A review by anna127
Outrun the Wind by Elizabeth Tammi

3.0

I received this free e-copy via netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

I overall really enjoyed this book. It was a fun read, yet there were a few issues.

What I liked:
Let’s start with the fun and important part. The representation. The main romance is an f | f romance, including a bi and a lesbian rep. It’s a love to hate, slow burn romance, and that’s always fun, right?

The romance was well done. The two MCs slowly got to know each other, hate each other less, and fall in love with each other over a time period of about half a year. The beginning of the story takes place in autumn, and ends at some point during spring. So that’s quite a slow burn. I liked how even if they had their differences, and they were as different as day and night, they always managed to get along more or less, and respected each other and just listen to each other. You could very much feel how they slowly fell in love.

The MCs were fun to read about, but I definitely liked Atalanta a bit better. At least at the start. It took a while to get used to Kahina, but I eventually ended up liking her, too.

The mythological aspect was also great. Now, the story was set in ancient Greece, one of the MCs is a huntress of Artemis, and there were of course a few demigods running around. It had a nice Percy Jackson vibe to it, and I liked that. (a daughter of Ares always ready to fight something ;) )Apollo was a real ass though. Lol.

The story overall felt really atmospheric, and it truly felt like it was set in ancient Greece.

What I didn’t like:
There were times where it was really hard to tell the two POVs apart. Sometimes when I had to stop reading in the middle of a chapter (annoying, I know) and I would come back either the next day or a few hours later, I couldn’t remember who’s POV I was reading because if they didn’t exactly think of the other, or if Kahina wasn’t complaining about Atalanta, I really couldn’t tell the POVs apart and always had to go back to the beginning of the chapter to check.

The pace. While the book started out strong, and the first few chapters had action, after that the pace slowed down. It took almost the first half of the book for something to happen again. And after the hunt at the begging was over, and both Kahina and Atalanta were sent away, it took quite a while to get to the new point. Like, what’s the ultimate goal or task? They were just sent away. Separately, both didn’t know of the other yet. And it just wasn’t very clear what at least Atalanta’s task/goal was, and in what kind of direction the story was heading. Then, when the plot twist happened, I was taken aback. It sort of came out of nowhere, and it just happened so fast? Basically Atalanta finds out she is a lost princess, and her father-the king-had been looking for her. When he finds her and tells her who she is, she just rolls with it, and is basically like ‘yeah, cool, I come with you’ without questioning anything? 17 years she had been an orphan, and I get it, she wants a family, but to not even question the guy who just marched towards her and told her she is his daughter?? She sees that his features are similar to hers; but I at least would have still questioned things further. And all happened so fast! It didn’t even take one entire page. And then when Atalanta basically lives with her father, she still never questions him any further. Why was I gone? How did I get lost? Did someone steal me away? Why didn’t you come looking for me sooner? 17 years is a long time after all. To me this whole situation seems super fishy, but she never questioned it further. She just accepts ‘you were lost when you were just a baby’, and goes with it.

Some scene changed too quickly as well. One scene they are in the palace, but the next scene they were in a forest or at some temple. It was confusing.

All in all it was a very enjoyable book, and if you like to read about mythology, ancient Greece, hate to love f|f romances, then this definitely is a book for you.