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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
I'm so surprised by the sub-4 rating of this book and the relatively low number of reviews. This book is everything YA fantasy should be. It's unique. It's beautiful and terrible at the same time. It has a fantastic, flawed main character. It has beautiful female friendships and a sweet love (and NO love triangle) and a supportive family. It has a fantastic world and I can't wait to see it built out more in the next few books..
But... Also.....
WHAT THE H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS WAS THAT ENDING?!?!?!?!?!? I don't know if my heart will ever recover 💔😔😢
But... Also.....
WHAT THE H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS WAS THAT ENDING?!?!?!?!?!? I don't know if my heart will ever recover 💔😔😢
Unsurprisingly, I believe I have stumbled onto a new favorite. After reading The Bone Maker, I had an idea that Sarah Beth Durst would be an author that I continued to enjoy and picked up this series. I am happy that I did.
One of the things I like most about Durst's writing is that it flows so well. It makes for a compulsive and addictive read. Her books are hard to set aside for any amount of time and this is no exception. Her writing also plays to my specific tastes. I've stated many times that I don't like a lot of flowery, unnecessary description or "filler" pages. Durst never does this. Her plots and storytelling remain clear and consice while still delivering that epic fantasy feel to her novels.
Her magic systems are always simple as well. They don't need over explanations to ensure the reader understands what is going on. All magic has a cost. Elementals exist. Simple. Easy.
I am excited to continue with the rest of the series, and Sarah Beth Durst had now become an auto-buy author for me.
One of the things I like most about Durst's writing is that it flows so well. It makes for a compulsive and addictive read. Her books are hard to set aside for any amount of time and this is no exception. Her writing also plays to my specific tastes. I've stated many times that I don't like a lot of flowery, unnecessary description or "filler" pages. Durst never does this. Her plots and storytelling remain clear and consice while still delivering that epic fantasy feel to her novels.
Her magic systems are always simple as well. They don't need over explanations to ensure the reader understands what is going on. All magic has a cost. Elementals exist. Simple. Easy.
I am excited to continue with the rest of the series, and Sarah Beth Durst had now become an auto-buy author for me.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
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:
Yes
I ended up liking this book far more than I had anticipated. I thought it was going to be rather boring based on the first few chapters but I was happily proven wrong. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
I really enjoyed the concept of the spirits and the queens. I love the ermine spirit that always comes to aid the protagonist.
The ending was absolutely thrilling and everything leading up to it set it up perfectly.
I really enjoyed the concept of the spirits and the queens. I love the ermine spirit that always comes to aid the protagonist.
The ending was absolutely thrilling and everything leading up to it set it up perfectly.
This book sucked me in right from the beginning. The rhyme at the beginning of the first chapter sets up everything perfectly.
Don't trust the fire, for it will burn you.
Don't trust the ice, for it will freeze you.
Don't trust the water, for it will drown you.
Don't trust the air, for it will choke you.
Don't trust the earth, for it will bury you.
Don't trust the trees, for they will rip you,
rend you, tear you, kill you dead.
It's a child's chant. Children chant it while skipping rope. When you trip on the rope, that's the spirit that will one day kill you. And that is how the story starts. With a six year old Daleina sneaking out of her house (which is in a tree - all the houses are, whole villages are built on branches of trees - how cool is that?!) to take part in the tradition of the jumping rope to the chant. Against her parents' permission.
By the end of the first chapter, the spirits have attacked Daleina's village, killing nearly everyone apart from Daleina and her family after she manages to save them. Up until this point she has not shown an affinity for controlling spirits. This attack and the horrible realisation that if she'd known about her abilities earlier she could have saved the village and it's villagers leads to Daleina deciding to go to the academy to train so that she could one day be queen and to prevent anything like this happening ever again. To protect her people.
There are so many things I loved about this book. I really rooted for the characters. Daleina isn't a typical main character for a YA Fantasy. She isn't perfect. She isn't amazing. She isn't the strongest. She isn't naturally gifted. She hasn't got 549367398 guys running after her and a romance that takes all the attention away from the plot. She gets to where she is by lots of hard work, never giving up and some help from her friends. She gets to where she is by acknowledging her weaknesses and working around them, coming up with different ways to get stuff done. I love that she has lots of friends who are girls. They support each other. They're happy for each other when they are successful. There might be a little bit of jealousy and bad feelings but these feelings aren't something they dwell on and let poison their friendships. Okay, they might not always be 100% nice to each other but I don't think any decision is made spitefully.
