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A review by woahshereads
The Branded by Jo Riccioni
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
The Branded follows twin sisters, Nara and Osha, as they are sequestered in the citadel among the unbranded - those who are without the mark of disease. However, Nara soon finds herself on the run joined by Osha traveling to Reis, the city of her family's demise and those supposedly accountable for her grandmother's murder.
Dear Jo, I sincerely need you to send me the ARC of The Rising because I actually cannot wait until February 2025 for the second book to hit the U.S.
This one was a quick read for me and I can contribute that to the compelling storyline. There is fun banter between characters, a love triangle, chapter ending cliffhangers, revealed prophecies, seers, sways, and more. These are all things that I adored throughout the book and was genuinely curious to see where the writing went.
However, on the flip side, there were a few things I wish we had gotten in this book. First being a map! There is so much traveling going on in many different instances that I really think we would have benefitted from one. The second being the world building. There are far too many things over-described multiple times throughout the book & then far too little where I think it should have mattered more.
I also would have appreciated more depth into a few of the side characters or subplots. For instance, a big discovery is that the Council in the Citadel is secretly partaking in trafficking woman to outside parties and throughout the entire book there is talk about how dangerous the outside world is and how cruel some of the men can be. But we don't really see that or come across it through Nara and Osha's journey. There were a few instances where the Wrangler is traveling with Hrossi men and although Nara gets an elbow to the gut one too many times (another thing over-described), that's the extent of their "bad behavior". For a world that is supposed to be cruel and unforgiving, we only see a very brief glimpse of that in Orlath.
Regardless, there's enough for me to want to see this one through and I will be picking up the sequel come February (or if by some miracle I can get my hands on it, earlier!)
Dear Jo, I sincerely need you to send me the ARC of The Rising because I actually cannot wait until February 2025 for the second book to hit the U.S.
This one was a quick read for me and I can contribute that to the compelling storyline. There is fun banter between characters, a love triangle, chapter ending cliffhangers, revealed prophecies, seers, sways, and more. These are all things that I adored throughout the book and was genuinely curious to see where the writing went.
However, on the flip side, there were a few things I wish we had gotten in this book. First being a map! There is so much traveling going on in many different instances that I really think we would have benefitted from one. The second being the world building. There are far too many things over-described multiple times throughout the book & then far too little where I think it should have mattered more.
I also would have appreciated more depth into a few of the side characters or subplots. For instance, a big discovery is that the Council in the Citadel is secretly partaking in trafficking woman to outside parties and throughout the entire book there is talk about how dangerous the outside world is and how cruel some of the men can be. But we don't really see that or come across it through Nara and Osha's journey. There were a few instances where the Wrangler is traveling with Hrossi men and although Nara gets an elbow to the gut one too many times (another thing over-described), that's the extent of their "bad behavior". For a world that is supposed to be cruel and unforgiving, we only see a very brief glimpse of that in Orlath.
Regardless, there's enough for me to want to see this one through and I will be picking up the sequel come February (or if by some miracle I can get my hands on it, earlier!)