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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
"But the same poison that attacks the body also ignites a defensive response. And maybe yesterday was the poison I needed to decide I'm not going down without a fight." ~ Lysta, from War Hour
Time Read: 6 Hours, 40 Minutes
Reading Depth Needed: The chapters were a perfect length in my eyes. Some memory work is needed to keep up with the courts and crowns, but I could jump right back in and remember what was going on just fine.
Date Started: 11/02/23
Date Finished: 11/23/23
It took me three weeks because I was balancing two other books alongside it, but I wouldn’t say it’s a very long read at all. It’s a very satisfying length and cliffhangs at the perfect peak of action after tying up a few ends of the story to give a nice conclusion, yet keeping the strong interest for book two (Which can NOT come fast enough!).
Stars: ✨✨✨✨✨ 4.5/5 – This book is not talked about enough! It is a fresh new take on fantasy we have yet to see before. Yes, I’ve seen some people draw comparatives of it to some other major fantasy books, but it’s in a different league of its own.
Spice: 0/5 – Good clean family fun. I very much so enjoyed the forego on the spice in this story, it keeps the plot moving nicely and I never felt like anything was missing in the relationships between the characters. It forces them to be more vulnerable and intimate emotionally, not physically, which creates all the more special moments between them.
Tropes:
- “You came?”, “You called.”
Time Read: 6 Hours, 40 Minutes
Reading Depth Needed: The chapters were a perfect length in my eyes. Some memory work is needed to keep up with the courts and crowns, but I could jump right back in and remember what was going on just fine.
Date Started: 11/02/23
Date Finished: 11/23/23
It took me three weeks because I was balancing two other books alongside it, but I wouldn’t say it’s a very long read at all. It’s a very satisfying length and cliffhangs at the perfect peak of action after tying up a few ends of the story to give a nice conclusion, yet keeping the strong interest for book two (Which can NOT come fast enough!).
Stars: ✨✨✨✨✨ 4.5/5 – This book is not talked about enough! It is a fresh new take on fantasy we have yet to see before. Yes, I’ve seen some people draw comparatives of it to some other major fantasy books, but it’s in a different league of its own.
Spice: 0/5 – Good clean family fun. I very much so enjoyed the forego on the spice in this story, it keeps the plot moving nicely and I never felt like anything was missing in the relationships between the characters. It forces them to be more vulnerable and intimate emotionally, not physically, which creates all the more special moments between them.
Tropes:
- “You came?”, “You called.”
This book was amazing!
I have to add that I was honered to be picked to be an ARC reader for this book
In this book, you are not born with magic, you have to earn it in a Trial for one of the courts. The story follows Lysta, who wants to save her own court.
This book grips you from beginning to end, I could not put it down.
There is magic, there is betrayels, there is a hint of romance (with (in my opinion) a small love triangle, and the best part, NO spice!!), there are politics, and there is war.
The only reason why I did not give it a 5 star rating, was because the first 5 chapters went too fast with not enough information, but after that, the missing information was brought to me in a very logical and amusing way.
I did not see the ending coming, and I NEED book two yesterday.
I have already recommended this book to some of my friends/coworkers, the book is out since yesterday! I hope a lot of people get to read this amazing book, personally, I think this might be one of my favorite books of this year! ❤❤
I have to add that I was honered to be picked to be an ARC reader for this book
In this book, you are not born with magic, you have to earn it in a Trial for one of the courts. The story follows Lysta, who wants to save her own court.
This book grips you from beginning to end, I could not put it down.
There is magic, there is betrayels, there is a hint of romance (with (in my opinion) a small love triangle, and the best part, NO spice!!), there are politics, and there is war.
The only reason why I did not give it a 5 star rating, was because the first 5 chapters went too fast with not enough information, but after that, the missing information was brought to me in a very logical and amusing way.
I did not see the ending coming, and I NEED book two yesterday.
I have already recommended this book to some of my friends/coworkers, the book is out since yesterday! I hope a lot of people get to read this amazing book, personally, I think this might be one of my favorite books of this year! ❤❤
Wow just Wow. I have literally no words this book is amazing. Loscig does an amazing job creating this new world for readers to dive into. The whole concept of earning power through trials was very well thought out and portrayed. I absolutely cannot wait for book two as this literally was the perfect combination of my three favorite books (red queen, divergent, and renegades) and more.
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The book was a decent read. I struggled to get through the first portion of the book, I lacked understanding of Lysta’s character and the world that was around her. I found many portions of the book to be predictable, such as Evanders betrayal. I feel the character who suffers the most is Lysta. I find her to be very contradictory at times. However, at the end of the day, I am looking forward to reading the next book and hope to see how Lauren continues to grow.
The concept is remarkable and the last 100 pages are this books saving grace. I am glad I pushed through and did not DNF the book.
