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amywarnes 's review for:
Her Feral Beasts
by E.P. Bali
Man, I really wanted to like this book because I remember enjoying E.P. Bali's Warrior Midwife series, but this was more average than I expected.
Firstly, as mentioned in my review of the prequel, it made no sense for the prequel to be a separate book/novella. It was essential content to understand this book, so it should have just been treated as the beginning of this story and built on from there. It was annoying having everything rehashed in summarised form at the start of this book when you're pretty much forced to read the prequel anyway.
Then, the whole premise didn't really make sense to me. I can understand why Aurelia might want to keep her mates secret initially, but surely after meeting them and they learn the truth anyway, it makes sense to then tell them about her being a boneweaver? It's never really clear why she keeps denying it when they know she's lying. Wouldn't it make more sense to explain to them why she can't be with them instead of denying she's their regina? And as the danger ups throughout the book, especially at the end when her father wins the case, it really doesn't make sense for her to continue keeping the secret. If the worst case scenario is being used as breeding stock, and that's what her father wants to do with her, then surely any other option is better. And leaning on your three incredibly powerful mates seems like a good alternative? Yeah you could argue that by that point that they all hate each other (which also all felt a bit weak in its justification), but she went to them with the dead snake so she clearly trusts them at least a little?
I just felt like I spent the whole book going "I guess I can convince myself her logic makes sense", instead of actually believing it. Which really messed with the stakes, because I was constantly screaming "just fucking talk to each other!!"
The information about the Serpent King putting on a pleasant front for others came way too late. I spent the whole book wondering why everyone would believe him over Aurelia when he's clearly a suss dude. Honestly, it still seems weak that Lyle believed him initially, or any of the guys for that matter. For people who are meant to be so clever and powerful, they never stop and think that all of their assumptions about her don't match up with her personality at all (except when they finally get to the trial, how convenient).
Not to mention that some of the stuff just didn't make any fucking sense, like if dragons can tell when someone is lying, why bother having trials at all? Or that you can just cut off a finger to get rid of a blood pact? Surely it's actually embedded in your blood and the symbol is just a representation of it? Otherwise what use are they if you can just cut them off??
The book could have used some more thorough editing, because it felt unnecessarily long and there were a lot of mistakes. At least the inconsistent tenses mostly improved from the prequel.
Despite all this, I do find myself invested in this story. The characters are all interesting and well fleshed out, and I'm really wanting to get to the part where they all explain themselves so I can work out what the fuck they were all thinking. I think that could really make or break this series, if their logic continues to be weak or they don't all acknowledge how they've wronged each other, then I'm going to be so disappointed.
I also loved the side characters, their friendship with Aurelia and the representation of different gender indentities and sexualities. It was really interesting how gender was handled with the inner animals.
Overall, it was an okay story, even though some of the finer details were a bit weak, but the strong characters really carried it and I'm interested to keep learning about them.
Firstly, as mentioned in my review of the prequel, it made no sense for the prequel to be a separate book/novella. It was essential content to understand this book, so it should have just been treated as the beginning of this story and built on from there. It was annoying having everything rehashed in summarised form at the start of this book when you're pretty much forced to read the prequel anyway.
Then, the whole premise didn't really make sense to me. I can understand why Aurelia might want to keep her mates secret initially, but surely after meeting them and they learn the truth anyway, it makes sense to then tell them about her being a boneweaver? It's never really clear why she keeps denying it when they know she's lying. Wouldn't it make more sense to explain to them why she can't be with them instead of denying she's their regina? And as the danger ups throughout the book, especially at the end when her father wins the case, it really doesn't make sense for her to continue keeping the secret. If the worst case scenario is being used as breeding stock, and that's what her father wants to do with her, then surely any other option is better. And leaning on your three incredibly powerful mates seems like a good alternative? Yeah you could argue that by that point that they all hate each other (which also all felt a bit weak in its justification), but she went to them with the dead snake so she clearly trusts them at least a little?
I just felt like I spent the whole book going "I guess I can convince myself her logic makes sense", instead of actually believing it. Which really messed with the stakes, because I was constantly screaming "just fucking talk to each other!!"
The information about the Serpent King putting on a pleasant front for others came way too late. I spent the whole book wondering why everyone would believe him over Aurelia when he's clearly a suss dude. Honestly, it still seems weak that Lyle believed him initially, or any of the guys for that matter. For people who are meant to be so clever and powerful, they never stop and think that all of their assumptions about her don't match up with her personality at all (except when they finally get to the trial, how convenient).
Not to mention that some of the stuff just didn't make any fucking sense, like if dragons can tell when someone is lying, why bother having trials at all? Or that you can just cut off a finger to get rid of a blood pact? Surely it's actually embedded in your blood and the symbol is just a representation of it? Otherwise what use are they if you can just cut them off??
The book could have used some more thorough editing, because it felt unnecessarily long and there were a lot of mistakes. At least the inconsistent tenses mostly improved from the prequel.
Despite all this, I do find myself invested in this story. The characters are all interesting and well fleshed out, and I'm really wanting to get to the part where they all explain themselves so I can work out what the fuck they were all thinking. I think that could really make or break this series, if their logic continues to be weak or they don't all acknowledge how they've wronged each other, then I'm going to be so disappointed.
I also loved the side characters, their friendship with Aurelia and the representation of different gender indentities and sexualities. It was really interesting how gender was handled with the inner animals.
Overall, it was an okay story, even though some of the finer details were a bit weak, but the strong characters really carried it and I'm interested to keep learning about them.