There is a little bit of romance but it never takes over the plot. And it's not with the other main character, Ven the disgraced champion. Ven is more of a father figure to Daleina. I like their relationship.
I like that being the queen isn't something you can inherit. You have to train. You have to become a candidate. Then you have to pass trials to become an heir. There must always be a queen. The only thing stopping the spirits from going wild and killing and destroying everyone and everything. Only the queen has the power to control every spirit, this is a power that is given to her at her coronation by the spirits themselves. It's complicated. The spirits both hate and need humans and humans both hate and need the spirits.
I never quite knew what was going to happen and the ending... wow. Was not expecting it. I don't want to ruin it but wow. I actually think it was kind of perfect? I can't wait to see what happens in the next book.
Don't trust the fire, for it will burn you.
Don't trust the ice, for it will freeze you.
Don't trust the water, for it will drown you.
Don't trust the air, for it will choke you.
Don't trust the earth, for it will bury you.
Don't trust the trees, for they will rip you,
rend you, tear you, kill you dead.
It's a child's chant. Children chant it while skipping rope. When you trip on the rope, that's the spirit that will one day kill you. And that is how the story starts. With a six year old Daleina sneaking out of her house (which is in a tree - all the houses are, whole villages are built on branches of trees - how cool is that?!) to take part in the tradition of the jumping rope to the chant. Against her parents' permission.
By the end of the first chapter, the spirits have attacked Daleina's village, killing nearly everyone apart from Daleina and her family after she manages to save them. Up until this point she has not shown an affinity for controlling spirits. This attack and the horrible realisation that if she'd known about her abilities earlier she could have saved the village and it's villagers leads to Daleina deciding to go to the academy to train so that she could one day be queen and to prevent anything like this happening ever again. To protect her people.
There are so many things I loved about this book. I really rooted for the characters. Daleina isn't a typical main character for a YA Fantasy. She isn't perfect. She isn't amazing. She isn't the strongest. She isn't naturally gifted. She hasn't got 549367398 guys running after her and a romance that takes all the attention away from the plot. She gets to where she is by lots of hard work, never giving up and some help from her friends. She gets to where she is by acknowledging her weaknesses and working around them, coming up with different ways to get stuff done. I love that she has lots of friends who are girls. They support each other. They're happy for each other when they are successful. There might be a little bit of jealousy and bad feelings but these feelings aren't something they dwell on and let poison their friendships. Okay, they might not always be 100% nice to each other but I don't think any decision is made spitefully.
There is a little bit of romance but it never takes over the plot. And it's not with the other main character, Ven the disgraced champion. Ven is more of a father figure to Daleina. I like their relationship.
I like that being the queen isn't something you can inherit. You have to train. You have to become a candidate. Then you have to pass trials to become an heir. There must always be a queen. The only thing stopping the spirits from going wild and killing and destroying everyone and everything. Only the queen has the power to control every spirit, this is a power that is given to her at her coronation by the spirits themselves. It's complicated. The spirits both hate and need humans and humans both hate and need the spirits.
I never quite knew what was going to happen and the ending... wow. Was not expecting it. I don't want to ruin it but wow. I actually think it was kind of perfect? I can't wait to see what happens in the next book.
I meant to at least say *something* about this amazing book, even if I didn’t take the time to give it a full review when I first finished it. Oops. I think it was because I finished it late at night and I was having a hard time staying awake. The book was good enough to deprive me of sleep, but I wasn’t about to stay up to write a crappy review that didn’t give this book the justice it deserves.
Anyway, I think you’ll like this book if you would enjoy high fantasy with a cool magic system, magical forests and treehouses that sound like something out of a kid’s fairytale, and dark, deadly spirits that are both necessary to life and likely to kill every citizen at any time.
There was also the good old fashioned school setting, which didn’t take up the whole book. There were also plenty of fun trials. This book was just trope-y enough to be sentimental while keeping each of those sections small enough that you never get bored in them.
The main character is pretty cool. In some ways she’s similar to a typical protagonist (doesn’t want to be in charge, not super ambitious or driven) but all of her motivations are well-fleshed-out and logical.
Although there is a romance, it’s small enough that I wouldn’t even consider it a romantic side plot. If you’re looking for romance, this is not the book for you. If you’re tired of reading romantic plots, you’ll be overjoyed with this one.
I mostly listened to the audiobook for this, although I own a physical copy of the book as well. I got my copy off ThriftBooks as a mass market paperback and would recommend doing something similar if you’re into that kind of thing. The audiobook was pretty average. At least, I wasn’t disappointed with it.
Anyway, I think you’ll like this book if you would enjoy high fantasy with a cool magic system, magical forests and treehouses that sound like something out of a kid’s fairytale, and dark, deadly spirits that are both necessary to life and likely to kill every citizen at any time.
There was also the good old fashioned school setting, which didn’t take up the whole book. There were also plenty of fun trials. This book was just trope-y enough to be sentimental while keeping each of those sections small enough that you never get bored in them.
The main character is pretty cool. In some ways she’s similar to a typical protagonist (doesn’t want to be in charge, not super ambitious or driven) but all of her motivations are well-fleshed-out and logical.
Although there is a romance, it’s small enough that I wouldn’t even consider it a romantic side plot. If you’re looking for romance, this is not the book for you. If you’re tired of reading romantic plots, you’ll be overjoyed with this one.
I mostly listened to the audiobook for this, although I own a physical copy of the book as well. I got my copy off ThriftBooks as a mass market paperback and would recommend doing something similar if you’re into that kind of thing. The audiobook was pretty average. At least, I wasn’t disappointed with it.
slow-paced
NOT A BAD START.
BLOG || INSTAGRAM
I guess I must not have realized this was an adult fantasy? Which was totally fine, but the set-up was definitely different.
Starting out with the character at a young age, following her through an academy and then seeing what she does after can feel a bit long winded, and it did here. I don’t need to see every facet of the growing up phases, lets get into the action and move the plot from there.
I did find it to be a very easy listen (audiobook was great!). The world building made sense and I understood enough of the magic system to not feel lost as the pages turned. It’s an interesting set-up with evil forest spirits and the like, clearly something bigger is happening with them and I look forward to exploring that more.
While the character arc for Daleina is in progress, I did like where this book took her. Some of the other side characters like Ven grew on me too. What didn’t work was the romantic sub-plots. I’m fine with them being sub, but it felt haphazardly thrown together and when Daleina kissed someone I had to listen to it three times to make sure I figured out what was happening.
A good start to an older series, I do have plans to continue with the next book! The ending was absolutely wild and I didn’t mind the gruesomeness of it all.
Overall audience notes:
- Fantasy
- Language: some
- Romance: closed door
- Violence: high
- Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of loved ones, descriptive explanations of loss of life, very bloody/gory, battle themes
BLOG || INSTAGRAM
I guess I must not have realized this was an adult fantasy? Which was totally fine, but the set-up was definitely different.
Starting out with the character at a young age, following her through an academy and then seeing what she does after can feel a bit long winded, and it did here. I don’t need to see every facet of the growing up phases, lets get into the action and move the plot from there.
I did find it to be a very easy listen (audiobook was great!). The world building made sense and I understood enough of the magic system to not feel lost as the pages turned. It’s an interesting set-up with evil forest spirits and the like, clearly something bigger is happening with them and I look forward to exploring that more.
While the character arc for Daleina is in progress, I did like where this book took her. Some of the other side characters like Ven grew on me too. What didn’t work was the romantic sub-plots. I’m fine with them being sub, but it felt haphazardly thrown together and when Daleina kissed someone I had to listen to it three times to make sure I figured out what was happening.
A good start to an older series, I do have plans to continue with the next book! The ending was absolutely wild and I didn’t mind the gruesomeness of it all.
Overall audience notes:
- Fantasy
- Language: some
- Romance: closed door
- Violence: high
- Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of loved ones, descriptive explanations of loss of life, very bloody/gory, battle themes