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A review by farairytale
Monster of the Dagger Mountains by Meredith Hart
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Meredith Hart's Monster of the Dagger Mountains should be alternatively titled "Hot Reclusive Bad Boy with a Soft Heart + Even Hotter No-Nonsense Tower Guard Teach Me what Love and Geography is in 417 GRIPPING pages"
{Thank you SO MUCH to Meredith Hart and Jessica at NerdFam for providing this ARC to me! All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own, unsponsored and unpaid. }
Stars: 4.25/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 3.5/5 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️
Having not read any of Meredith's previous series, I didn't know what to expect in terms of her writing style, whether her books tended more towards being plot vs character driven, nor her crafting style regarding romance. Monster of the Dagger Mountains is the start of Meredith's new Killers of the Towers series and she started out with a BANG that hooked me from the very first page. This novel was a stunning debut of the series, featuring some of my favorite tropes of all time - Found Family and Forced Proximity. I was sold by that alone, but Meredith managed to enrapture me even more with having such tropes perfectly-executed in her magnificent writing.
A general, no spoilers summary of Monster of the Dagger Mountains is this: Kira is a guard training at the Towers, a citadel of elite wielders and fighters within the Silver City that imbue metal with magic to assist them in their endeavors. Training to unlock her magical potential she inherited from her elite magical parents who served the Towers before her, Kira is tasked by the Towers on a mission to retrieve an amulet in the possession of a former Towers elite known as the Godkiller for his transgression of killing a god and defecting from the Towers with said amulet. When she encounters the Godkiller, Reznyk, she is surprised by his humanity, and when fate (AKA a chaotic Mercenary from Silver City breaking her ankle) forces them to live together, she finds herself enthralled by the man that is supposed to be a monster. As the fall turns to winter in the Dagger Mountains where the Godkiller hides, Kira and Reznyk find themselves growing closer despite everything that should keep them apart. Will both follow their heads telling them they have inherently separate and opposing paths in life, or their hearts with a fiery, undeniable connection between them?
First off, I ADORE this MMC’s name, Reznyk. We REALLY need to dive into it. It's a refreshing change from the Drakes/Azriels/Xadens/Xanders etc from [email protected] that every other romantasy author on the scene at the moment is utilizing. My family are Slavic and rarely do I see Slavic names in novels that aren’t either Slavic-mythos based or overly done in such a way that it feels like cultural appropriation rather than appreciation (I’m looking at you, Leigh Bardugo).
Not only was the representation nice, but it goes DEEPER. The name ‘Reznyk’ is a variant of the surname ‘Reznik’ or ‘Rzeźnik’, which means “butcher” or “one who butchers” in most Western Slavic languages, particularly Czech. The sheer perfection behind this name lies in Reznyk’s upbringing as a ruthless killer for the Towers with powers of weapon creation followed by his eventual order, tasked by the Towers, of slaughtering an old god in order to fulfill the destiny the Towers have beaten into him: attaining ultimate power. The Towers have done such a good job at beating this into him that even Reznyk is convinced he wants it.Reznyk believes this task will allow him not only unmitigated power, ensuring he will never have to feel weak or helpless again, but the power and standing to capture the heart of the one he “loves”. Reznyk is proven wrong on both of these fronts. The internal war Reznyk has regarding these past actions creates a clear dichotomy between 1. what Fyrris (the leader of the Towers) and the Towers crafted him to be - a Godkiller and a ‘monster’ from which the title of this novel originates - and 2. his own internal kindness, newly minted belief in peace and staying his hand from violence and bloodshed (from the sheer shame and trauma of killing the old god), and his break away from the iron control of the Towers upon him. Reznyk’s own name thus becomes the antithesis of who he is in the aftermath of the Towers - a particularly beautiful and poignant aspect of this novel that could easily be overlooked.
Now onto our FMC Kira. I ADORED Kira. She was the FMC we all need in most fantasy books. She’s not the FMC with just the snappy one-liners or with nauseatingly swaggering confidence, but the FMC that will sit you the fuck down and tell you how it is, consequences be damned. When Reznyk is torturing himself over a past wrong he enacted as a CHILD that he believes makes him unlovable and a bad person, Kira was there to stand up and say “Seriously? Get over yourself, Reznyk.” She was the breath of fresh air in romantasy that straight up said “That’s stupid” and “Oh, fuck that!” and that, my fellow readers, is when I fell in love with her. Not only this, but she is loyal to a fault and it’s generally an absolute riot to read her POV. Another thing I truly loved in this novel was thatKira had no powers. I am SO sick of all the FMCs of recent fantasy or romantasy books always having these revolutionary, earth-shattering powers and even more sick of the FMCs all initially unaware of their powers/potentials like “Oh, there’s nothing special about me whatsoever, I’m so sad!!” or “I’m supposed to have powers but they just won’t come, I’m so sad” but then one day something forces them into a life or death situation and, POOF, they have powers that just so happen to be incredibly useful in defeating the specific evil of their world. It’s droll, it’s repetitive, it’s annoying beyond belief. I’m GLAD the narrative has been spun here and Kira is training expecting to come into these great powers like her Exemplar parents but ends up being an orphaned girl (granted, the illegitimate daughter of the local Lord and a prostitute) with no powers but a bravery and loyalty that surpasses any magical power. Really thankful for this character arc for her and for Kira herself.
I rarely feel visceral bodily reactions to books. I will cry pretty easily and I will laugh likely even easier, but when I feel a pang deep in my chest from a book? I KNOW it's good. The capability to instill so deep of an emotional response through the written word is something I rarely come across nowadays, particularly in the romantasy space. Even the most sad or horrible twists in novels rarely seem to affect me. The specific scenes in this book that affected me so viscerally were 1) Kira’s real reason for being brought to join the Towers and 2) Kira believing that Reznyk did not hold her in as high regard as “The One”. To the first point,as someone who was adopted and did live in an orphanage in the earliest parts of my childhood, the dream of being adopted into a perfect family was one of my first ever memories. I thank everything, everyday that my dream DID happen for me. To know that Kira was fed such a dream as a manipulation tactic to acquire her in order to use her as a future bartering object and means of control because of her close appearance to Reznyk's ‘true love’ was devastating, to say the very least. To the second point, there is something about past lovers and comparison to them that really bothers me, likely due to a personal inferiority complex starting early on regarding adoption - both from being given away in the first place to not being picked/chosen for adoption. But let’s not diverge into my therapy session notes, aha…. Seeing Reznyk compare Kira so often to Lenore was excruciating at first. I knew it would lessen as he saw her more and more as her own person and realized she and Lenore were nothing alike, but it still pissed me off and hurt deeply. Then to see Kira do the same, routinely repeating how she wasn’t “The One” and would never live up to it in Reznyk’s eyes…. Whew, it just hits me right in the feels. For once, I wanted someone to choose Kira, unequivocally. I think that’s all Kira really wanted too. For that reason, found family will ALWAYS be one of my favorite tropes and the family that Kira did find amongst not only Reznyk as a true friend, lover, and confidant, but even with Matius and Tholious and grumpy little Xavier, made my heart swell.
The constructive criticism I have regarding this novel is that:
1) There should have been more time during Kira and Reznyk's forced proximity that led to Love
2) The side characters should have been interacted with more and <i> MUCH </i> further developed, particularly Zayne, Matius, and Tholious. Especially considering Zayne, Matius, and Tholious are part of Kira and Reznyk's found family, we barely know anything about them. I think the most I know about Matius and Tholious is that they're gay, which is CRAZY. It makes them feel like a diversity grab
3) The epilogue scene (also, epilogue is spelled wrong in the book!) should be the last chapter, and the bonus chapter should be the epilogue. The bonus chapter is CRITICAL to concluding this novel AND setting up the next -- it shouldn't only be available for ARC readers or for signing up for the author's email list. We had a really strong construction to the whole book but the ending seems hurriedly put together without much forethought.
