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A review by celestialfoxxy
Between Life & Death by Jaclyn Kot
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This story follows the main character Sage, a young woman "cursed" with magic in a time when the king of her realm is burning people at the stake for having any magic. Early in the book Kaleb, a boy she grew up with as a brother is conscripted to join the kings armies, something that is known to be a death sentence, and she has to get him back. We follow sage on a journey of love, betrayal, growth and grief as she loses those she loves. The world is filled with hidden magic, interesting supporting characters, beautiful locations and fascinating lore about old and new gods and the magic within certain people.
This book gives our main character an expanding found family, beautiful relationships, LGBTQ representation (in side characters), disability representation (again in side characters, one blind and one non-verbal), fated lovers, a few major plot twists at the end and a cliff hanger that leaves you wanting to read the next book asap. This book also contains some pretty explicit spice.
The reasons that I've given this 3 rather than 5 stars are that there were some issues with vocabulary used and sentence structure in parts of the book that snapped me right out of my immersion in the story. I also had some issues with the pacing of the story and inconsistencies in the way the main character went from thinking about every detail of what was happening to her and around her to thinking very vaguely and stating things out loud that didn't sound natural to not saying things that they probably should. It was very clear when the author did and didn't want us to know things as readers because the MC either inserted something unnaturally into conversation or completely neglected to even think about the details of things in their own inner dialogue. I didn't feel like I was actually in this characters mind when they were ignoring major plot points even in their own head which is something I personally don't like. If the person who's head I'm in is in on a plan it feels strange to not be in the know with them. Again, this caused issues with my ability to immerse myself fully in the book and story being told.
All that said, I enjoyed the book by the end and definitely want to read the next and see what happens next after that cliffhanger!
*disclaimer: I was given an arc of this book to read in exchange for a review. this does not impact the honesty of my review.*
This book gives our main character an expanding found family, beautiful relationships, LGBTQ representation (in side characters), disability representation (again in side characters, one blind and one non-verbal), fated lovers, a few major plot twists at the end and a cliff hanger that leaves you wanting to read the next book asap. This book also contains some pretty explicit spice.
The reasons that I've given this 3 rather than 5 stars are that there were some issues with vocabulary used and sentence structure in parts of the book that snapped me right out of my immersion in the story. I also had some issues with the pacing of the story and inconsistencies in the way the main character went from thinking about every detail of what was happening to her and around her to thinking very vaguely and stating things out loud that didn't sound natural to not saying things that they probably should. It was very clear when the author did and didn't want us to know things as readers because the MC either inserted something unnaturally into conversation or completely neglected to even think about the details of things in their own inner dialogue. I didn't feel like I was actually in this characters mind when they were ignoring major plot points even in their own head which is something I personally don't like. If the person who's head I'm in is in on a plan it feels strange to not be in the know with them. Again, this caused issues with my ability to immerse myself fully in the book and story being told.
All that said, I enjoyed the book by the end and definitely want to read the next and see what happens next after that cliffhanger!
*disclaimer: I was given an arc of this book to read in exchange for a review. this does not impact the honesty of my review.*