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A review by brittanica_bold
Ledge by Stacey McEwan
4.0
This book was good enough that I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt it was all set-up work for the next two books in the trilogy. This means I will likely be reading book two when it comes out, which means I’ll be reading the final book because I have the compulsive need to finish things.
If you enjoy books by Sarah J. Maas and Laura Thalassa, you may enjoy this one!
What I liked about the book:
1. This book had Game of Thrones vibes. I’m not sure if it was because I imagined the Ledge to basically be the Wall or because of all the political tomfoolery, but I absolutely adored it and imagined the setting from the GoT world while reading.
2. This book also had a lot of the same things I loved about Laura Thalassa’s Four Horsemen series. It had the collapsed civilization, the warrior heroine with a smart mouth, the hulking hero with supernatural abilities, and even some winged vigilantism (shout out to Daddy Death from "Death"!).
3. Ryon had wings! That automatically promises he’s a 5/10 in my book. Unfortunately, he stayed there, but I’d still take him for a ride!
4. There were moments I was like “What the hell is she doing? She’s acting like an uncontrollable child”, but then I thought this through and realized it was actually great character insight on the part of the author. You have this woman, who has grown up in a wasteland with very little adult guidance in her formative years. You can’t expect her to act like a functioning adult. Through her bouts of childishness and her yearning for the familiarity Ryon’s group of friends had with one another, the author definitely knew this character.
5. Because I didn’t like or dislike any of the characters (everyone was pretty meh), the end scene was exactly what this book needed to give it an extra spark. I won’t spoil it, but if I had liked the characters I would have been devastated. Instead, my indifference brought the evil villain in me out: “Yes, kill [insert person here]. KILL [HIM/HER]!”
What could have been better:
1. This book is definitely not instalove, but how fast they went from enemies (lite) to falling for one another was a bit unrealistic. I think I feel this way because the story told us so rather than having actually let us experience them forming a close bond. I feel there was a lot of potential between these two characters and it ultimately did not manifest as well as I had hoped.
Also, the steamy scenes had good buildup but were ultimately…unsatisfactory. We got a bunch of delicious sexual tension and playful banter, to get like two lines of good times. This was the written equivalent of when your partner finds the G-spot and then quickly loses it and doesn’t find it again. RIP orgasm and, therefore, my sanity.
2. I felt this book had a lot of potential for worldbuilding, and it just wasn’t there. The magic wasn’t expanded on, the history of the Glacians was non-existent, and the characters were surface level at best.
Special thank you to NetGalley, the publishers Angry Robot, and Stacey McEwan for this gifted copy! My opinions expressed above are honest and voluntary.
3.5 I’m-on-the-ledge stars
If you enjoy books by Sarah J. Maas and Laura Thalassa, you may enjoy this one!
What I liked about the book:
1. This book had Game of Thrones vibes. I’m not sure if it was because I imagined the Ledge to basically be the Wall or because of all the political tomfoolery, but I absolutely adored it and imagined the setting from the GoT world while reading.
2. This book also had a lot of the same things I loved about Laura Thalassa’s Four Horsemen series. It had the collapsed civilization, the warrior heroine with a smart mouth, the hulking hero with supernatural abilities, and even some winged vigilantism (shout out to Daddy Death from "Death"!).
3. Ryon had wings! That automatically promises he’s a 5/10 in my book. Unfortunately, he stayed there, but I’d still take him for a ride!
4. There were moments I was like “What the hell is she doing? She’s acting like an uncontrollable child”, but then I thought this through and realized it was actually great character insight on the part of the author. You have this woman, who has grown up in a wasteland with very little adult guidance in her formative years. You can’t expect her to act like a functioning adult. Through her bouts of childishness and her yearning for the familiarity Ryon’s group of friends had with one another, the author definitely knew this character.
5. Because I didn’t like or dislike any of the characters (everyone was pretty meh), the end scene was exactly what this book needed to give it an extra spark. I won’t spoil it, but if I had liked the characters I would have been devastated. Instead, my indifference brought the evil villain in me out: “Yes, kill [insert person here]. KILL [HIM/HER]!”
What could have been better:
1. This book is definitely not instalove, but how fast they went from enemies (lite) to falling for one another was a bit unrealistic. I think I feel this way because the story told us so rather than having actually let us experience them forming a close bond. I feel there was a lot of potential between these two characters and it ultimately did not manifest as well as I had hoped.
Also, the steamy scenes had good buildup but were ultimately…unsatisfactory. We got a bunch of delicious sexual tension and playful banter, to get like two lines of good times. This was the written equivalent of when your partner finds the G-spot and then quickly loses it and doesn’t find it again. RIP orgasm and, therefore, my sanity.
2. I felt this book had a lot of potential for worldbuilding, and it just wasn’t there. The magic wasn’t expanded on, the history of the Glacians was non-existent, and the characters were surface level at best.
Special thank you to NetGalley, the publishers Angry Robot, and Stacey McEwan for this gifted copy! My opinions expressed above are honest and voluntary.
3.5 I’m-on-the-ledge stars