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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-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
A bit too slow, a bit too info-dumpy, and just isn’t really tickling my fancy. I am a slightly intrigued by it though, so I may come back to it eventually.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
1812, London. While the world used to have magic, its remnants are becoming fainter and fainter. Very few even remember its existence. Now, the ancient villains of dark magic have been reincarnated, and the Dark King is starting to make his moves against the light. Will has moved from place to place with his mother, running from something unknown. Now that she's been killed, he's headed to London to figure out who did it - only to find a super secret order of knights set on defeating the Dark Kings' right hand man.
Have you ever read a book that is so compelling that you forget that you're reading, that you are entirely sucked in? ... Well, this was the opposite. Unfortunately, this book felt like I could see the construction of the book as it went, felt thin and see through, and like the world didn't hold up to scrutiny. I read this for my 12 books, 12 friends, 12 months challenge, and while it didn't work for me, it's actually only the first one that hasn't, so that's a pretty good track record.
There were pieces here and there that worked or had good roots. I like a historical fantasy, and would have liked to see more interaction with or grounding in the real world. I really enjoy a prophesied hero, and I really like reincarnation, which is rare to see but I love it when I do. There was a final plot twist at the end of the book that I didn't see coming somehow. There was much more that didn't necessarily work for me, or I felt neutral about. I didn't feel connected to our characters or the world at all - everything felt really flat. This group of knights, which feels Arthurian in flavor, didn't feel like I should actually care about them despite them being the saviors of the world. The relationships between characters, especially romantic ones, felt forced. I think the only really interesting one was the interactions between Will and James. The writing held the reader's hand too much and frankly didn't trust their intelligence: I couldn't survive taking a shot for every time that some bit of lore was repeated several times by different characters. It felt like returning from a commercial break when watching a TV show, where they repeat the last bit of dialogue so you remember where you are. As to structure, it also seemed like some of the perspectives were unnecessary to the plot, and could have been removed to cut down on the length of the book. I feel bad saying all these negative things about a book that I generally only felt "meh" about, but the longer I sit with it, that's all I remember.
Overall, this book could possibly be more for younger readers looking for Arthurian flavor in their fantasy, but I can't recommend it myself.
Have you ever read a book that is so compelling that you forget that you're reading, that you are entirely sucked in? ... Well, this was the opposite. Unfortunately, this book felt like I could see the construction of the book as it went, felt thin and see through, and like the world didn't hold up to scrutiny. I read this for my 12 books, 12 friends, 12 months challenge, and while it didn't work for me, it's actually only the first one that hasn't, so that's a pretty good track record.
There were pieces here and there that worked or had good roots. I like a historical fantasy, and would have liked to see more interaction with or grounding in the real world. I really enjoy a prophesied hero, and I really like reincarnation, which is rare to see but I love it when I do. There was a final plot twist at the end of the book that I didn't see coming somehow. There was much more that didn't necessarily work for me, or I felt neutral about. I didn't feel connected to our characters or the world at all - everything felt really flat. This group of knights, which feels Arthurian in flavor, didn't feel like I should actually care about them despite them being the saviors of the world. The relationships between characters, especially romantic ones, felt forced. I think the only really interesting one was the interactions between Will and James. The writing held the reader's hand too much and frankly didn't trust their intelligence: I couldn't survive taking a shot for every time that some bit of lore was repeated several times by different characters. It felt like returning from a commercial break when watching a TV show, where they repeat the last bit of dialogue so you remember where you are. As to structure, it also seemed like some of the perspectives were unnecessary to the plot, and could have been removed to cut down on the length of the book. I feel bad saying all these negative things about a book that I generally only felt "meh" about, but the longer I sit with it, that's all I remember.
Overall, this book could possibly be more for younger readers looking for Arthurian flavor in their fantasy, but I can't recommend it myself.
I actually had a lot of fun! But the book as a whole? Found it a biiit clumsy.
The author has a few tendencies in her writing that I just don’t vibe with. Everything is written in a really dry factual way: “this is like this because of that”, then the characters will repeat the same thing in those exact words… and then later on they will think of that same thing in, once again, those same words, etc, etc…
She tends to repeat herself and is so obvious with the “foreshadowing” that I felt like the author was by my side yelling “ATTENTION, ATTENTION! THIS IS IMPORTANT”.
The characters were okay. Will is a little bland most of the time, but it didn’t bother me all that much. Meanwhile, Katherine’s character? She could never rival the chemistry between Will and James, and while I understand the goal, I do think her character could’ve been more well-developed. I believe the plot and all the twists would’ve benefited from it.
Now the big plot twist was predictable, but I still liked it. I just have a bone to pick with how clumsy the world building was. Every time the characters arrived at a big conclusion, it was just put out there with no afterthought. How did they get there? Where did that information come from?
The author spent so much time going over what she felt was important for the twist that it felt like she overlooked the steps to logically get the characters there.
I’m not familiar with this author’s work, but her writing seemed to thrive whenever Will and James interacted. I’m guessing the rest of the story will have a lot more of that, so I have hopes it will get better.
It’s a very easy to read book and, despite all my little pet peeves, I still found it very entertaining! I’m curious about the next book and I do think it has the potential to be a lot better. This one was very clearly a set-up for the plot twist. Now the second one should have all the time to shine.
Also, can we stop with the spoilers on the covers? Seeing the cover for the next book is such an unnecessary spoiler, and it’s pretty much unavoidable. I don’t understand why series do this… sigh
All in all, the book was okay, but the entertainment was there, and I appreciate it for what it is!
The author has a few tendencies in her writing that I just don’t vibe with. Everything is written in a really dry factual way: “this is like this because of that”, then the characters will repeat the same thing in those exact words… and then later on they will think of that same thing in, once again, those same words, etc, etc…
She tends to repeat herself and is so obvious with the “foreshadowing” that I felt like the author was by my side yelling “ATTENTION, ATTENTION! THIS IS IMPORTANT”.
The characters were okay. Will is a little bland most of the time, but it didn’t bother me all that much. Meanwhile, Katherine’s character? She could never rival the chemistry between Will and James, and while I understand the goal, I do think her character could’ve been more well-developed. I believe the plot and all the twists would’ve benefited from it.
Now the big plot twist was predictable, but I still liked it. I just have a bone to pick with how clumsy the world building was. Every time the characters arrived at a big conclusion, it was just put out there with no afterthought. How did they get there? Where did that information come from?
The author spent so much time going over what she felt was important for the twist that it felt like she overlooked the steps to logically get the characters there.
I’m not familiar with this author’s work, but her writing seemed to thrive whenever Will and James interacted. I’m guessing the rest of the story will have a lot more of that, so I have hopes it will get better.
It’s a very easy to read book and, despite all my little pet peeves, I still found it very entertaining! I’m curious about the next book and I do think it has the potential to be a lot better. This one was very clearly a set-up for the plot twist. Now the second one should have all the time to shine.
Also, can we stop with the spoilers on the covers? Seeing the cover for the next book is such an unnecessary spoiler, and it’s pretty much unavoidable. I don’t understand why series do this… sigh
All in all, the book was okay, but the entertainment was there, and I appreciate it for what it is!
adventurous
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:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Aw found family- oh no.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
tragically i was a little disappointed by this one - it felt very logically threadbare (characters making decisions and coming to conclusions seemingly out of nowhere, especially will) and the nazgûl parallels were a bit distracting. im super invested in the world itself though, so im going to give book 2 a shot and hope it hangs together a bit better now that we have the major reveal we got at the end