To flush these constructive criticisms out more, I think more time should have passed between Kira and Reznyk (or a few more chapters should have been written describing their interactions) before the “love” card came out to play. This novel was infinitely better in romantic pacing and plotting than other romantasies on the market, but I still wasn’t entirely convinced that they could love each other so quickly. What I DID love about the romantic plotting in this novel was the way in which sex was viewed, by Reznyk, as a true act of love. It not only made the buildup that much more anticipatory and scorching, but it also meant the act itself held a gravitas and weight to it that really resonated with me. Reznyk saying that if there was a child from their coupling, he’d take care of them literally made my heart do a little flip and had the warm and fuzzies coming out to play. To be honest, caring for a consequential child is literally the bare minimum, I suppose, but when even the bare minimum often isn’t met in today’s society, it becomes endearing. In relation to this, the spice was top notch -- I particularly enjoyed learning the geography of their world through their bodily exploration and teasing of one another ;) I would've never been bored in geography if this was the teaching method ahaha.
Continuing on, the ending and epilogue were the perfect sweet to balance the spice - but I truly think the bonus scene in the ARC should have been an addendum to the epilogue perhaps, but definitely in the actual book. I'm not sure Meredith's plans for it but it seems to be a critical chapter in not only wrapping up this first novel but in establishing the groundwork for the next. Besides this, the bonus scene’s found family trope really was driven home and made me so happy. The glimpse into the next novel also really stoked my excitement for the next book and to see Syrus’s and Veloria’s journey play out on the page. I wait in rapt and rabid, feral ferocity for book two, Monster of the Silver City, to be released. Meredith, please send me the ARC ASAP for the sake of my health - not even our upcoming new MMC Syrus, the professed magical healer, could heal this book hangover.
Highlights:
♥️ Seduction for Information: I’m always a sucker for this trope, but especially when, in the process, the mark ends up flustering or turning the tables back on the seducer. It was so endearing to see Reznyk attempt to seduce Kira for information but be sucked in by her siren’s call and end up baring himself to her emotionally and succumbing to his desires.
♥️ World-Building: Meredith’s worldbuilding felt so immersive and immediate that even I was fearful of Fyrris and the Towers. The concept of imbued magic in metals and the insidious hints we get as to where the magic the Towers uses comes from really acted as not only intrigue but managed to be a truly refreshing take in the oversaturated romantasy/fantasy scene that seems to recycle the same magic systems with slight changes here and there.
♥️ Found Family: As mentioned earlier, I am a SUCKER for a good found family trope. This book does NOT disappoint. We have such a cozy and sweet found family by the end of this novel to accompany the deeply-grounded love and partnership between the two main characters. This trope is even better considering the FMC has always been picked over or used by others, having never experienced real love or kinship though it is something she desperately yearns for and a major motivation for her character.
♥️ Intricate, High-fantasy Elements: The vague mentions of elves and dragons and hints about them within this novel hooked me, line and sinker. Further, the old gods and their characteristics as primordial, panaspectual beings was absolutely fascinating - I can’t wait to see more about these old gods and their lore within the series. I am so excited for this world to be further fleshed out in the future novels of the series regarding worldbuilding and these high-fantasy beings.
TLDR: Monster of the Dagger Mountains has absolutely ENRAPTURED me and ignited a bated anticipation for the rest of the Killers of the Towers series. Meredith Hart has crafted this first novel of the series to absolutely intoxicate the reader with a fantastical mix of worldbuilding and both a character-driven and a plot-driven narrative. Featuring mystical mountains, cutthroat cities, a dangerous(ly hot) Godkiller, a no-holds-barred fiery Tower guard, the lurid Towers with their hierarchy of brainwashed zealots, and a breathtaking romance woven in between, this novel will have you on the edge of your seat during adventures and misadventures alike, smitten and falling in love alongside the characters, and blushing at the toe-curling, sizzling spice. Those who have read Throne of Glass, Quicksilver, and Six of Crows will delight in this romantasy and be unable to put it down til the very last page.
Note: This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.
{Thank you SO MUCH to Meredith Hart and Jessica at NerdFam for providing this ARC to me! All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own, unsponsored and unpaid. }
Stars: 4.25/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 3.5/5 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️
Having not read any of Meredith's previous series, I didn't know what to expect in terms of her writing style, whether her books tended more towards being plot vs character driven, nor her crafting style regarding romance. Monster of the Dagger Mountains is the start of Meredith's new Killers of the Towers series and she started out with a BANG that hooked me from the very first page. This novel was a stunning debut of the series, featuring some of my favorite tropes of all time - Found Family and Forced Proximity. I was sold by that alone, but Meredith managed to enrapture me even more with having such tropes perfectly-executed in her magnificent writing.
A general, no spoilers summary of Monster of the Dagger Mountains is this: Kira is a guard training at the Towers, a citadel of elite wielders and fighters within the Silver City that imbue metal with magic to assist them in their endeavors. Training to unlock her magical potential she inherited from her elite magical parents who served the Towers before her, Kira is tasked by the Towers on a mission to retrieve an amulet in the possession of a former Towers elite known as the Godkiller for his transgression of killing a god and defecting from the Towers with said amulet. When she encounters the Godkiller, Reznyk, she is surprised by his humanity, and when fate (AKA a chaotic Mercenary from Silver City breaking her ankle) forces them to live together, she finds herself enthralled by the man that is supposed to be a monster. As the fall turns to winter in the Dagger Mountains where the Godkiller hides, Kira and Reznyk find themselves growing closer despite everything that should keep them apart. Will both follow their heads telling them they have inherently separate and opposing paths in life, or their hearts with a fiery, undeniable connection between them?
First off, I ADORE this MMC’s name, Reznyk. We REALLY need to dive into it. It's a refreshing change from the Drakes/Azriels/Xadens/Xanders etc from [email protected] that every other romantasy author on the scene at the moment is utilizing. My family are Slavic and rarely do I see Slavic names in novels that aren’t either Slavic-mythos based or overly done in such a way that it feels like cultural appropriation rather than appreciation (I’m looking at you, Leigh Bardugo).
Not only was the representation nice, but it goes DEEPER. The name ‘Reznyk’ is a variant of the surname ‘Reznik’ or ‘Rzeźnik’, which means “butcher” or “one who butchers” in most Western Slavic languages, particularly Czech. The sheer perfection behind this name lies in Reznyk’s upbringing as a ruthless killer for the Towers with powers of weapon creation followed by his eventual order, tasked by the Towers, of slaughtering an old god in order to fulfill the destiny the Towers have beaten into him: attaining ultimate power. The Towers have done such a good job at beating this into him that even Reznyk is convinced he wants it.
Now onto our FMC Kira. I ADORED Kira. She was the FMC we all need in most fantasy books. She’s not the FMC with just the snappy one-liners or with nauseatingly swaggering confidence, but the FMC that will sit you the fuck down and tell you how it is, consequences be damned. When Reznyk is torturing himself over a past wrong he enacted as a CHILD that he believes makes him unlovable and a bad person, Kira was there to stand up and say “Seriously? Get over yourself, Reznyk.” She was the breath of fresh air in romantasy that straight up said “That’s stupid” and “Oh, fuck that!” and that, my fellow readers, is when I fell in love with her. Not only this, but she is loyal to a fault and it’s generally an absolute riot to read her POV. Another thing I truly loved in this novel was that
I rarely feel visceral bodily reactions to books. I will cry pretty easily and I will laugh likely even easier, but when I feel a pang deep in my chest from a book? I KNOW it's good. The capability to instill so deep of an emotional response through the written word is something I rarely come across nowadays, particularly in the romantasy space. Even the most sad or horrible twists in novels rarely seem to affect me. The specific scenes in this book that affected me so viscerally were 1) Kira’s real reason for being brought to join the Towers and 2) Kira believing that Reznyk did not hold her in as high regard as “The One”. To the first point,
The constructive criticism I have regarding this novel is that:
1) There should have been more time during Kira and Reznyk's forced proximity
2) The side characters should have been interacted with more and <i> MUCH </i> further developed, particularly Zayne, Matius, and Tholious.
3) The epilogue scene (also, epilogue is spelled wrong in the book!) should be the last chapter, and the bonus chapter should be the epilogue. The bonus chapter is CRITICAL to concluding this novel AND setting up the next -- it shouldn't only be available for ARC readers or for signing up for the author's email list. We had a really strong construction to the whole book but the ending seems hurriedly put together without much forethought.
To flush these constructive criticisms out more, I think more time should have passed between Kira and Reznyk (or a few more chapters should have been written describing their interactions) before the “love” card came out to play. This novel was infinitely better in romantic pacing and plotting than other romantasies on the market, but I still wasn’t entirely convinced that they could love each other so quickly. What I DID love about the romantic plotting in this novel was the way in which sex was viewed, by Reznyk, as a true act of love. It not only made the buildup that much more anticipatory and scorching, but it also meant the act itself held a gravitas and weight to it that really resonated with me. Reznyk saying that if there was a child from their coupling, he’d take care of them literally made my heart do a little flip and had the warm and fuzzies coming out to play. To be honest, caring for a consequential child is literally the bare minimum, I suppose, but when even the bare minimum often isn’t met in today’s society, it becomes endearing. In relation to this, the spice was top notch -- I particularly enjoyed learning the geography of their world through their bodily exploration and teasing of one another ;) I would've never been bored in geography if this was the teaching method ahaha.
Continuing on, the ending and epilogue were the perfect sweet to balance the spice - but I truly think the bonus scene in the ARC should have been an addendum to the epilogue perhaps, but definitely in the actual book. I'm not sure Meredith's plans for it but it seems to be a critical chapter in not only wrapping up this first novel but in establishing the groundwork for the next. Besides this, the bonus scene’s found family trope really was driven home and made me so happy. The glimpse into the next novel also really stoked my excitement for the next book and to see Syrus’s and Veloria’s journey play out on the page. I wait in rapt and rabid, feral ferocity for book two, Monster of the Silver City, to be released. Meredith, please send me the ARC ASAP for the sake of my health - not even our upcoming new MMC Syrus, the professed magical healer, could heal this book hangover.
Highlights:
♥️ Seduction for Information: I’m always a sucker for this trope, but especially when, in the process, the mark ends up flustering or turning the tables back on the seducer. It was so endearing to see Reznyk attempt to seduce Kira for information but be sucked in by her siren’s call and end up baring himself to her emotionally and succumbing to his desires.
♥️ World-Building: Meredith’s worldbuilding felt so immersive and immediate that even I was fearful of Fyrris and the Towers. The concept of imbued magic in metals and the insidious hints we get as to where the magic the Towers uses comes from really acted as not only intrigue but managed to be a truly refreshing take in the oversaturated romantasy/fantasy scene that seems to recycle the same magic systems with slight changes here and there.
♥️ Found Family: As mentioned earlier, I am a SUCKER for a good found family trope. This book does NOT disappoint. We have such a cozy and sweet found family by the end of this novel to accompany the deeply-grounded love and partnership between the two main characters. This trope is even better considering the FMC has always been picked over or used by others, having never experienced real love or kinship though it is something she desperately yearns for and a major motivation for her character.
♥️ Intricate, High-fantasy Elements: The vague mentions of elves and dragons and hints about them within this novel hooked me, line and sinker. Further, the old gods and their characteristics as primordial, panaspectual beings was absolutely fascinating - I can’t wait to see more about these old gods and their lore within the series. I am so excited for this world to be further fleshed out in the future novels of the series regarding worldbuilding and these high-fantasy beings.
TLDR: Monster of the Dagger Mountains has absolutely ENRAPTURED me and ignited a bated anticipation for the rest of the Killers of the Towers series. Meredith Hart has crafted this first novel of the series to absolutely intoxicate the reader with a fantastical mix of worldbuilding and both a character-driven and a plot-driven narrative. Featuring mystical mountains, cutthroat cities, a dangerous(ly hot) Godkiller, a no-holds-barred fiery Tower guard, the lurid Towers with their hierarchy of brainwashed zealots, and a breathtaking romance woven in between, this novel will have you on the edge of your seat during adventures and misadventures alike, smitten and falling in love alongside the characters, and blushing at the toe-curling, sizzling spice. Those who have read Throne of Glass, Quicksilver, and Six of Crows will delight in this romantasy and be unable to put it down til the very last page.
Note: This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.