Inara. Instead of feeling surprised by his takeover of her mind and body, I saw it coming a mile away and therefore didn’t feel as stunned or hurt by it as I think I could have, had his POV chapters not foreshadowed it so heavily. In that regard, I do wish she had perhaps limited her use of POVs to just Inara, Elo, and Kissen to maintain more suspense. Secondly, the big reveal of Arren’s betrayal also felt a bit lacking due to how intensely evil he was upon Elo sacrificing himself. I would have liked to see him struggle a little more when faced with the reality of his selfish power grab in front of someone who I do believe he must have loved at some point. That came across a bit superficial or disingenuous if only because it leaned more towards a place of “aha! the mask is off, muahahah!” as opposed to a hard hitting betrayal.
I do feel that Kaner really brought the story together for a very engaging end, however, and it certainly kept me wanting to see what happens next! Despite the few things I was a bit dissatisfied with, I felt that there were many more things to be excited about. Kissen, for one, is a breath of fresh air. I’ve read quite a few “angry women” protagonists now at this point, but I really loved Kissen’s flavor of it. She’s both down to earth and wildly spontaneous, and that combination made her an extremely fun character to follow. I also adored Inara, and think that she was a cool spin on the “naive girl discovering the world” trope. Her power and individuality made it easy to root for her and exciting to imagine what she will become.
I’m looking forward to reading Sunbringer, even if I’m nervous about the fates of our favorite found family!
That being said, I did have some critiques of the narrative and style.
I do feel that Kaner really brought the story together for a very engaging end, however, and it certainly kept me wanting to see what happens next! Despite the few things I was a bit dissatisfied with, I felt that there were many more things to be excited about. Kissen, for one, is a breath of fresh air. I’ve read quite a few “angry women” protagonists now at this point, but I really loved Kissen’s flavor of it. She’s both down to earth and wildly spontaneous, and that combination made her an extremely fun character to follow. I also adored Inara, and think that she was a cool spin on the “naive girl discovering the world” trope. Her power and individuality made it easy to root for her and exciting to imagine what she will become.
I’m looking forward to reading Sunbringer, even if I’m nervous about the fates of our favorite found family!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual content, and War
hflh's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Cool world with good character potential diminished by a slow plot (and I usually like slow) and the most mustache-twirly villain speech I’ve seen in adult fiction.
That being said, the world is very compelling and I like the characters. I’m hoping this is a good set up for a stronger second book.
That being said, the world is very compelling and I like the characters. I’m hoping this is a good set up for a stronger second book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Child death, Death of parent, War, and Child abuse
laurenbaggy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief
Moderate: Eating disorder
amethyst_knight's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Minor: Sexual content
korpney's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Fast-paced, exciting, and original fantasy with a very eclectic found family aspect.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death, Cursing, Death of parent, and Grief
belsbookramblings's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
5.0
I absolutely loved it. I loved Kissen from the get go, loved all the characters and the world building and the flirting. The surprises and betrayals hurt like hell and even things i saw coming still surprised me. 5 stars for the angry bisexual woman with swords, the kid with a godling and the tortured knight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Cursing and War
evilbooklaugh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Good first book in a series! Fast-paced with a properly diverse cast of characters (LGBTQ+ representation appreciated). Slightly foreseeable plotline for now, but a really interesting story. Book 2 is in the to-read pile!
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood and Cursing
amelianotthepilot's review against another edition
3.5
a fun dnd style high fantasy story with interesting world-building. I loved that we got so much diversity and disability representation, the book was queer and had a physically disabled main character and characters using sign language.
The story follows four characters brought together on one quest, Kissen grew up in a coastal town that worshipped the sea god but when the sea was not providing any longer the townspeople sacrificed her and her family to the fire god leaving her badly scarred and missing a leg. Years later she is now a grown woman and has made a life as a god killer, a sort of mercenary hire that kills off local problematic gods since the King has since banned all gods after ~the war~. Meanwhile Inara, has a god problem. She is a young highborn teen who has somehow become attached to a small hare-like god, Skedi, the god of white lies. They seek Kissen's help in becoming detached from each other without killing either Inara or the god. On their journey to the old lands, they end up on a travelling group with Elogast, a former King's knight now turned baker. After a series of unfortunate events in the royal family, his best friend and charge became the King and they went to battle together against the gods, but after the war, Elo quits his post and retires only for the King to come knocking on his door one night to ask for assistance for an old friend, and of course, loyal Elo will do anything for him.
i don't really know why there were POV switches since the characters were mostly all together the whole time, I also felt that the different POVs all had similar sounding voices so it was hard to tell apart. I think maybe it would have been better from an omnipotent 3rd person POV.
I also felt that the plot was maybe not the most interesting story, I was more curious about Kissen's backstory and also the war story. I was more interested in how these character's got here. The plot we got was very obvious
although the story had various queer characters and two of the main characters were bi, ?it somehow felt like queerbaiting? we love bi rep but i feel like lesbian rep is so far and few between and was excited when it seemed the MC was lesbian- I've never been disappointed until now for a character to turn out bi lol. Also the king and Elo seemed really homoerotic just saying...😂
The story follows four characters brought together on one quest, Kissen grew up in a coastal town that worshipped the sea god but when the sea was not providing any longer the townspeople sacrificed her and her family to the fire god leaving her badly scarred and missing a leg. Years later she is now a grown woman and has made a life as a god killer, a sort of mercenary hire that kills off local problematic gods since the King has since banned all gods after ~the war~. Meanwhile Inara, has a god problem. She is a young highborn teen who has somehow become attached to a small hare-like god, Skedi, the god of white lies. They seek Kissen's help in becoming detached from each other without killing either Inara or the god. On their journey to the old lands, they end up on a travelling group with Elogast, a former King's knight now turned baker. After a series of unfortunate events in the royal family, his best friend and charge became the King and they went to battle together against the gods, but after the war, Elo quits his post and retires only for the King to come knocking on his door one night to ask for assistance for an old friend, and of course, loyal Elo will do anything for him.
i don't really know why there were POV switches since the characters were mostly all together the whole time, I also felt that the different POVs all had similar sounding voices so it was hard to tell apart. I think maybe it would have been better from an omnipotent 3rd person POV.
I also felt that the plot was maybe not the most interesting story, I was more curious about Kissen's backstory and also the war story. I was more interested in how these character's got here. The plot we got was very obvious
although the story had various queer characters and two of the main characters were bi, ?it somehow felt like queerbaiting? we love bi rep but i feel like lesbian rep is so far and few between and was excited when it seemed the MC was lesbian- I've never been disappointed until now for a character to turn out bi lol. Also the king and Elo seemed really homoerotic just saying...😂
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Grief, Sexual content, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts
lbelow's review against another edition
adventurous
3.75
It's rare to find disability rep in fantasy, let alone good rep like this book has, so I wanted to like this more. The truth is, this book would have been more compelling if told only from Kissen and Elo's POV. The Inara/Skedi scenes are really just there to set up one pivotal scene and could otherwise have been told from a different POV. Because of this, I found it harder than it should have been to really sink into the book, and it doesn't help that the book is a short one. I never really feel like I get enough of Kissen and Elo's character progression. The end sequence (the last, day 25 pages) are perfectly paced and tense and leave me wondering what will happen next. Yes, this book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger in that they've accomplished their initial goal (sort of) but doing so has opened a whole new can of worms. There's potential here but not as much depth as I wanted. I guess we'll see where this series goes next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Cursing, and Violence
Minor: Chronic illness
catherineallsop's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Classism, Trafficking, Grief, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness