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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Wow thank you so much for the ARC now I'm gonna cry until you release the next one!
Writing is fantastic and the plot is soooo good and I freaking love Lysta. One more thing I'm gonna say I CALLED IT I KNEW IT THE WHOLE TIME I'M NEVER DOUBTING MYSELF AGAIN ALWAYS TRUSTING MY GUT #IYKYK
Writing is fantastic and the plot is soooo good and I freaking love Lysta. One more thing I'm gonna say I CALLED IT I KNEW IT THE WHOLE TIME I'M NEVER DOUBTING MYSELF AGAIN ALWAYS TRUSTING MY GUT #IYKYK
This was a fabulous story. I was given the awesome opportunity to have the ARC to read. I stayed up til 3 in the morning to finish this book. I absolutely couldn’t put it down. It was such an easy read too. I love the story line it much gave ACOTAR vibes but with a twist and this was right up my alley. I still can’t believe I didn’t realize the plot twist sooner. And the cliff hanger….. I reread the last chapter twice to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. A great cliffhanger. Lauren I can’t wait for the next book that’s for sure!!!
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
** I received this book as an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my review, and all thoughts and opinions are my own. ***
I have very mixed feelings about this book. It’s one of the few times I think I have both thoroughly enjoyed and yet really hated that very reading experience, especially one by an indie author and there were a couple of reasons why War Hour stirred those feelings in me.
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
There were genuinely a lot of things I liked about this book. The main character was not a “not like other girls” girl, and it seems like the author tried really hard to make sure Lysta did not come across that way, and I appreciated that. Sometimes, I felt like I saw Lysta’s train of thought almost overcompensate to show that what she was feeling was not out of a place of internalized misogyny, which is slightly a problem, but I can let it go. Another thing I liked was the concept. The concept of trials and people earning their power was incredibly interesting to read about. I really enjoyed some characters, like obviously Torryn, Sar, and even Vishu, when I realized she wasn’t a pick me, her mother just forced her to be one. The second half of the book picked up the pace and I liked the politics, and how Lysta navigated around it. Of course, the last 20-30% of the book really drew me in, and my absolute favorite part about the book is the dynamic of the heirs as one team, including how Lysta fits in with them, and so the end where she worked with the heirs during the fight with the guards, their banter and bickering genuinely had me wanting to keep reading. Then of course, I liked the stakes when Lysta was forced to trial again, genuinely not knowing if she’d win or someone would have to come fish her out of the water. I mean, I knew she wouldn’t die, but I did wonder if someone might have to come find her. I wasn’t really bored during the book, and even if there were areas with clunky writing, it didn’t really bother me specifically because I could skim through them.
There were unfortunately, a lot of things that made me go “booooooo” during reading too. One of them being the miscommunication, or more specifically, the lack of communication between Torryn and Lysta. I know, that we need to create some tension, but miscommunication is probably the laziest way of doing it. Second, I hate Evander’s guts. I know he’s there as an antagonist, but I hated him from the beginning. He was too open, too touchy, too flirty, and judging by other reviews I was not the only one who predicted that he would betray her. I believe this book was marketed to have a big twist, and frankly, apart from the fact that we learn that Cenna is Drytas’ general, the twists DID NOT do it for me. The only reason I didn’t predict that Evander was the assassin was because I just didn’t think about who it would be. I thought it would have been someone related to Drytas or Evander, not one of them themselves so it wasn’t really a huge twist. I also didn’t like how there was so little of Torryn. I know it’s meant to be a slow burn, but I would have still liked for the readers to build an actual connection with him, rather than find out through Lysta’s POV that he likes her, which I don’t feel believable anyway. Respects her enough to protect her, sure, but not really LIKE like her. And that’s evident by how I giggled and kicked my feet at the scene where he twists the guards arm when she’s going to be searched, because that makes SENSE with the natural progression of their relationship, and then the next big moment is when he’s drunk at the ball and he’s trying to flirt and I don’t see the connection. It’s Torryns story, obviously, so why isn’t he in it? It’s a gap in the readers knowledge and I really don’t like gaps. And the whole stupid ass scene with Evander beating up Neith and Lysta does a whole “look at me, this isn’t you” to him made me cringe so hard cause it gave me Kissing Booth flashbacks. I know that their relationship is supposed to make you want to root for Torryn, which I did so hard, but at the very least make why Lysta fell for Evander believable. For a girl who grew up with 2 friends, she shouldn’t have trusted Evander so easily. I’m fact, with how sus he was acting, being all up in her business and all that, she should have been far more weary, because it is natural to be skeptical when one has grown up like Lysta. I have convinced myself Evander has powers from a Trial that can be likened to the Pokémon move “Attract” and if I find out in the next book that Evander did not, in fact, somehow infatuate her with powers, and homegirl fell for him all by herself, I might just throw the book into a pond.
Additionally, the world building and the concepts were great, but it really falls short. We start off by being in a world where trials are important but we genuinely never see where they come from. Are they a marvel of science? Are they bestowed upon by gods? Who gives the powers, where did the trials come from, and how did this culture of trialing come to be? We were thrown into a world where I was just supposed to expect that these things happen and it didn’t help that we had no information about the world, it’s era, or it’s workings except the politics, and it really felt short. I struggled reading in the beginning because I had to ask “why” so many times and I never got answers, even till the end. This was my biggest problem with the book, and I really want to see a fleshing out of worlds more than just how they politically operate, or how the ruling of the kingdoms work. Remember, kids, you can’t feel connected to characters when you know nothing about them apart for how they interact with royalty. It also made no sense how Drytas wanted people to trial so he’d have more power. In dystopian books, tyrants do whatever they can to take away their subjects assets to leave them stripped of their identity, strength and belongings. It’s what keeps them in check. I just didn’t believe that the book had thought out Drytas plan to trial as many people as possible very well. Lysta had her powers for two whole minutes and besties already organizing a revolution. There’s no way Drytas would have wanted people to have powers, because that gives them the strength to unit against him. That part disappointed me a lot, because I couldn’t figure out a reason to justify this at all and it majorly took away from the complexity and nuance of the effect of the trials.
This kind of loops into how the Kadara trial was so anticlimactic. I think the Calkli trial was slightly better in its execution of stakes. But the Kadara trial was done with in what felt like minutes. And then Lysta says “yeah, good talk” at the end? They’re fighting with swords, there’s no mention of technology, and they wear leather and armor, so I believe this is medieval fantasy inspired. So why there are linguistic anachronisms in the middle of the book is beyond me, happening more than a few times in multiple unnecessary places. I think the final battle was anticlimactic too, with her struggling so much to put up a shield, really showing us how much hard work it actually takes to bring about revolution, and then she manages to both somehow yell loud enough to project her voice and speak so articulately that she convinces not one, but basically two armies to unite in a few minutes. I genuinely was disappointed cause I went “that’s it?” Out loud. How did she even yell loud enough? She’s not a surround sound stereo :/
Despite so many things that made me want to give up on the book, I think the concept in general, the threats that seemed to be in the story, and the political intrigue were what really kept me in. It had issues for sure, as I mentioned above, but I think a lot of things debut authors struggle with is balancing your losses and your wins, which the author did a great job of. I didn’t feel like everything came too easy, except the first trial, nor did they lose the whole time. The cenna plot twist, and Torryn, are the main reasons why I want to keep reading. I also believe the Calkli foreshadowed that Drytas is not the main antagonist and it seems like he’s part of a larger driving force and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes up. I truly hope we see some development from Torryn though, because I don’t think I can take his “trying to be mysterious but actually a poor communicator” much longer.
I have very mixed feelings about this book. It’s one of the few times I think I have both thoroughly enjoyed and yet really hated that very reading experience, especially one by an indie author and there were a couple of reasons why War Hour stirred those feelings in me.
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
There were genuinely a lot of things I liked about this book. The main character was not a “not like other girls” girl, and it seems like the author tried really hard to make sure Lysta did not come across that way, and I appreciated that. Sometimes, I felt like I saw Lysta’s train of thought almost overcompensate to show that what she was feeling was not out of a place of internalized misogyny, which is slightly a problem, but I can let it go. Another thing I liked was the concept. The concept of trials and people earning their power was incredibly interesting to read about. I really enjoyed some characters, like obviously Torryn, Sar, and even Vishu, when I realized she wasn’t a pick me, her mother just forced her to be one. The second half of the book picked up the pace and I liked the politics, and how Lysta navigated around it. Of course, the last 20-30% of the book really drew me in, and my absolute favorite part about the book is the dynamic of the heirs as one team, including how Lysta fits in with them, and so the end where she worked with the heirs during the fight with the guards, their banter and bickering genuinely had me wanting to keep reading. Then of course, I liked the stakes when Lysta was forced to trial again, genuinely not knowing if she’d win or someone would have to come fish her out of the water. I mean, I knew she wouldn’t die, but I did wonder if someone might have to come find her. I wasn’t really bored during the book, and even if there were areas with clunky writing, it didn’t really bother me specifically because I could skim through them.
