328 reviews for:

War Hour

Lauren Loscig

4.03 AVERAGE

arobis_the_bookworm's review

DID NOT FINISH: 5%

It took me seven days to finish this book and I’m upset because I should’ve finished this sooner. But better late than never. People say this reminds them of ACOTAR but for me it’s more like Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone and Shatter Me.
Its fast-paced, no filler scenes but each chapter conveys a message or a hint for the future.
The writing was good and the characters as well, though I would’ve liked to see more scenes of Torryn and Lysta. Much of Torryn’s character is still a mystery to us so I can’t wait for more of him to be revealed. Speaking of the characters I really liked Evander, but low-key I was waiting for a slip or for him to mess up. He must’ve liked Lysta genuinely since he asked her so much to not go to war, because he knew that she’d see him being the bad guy.
adventurous 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: No
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foxiah's review

3.0
adventurous tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

sierra_beal's review

3.0

I loved the concept of this book, the trials, the earned powers.

But it didn’t pull me into the world like I wished it to. Certain moments felt like they were too fast, some too slow. I personally felt like I wasn’t really rooting for or against the main character, who in all honesty, annoyed me at times.

There are some really good plot twists and unexpected moments that kept me on my toes. I’m not a writer, but I will say that I felt like this book needed to be built more, and I’m not even sure what that means.
jessi_sings's profile picture

jessi_sings's review

3.0
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
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: Complicated
adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
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petuniarhubarb's review

4.0

4/5 stars, ARC copy :)

I have good and negative things to say about War Hour. I wanted to add beforehand, I absolutely recommend it! It isn’t perfect but it’s a solid book. If you like fantasy or want decent anxiety representation, War Hour is for you!

Okay, to the main points. But first… a quick-ish summary. Lysta lives in the Court of Valor, led by Lord Drytas. Drytas is forcing people to Trial to get a big ol’ army of people with magic abilities to kill everyone. He’s your classic power-hungry conqueror, except we get to hate him on a personal level. Anyway, Lysta has to Trial after getting caught with a knife while trying to help someone. “Someone” turns out to be from another court and promises to help free her fellow oppressed people. He takes her to the capital (which is wildly different from her court), and she has to convince the Lords and Lady to believe her story. There’s lots of political drama btw. I rarely like that, but I didn’t mind it this time.

Now the review. When I saw it marketed on Instagram as a magic system where people have to trial for their powers, it intrigued me. Frankly, the trials were a bit underwhelming. They were short and nowhere near as deadly as implied. I expected more, but what I got was still interesting. I can’t wait to see the other trials. The magic system alone is worth reading the book for.

The second thing that drew my attention in the marketing—and the most important—was the author said the MC had a panic attack. I don’t see a lot of female YA fantasy MCs with genuine anxiety. They’re always gung-ho, “Let’s go save the kingdom and kill people, and yay!” They do everything out of grit, spite, and honor. If they get scared, it’s just a little queasy and they power through it because Strong Female Characters™.
Lysta gets scared. She has a panic attack, and anxiety always overwhelms her at the worst imaginable times. I’ve struggled with anxiety my whole life, and it was satisfying to see the physical symptoms of anxiety represented so well.

That said, the book was exasperating too! Huge amounts of the plot were based on miscommunication.

GAAAAAH!

It’s why I ended up putting the book down for a month. I had to calm down because, wow. I’m not exaggerating when I say Lysta had to lock Torryn in a room with her to get the tiniest bit of communication. All he needed was five minutes to go over a few rules she needed to survive. But no. “Don’t trust anyone” is abysmal advice. Good God Torryn, get it together.

Thankfully, after that scene, miscommunication wasn’t as big a deal.

To be clear, the plot wasn’t solely miscommunication. If you hate the trope, I still recommend you read the book. It was frustrating, but not the sole drive of the story (thankfully). Everything else was interesting enough to keep me going after I cooled down.

I’ve seen tons of people (on Goodreads and Instagram) saying the plot twist in the last 10% surprised them. That confused me. I saw it coming immediately. The author foreshadowed it well and it seemed obvious. To the point, I doubted myself because maybe everyone else saw the same signs and they were red herrings! Nope. I feel a bit vindicated... That’s not to say the plot twist was bad, I just saw it coming, which is maybe half the fun of a plot twist. So you can wonder if the signs are real or imagined.

One more smallish thing? I felt like some of the continuity needed help.

The first chapters seemed unrelated to the rest of the book. *Friend* seems very important to Lysta in the beginning, but he’s nothing later. It wasn’t uncommon for me to realize there was an early element I forgot about because it wasn’t relevant to anything else. Be it world-building, or interactions between characters that should have been mentioned later. *cough* Lysta being choked out multiple times and not having any bruises *cough*

I know it’s a series. I know many of the elements might be important next book. It still frustrated me.

With those inconsistencies and more, paired with the miscommunication, I stopped reading it for a month. I needed space.

That said, I’m glad I picked it back up.

Despite the details that pulled me away from the plot, I enjoyed War Hour. Lysta was relatable. I loved she was as confused as I was the whole time. The world-building was unique. I want to learn more about the trial systems. Sar was an amazing friend. I sense some cool backstory from her…

4/5 stars, I highly recommend

atrailofpages's review

3.0

Lysta goes out to get supplies for her and her friend Thoman when she stops to help a young girl who is being cornered by thugs. When she tries to help, the girl shifts back into a boy who then takes her to Lord Drytas for the Trial since she pulled an illegal weapon out. Andrea now Lysta must become Trialed the one thing she has always tried to avoid.

I really wanted to like this book! I mean the premise and idea were there, the world is there, there’s unique magic and abilities, and there’s political intrigue. I thought it was interesting that in order to gain an ability you have to be Trialed and depending on how you solve the Trial, is what determines your abilities(multiple of you Trial more than once).

There’s also a lot of political intrigue since there are different courts one must navigate and then the Lords have their Heirs, who all made me think of Gossip Girl with the drama and betrayals going on.

And although I wasn’t a huge fan of any of the characters, I did love Evander! He was the best character, the most interesting and fun character, and I love how his role played out!

That being said, the severe lack of detail of this world caused me to struggle real hard when reading this book. I wanted to stop reading, but I don’t like DNFing books because usually the ending makes up for it. And the ending did help!

I wish there was more world building and detail about the world and the magic or abilities people have. I had more questions than anything else. Why are there Untrialed and Trialed? Do all people have magic, or do they HAVE to go through a Trial to gain magic or an ability? What makes Lysta sooo special? What is such a big deal about going through a Trial? And why is it that Lysta just suddenly learns her ability so quickly without any training? Also why is it that she can handle a dagger so well when it doesn’t seem like she’s ever learned how to use one properly? How old is anyone in this book!? There’s a part at the beginning that gave me the impression that Lysta is only 15! Which makes sense since she and most of the other kids acted very young and immature. And how is it the court that Lysta is from is getting away with what they’re doing when it seems like all the other courts meet regularly and talk amongst themselves and yet have no idea what’s going on with Lord Drytas and his court? Just so much detail left out and just made me question everything.

I will say the ending is exciting and really helped, but I still didn’t understand the world. The ending is exciting when it comes to the plot and the twists and revelations that occur, which were also very obviously going to occur, but it still was exciting to read.

Now, this may just be me, I know many will enjoy this book, so take my review with a grain of salt! I think this story has potential, it just needs more review over the details and world to have it make more sense.

I received a free digital copy of read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
adventurous emotional lighthearted 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