mynameismarines 's review for:

Fate of the Fallen by Kel Kade

3.0

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I'm a little disappointed here because I liked it, but not a lot? And it has so many elements that should work for me! And I would read a second book... if it were already out. In essence, the epitome of three stars. Since this lands squarely in the middle, let's talk pros and cons.

Pros: I really enjoyed Aaslo as a character and as our protagonist. He's a grumpy forest man who doesn't realize he's also kind warrior man. Love that for me. I think making Aaslo a forrester by trade and nature and sending him off on this adventure is smart and a really interesting premise. I was invested enough in seeing where exactly this was going because it did small things that surprised me. I wasn't entirely convinced Aaslo would make it through the whole dang book, which is a sign of good tension building.

I also enjoyed that Aaslo built up a little team and found family around him.

Cons: Even though... those found family characters were underdeveloped compared to Aaslo. And things kept happening to him that didn't necessarily feel very cohesive. Part of the problem is that we jumped around to a couple different points of views, so when we got back to Aaslo and the main action, it sometimes felt like I was missing something. One of the pitfalls of multiple POVs is that one might be more interesting than the others, and that definitely happened to me here. Anytime we jumped away from Aaslo, I was like ugh, boooo, bring it back. Sometimes it felt like there was too much going on and not enough time to sink your teeth into the cast of characters or any particular villain or any particular part of the adventure.

I guess the reason why I would read a second book is because I feel like all of this out of the way, the story would settle more. The reason I probably won't is that I'm not convinced I'll remember much of this by the time a second book is out.