A review by cozy_bones
Blood & Steel by Helen Scheuerer

3.5

I may have let this one get overhyped in my head. Don't get me wrong though, this one was fun and pretty easy to breeze through. Thea's ticking clock, mysterious background and grit made her a likeable main character, even if I couldn't relate to her much. I also like that Hawthorne gave me some Geralt vibes, and I loved the whole warswords idea for these legendary, bad ass warriors, and especiallyyy how each of them is being forced to pick an apprentice, hehe. Thea also has a little bit of a Mulan vibe here going for her with being this sole woman warrior in training and underestimated, and I really like that by the end of book one we already have her dealing with an initiation test to see if she'll graduate to the next level or not, it made the progression towards the end feel a lot more satisfying than it did in the middle. I think the only two things holding me back from a higher rating are that this felt almost insta-love to me, I really wanted way more before we got to the lust. Second, I realized I don't always vibe with the writing style. At times I felt a bit bored if I'm honest, but then other times things were moving too fast and not really digging into the scenes and fleshing everything out. I see the potential though and I'm hopeful that I'll enjoy the second even more.