The concept is remarkable and the last 100 pages are this books saving grace. I am glad I pushed through and did not DNF the book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War
Minor: Violence, Blood
ARC review
This book was pretty good. I really enjoyed the world building and powers. Loscig really fleshed that part out. It swept me away. That being said, I figured out the surprise twist at about 70% before it was revealed at 90. And the FMC could be a bit annoying in her cluelessness.
Overall, I would recommend this book to peeps who want powers to be earned by the MCs and not just given to them because they happen to be the main character. And will be well interested to read book two. :)
This book was pretty good. I really enjoyed the world building and powers. Loscig really fleshed that part out. It swept me away. That being said, I figured out the surprise twist at about 70% before it was revealed at 90. And the FMC could be a bit annoying in her cluelessness.
Overall, I would recommend this book to peeps who want powers to be earned by the MCs and not just given to them because they happen to be the main character. And will be well interested to read book two. :)
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book's concept was really good and it came into its stride during the last third. It's weaknesses were its lack of description of settings, the characters weren't developed enough, and the villain didn't really have a clear motive? He wants to oppress people by making them do a trial which gives them powers to theoretically overthrow him? Surely he'd be better gatekeeping the trial and only allowing his fanatics to do it?
An okay debut with some teething issues which I hope will be worked out in the future
An okay debut with some teething issues which I hope will be worked out in the future
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If you are a fan of easily digestible fantasy this book is for you! I found this book from a creator on TikTok and the premise was so intriguing to me. A world where you earned your powers, not just born with them. I would say the first 20% of the book my attention was barely being held on to. We weren't really told the history of the different courts or the Trial which in a fantasy book is weird for me not to have more of a higher level of world building. But as I kept reading I understood that we were only to understand as much as our MC Lysta did. As I continued reading I got more and more into the story and characters. The tropes are very much the popular ones that make a good fantasy novel but they were used well. I will say the backstabbing was predictable but I was shocked by the reasoning behind why the bad guy turned out to be the way they were. I look forward to seeing the inevitable enemies to lovers play out and am hoping the author gives us way more on the history of this world, because the set up is a new and exciting concept for me! Now she didn't have to kill us with a cliffhanger and have no date for a sequel yet though!
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
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:
No
I think this book has a great concept, but some of it felt a little bit… wordy? At points. As in, Lysta had 4 sentences in her mind conveying the emotions she had, when it was basically summed up in the first one.
The Trials and the magic that is found in this world is super interesting, and I love enemies to lovers, so I’ll for sure be reading this series to see where it goes!
Part of the twist was sort of obvious; it’s giving Tamlin in ACOMAF. The immediate interest one of the main characters had towards Lysta was a smidge suspicious. I am very excited to see where the interest Torryn has in Lysta goes however
The Trials and the magic that is found in this world is super interesting, and I love enemies to lovers, so I’ll for sure be reading this series to see where it goes!
Part of the twist was sort of obvious; it’s giving Tamlin in ACOMAF. The immediate interest one of the main characters had towards Lysta was a smidge suspicious. I am very excited to see where the interest Torryn has in Lysta goes however
“No bravery without fear. No strength without struggle.”
here's the thing.
i've read better and i've read worse. i've read plenty of bad indie books to know what is bad. this is by far one of the better ones.
at first i didn't think war hour was so bad. it had a plot, characters, and funny bits of dialogue. that's all i could ask for. normally i don't even care about character development, but this time i did. lysta was constantly getting shoved around place to place, person to person. she acts like she's all tough and strong, but there's nothing special about her. she's got that mare barrow feeling to her.
normally i love side characters. they're the comic relief and sometimes the most interesting part of the story. i didn't love sar, bash, or any of the other heirs. if anything ardis was the most interesting but we know even less about him!
i wish the actual trialing was longer and more than just getting shoved into an arena with a beast. being the call to action point, main pitch point, the reason so many people die, and the whole reason people have powers, i would have innately expected the trial to be longer and more challenging. but it wasn't.
around the 25% point, where characters are revealed and plans explained, i found it a little confusing. i didn’t fully understand the reveals, but that just may be a reader error.
this book is slow for the first half of the story. i never understood why fantasy authors write 400+ page books, if they are unable to make the plot interesting… this book suffers from that problem.
in an ideal world, we would have a proper introduction to lysta and thoman’s relationship so that when it is taken away, it hurts more. bro literally doesn’t exist for 85% of the remaining book. i thought thoman was going to be like gale from hunger games, torryn was going to be like rhysand from acotar, and evander seemed to be tamlin/maven/dain (acotar, red queen, & fourth wing respectively). but since thoman is so far out of the picture, there’s no room for a love square and now there’s a love triangle. he returns for a bit at the end, but at that point its too late for a romance or something. i want to witness blindsided readers by the evander-tamlin-maven-dain reveal.
as i was reading, i was thinking i'd give this book 4 ⭐️, but in reality, the concept isn't that original. it's just like if you take hunger games, red queen, and throne of glass, shake it up a little, and get middle-of-the-road execution. it's all there, the bare bones, but the meat is plain. but since it's better than other books i've had the pleasure