There were unfortunately, a lot of things that made me go “booooooo” during reading too. One of them being the miscommunication, or more specifically, the lack of communication between Torryn and Lysta. I know, that we need to create some tension, but miscommunication is probably the laziest way of doing it. Second, I hate Evander’s guts. I know he’s there as an antagonist, but I hated him from the beginning. He was too open, too touchy, too flirty, and judging by other reviews I was not the only one who predicted that he would betray her. I believe this book was marketed to have a big twist, and frankly, apart from the fact that we learn that Cenna is Drytas’ general, the twists DID NOT do it for me. The only reason I didn’t predict that Evander was the assassin was because I just didn’t think about who it would be. I thought it would have been someone related to Drytas or Evander, not one of them themselves so it wasn’t really a huge twist. I also didn’t like how there was so little of Torryn. I know it’s meant to be a slow burn, but I would have still liked for the readers to build an actual connection with him, rather than find out through Lysta’s POV that he likes her, which I don’t feel believable anyway. Respects her enough to protect her, sure, but not really LIKE like her. And that’s evident by how I giggled and kicked my feet at the scene where he twists the guards arm when she’s going to be searched, because that makes SENSE with the natural progression of their relationship, and then the next big moment is when he’s drunk at the ball and he’s trying to flirt and I don’t see the connection. It’s Torryns story, obviously, so why isn’t he in it? It’s a gap in the readers knowledge and I really don’t like gaps. And the whole stupid ass scene with Evander beating up Neith and Lysta does a whole “look at me, this isn’t you” to him made me cringe so hard cause it gave me Kissing Booth flashbacks. I know that their relationship is supposed to make you want to root for Torryn, which I did so hard, but at the very least make why Lysta fell for Evander believable. For a girl who grew up with 2 friends, she shouldn’t have trusted Evander so easily. I’m fact, with how sus he was acting, being all up in her business and all that, she should have been far more weary, because it is natural to be skeptical when one has grown up like Lysta. I have convinced myself Evander has powers from a Trial that can be likened to the Pokémon move “Attract” and if I find out in the next book that Evander did not, in fact, somehow infatuate her with powers, and homegirl fell for him all by herself, I might just throw the book into a pond.
Additionally, the world building and the concepts were great, but it really falls short. We start off by being in a world where trials are important but we genuinely never see where they come from. Are they a marvel of science? Are they bestowed upon by gods? Who gives the powers, where did the trials come from, and how did this culture of trialing come to be? We were thrown into a world where I was just supposed to expect that these things happen and it didn’t help that we had no information about the world, it’s era, or it’s workings except the politics, and it really felt short. I struggled reading in the beginning because I had to ask “why” so many times and I never got answers, even till the end. This was my biggest problem with the book, and I really want to see a fleshing out of worlds more than just how they politically operate, or how the ruling of the kingdoms work. Remember, kids, you can’t feel connected to characters when you know nothing about them apart for how they interact with royalty. It also made no sense how Drytas wanted people to trial so he’d have more power. In dystopian books, tyrants do whatever they can to take away their subjects assets to leave them stripped of their identity, strength and belongings. It’s what keeps them in check. I just didn’t believe that the book had thought out Drytas plan to trial as many people as possible very well. Lysta had her powers for two whole minutes and besties already organizing a revolution. There’s no way Drytas would have wanted people to have powers, because that gives them the strength to unit against him. That part disappointed me a lot, because I couldn’t figure out a reason to justify this at all and it majorly took away from the complexity and nuance of the effect of the trials.
This kind of loops into how the Kadara trial was so anticlimactic. I think the Calkli trial was slightly better in its execution of stakes. But the Kadara trial was done with in what felt like minutes. And then Lysta says “yeah, good talk” at the end? They’re fighting with swords, there’s no mention of technology, and they wear leather and armor, so I believe this is medieval fantasy inspired. So why there are linguistic anachronisms in the middle of the book is beyond me, happening more than a few times in multiple unnecessary places. I think the final battle was anticlimactic too, with her struggling so much to put up a shield, really showing us how much hard work it actually takes to bring about revolution, and then she manages to both somehow yell loud enough to project her voice and speak so articulately that she convinces not one, but basically two armies to unite in a few minutes. I genuinely was disappointed cause I went “that’s it?” Out loud. How did she even yell loud enough? She’s not a surround sound stereo :/
Despite so many things that made me want to give up on the book, I think the concept in general, the threats that seemed to be in the story, and the political intrigue were what really kept me in. It had issues for sure, as I mentioned above, but I think a lot of things debut authors struggle with is balancing your losses and your wins, which the author did a great job of. I didn’t feel like everything came too easy, except the first trial, nor did they lose the whole time. The cenna plot twist, and Torryn, are the main reasons why I want to keep reading. I also believe the Calkli foreshadowed that Drytas is not the main antagonist and it seems like he’s part of a larger driving force and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes up. I truly hope we see some development from Torryn though, because I don’t think I can take his “trying to be mysterious but actually a poor communicator” much longer.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Read this book!! That's all I have to say
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The writing style was a little difficult. Really random information just thrown in sometimes, and the pacing was really really quick in some areas, and then would suddenly jump to something completely different. I really liked the supporting characters and the magic system was cool! I will definitely read the second one.
Excellent first novel by Lauren. After seeing a post on tiktok I downloaded her debut novel and really enjoyed it.
It was a little slow initially but once it picked up I couldn't put it down. Looking froward to the second book!!
It was a little slow initially but once it picked up I couldn't put it down. Looking froward to the second book!!
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
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
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes