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A review by jamieseemsamused
A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair
3.0
Genre: Romantasy
Series information: Book 1 of The Halfling Saga. Completed 4-book series
Steam Level: 3 out of 5 (Open door)
Romance Level: 4 out of 5 (Romantic story with independent fantasy plot)
How I Read It: E-book and audiobook borrowed from Libby
Audiobook performance: 3 out of 5 (It gets the job done) - At 1:17:38, there's an alt line left in the narration, which I thought was a pretty sloppy editing error. I also wasn't a fan of some of the accent choices for the dialogue. And the narration itself feels very stilted. After a while I opted to not listen and just read.
My Review: There was nothing terrible, but also nothing great and the story is kind of forgettable. I liked the FMC well enough. She's no nonsense but has her flaws and demons. The worldbuilding is a little under baked. It feels like the reason for the king's hatred of elves and halflings needed to be fleshed out more. How are elves and halfling born? How do they still exist if the king has been systematically killing them? If the Order is so powerful how does the king control them? The MMC is also kind of one dimensional. His motivations are not very well fleshed out or explained. The overall plot is pretty standard romantasy rebellion against an evil king stuff. The "twists" were pretty predictable. I want to continue the series, but it might be on the back burner for now.
Series information: Book 1 of The Halfling Saga. Completed 4-book series
Steam Level: 3 out of 5 (Open door)
Romance Level: 4 out of 5 (Romantic story with independent fantasy plot)
How I Read It: E-book and audiobook borrowed from Libby
Audiobook performance: 3 out of 5 (It gets the job done) - At 1:17:38, there's an alt line left in the narration, which I thought was a pretty sloppy editing error. I also wasn't a fan of some of the accent choices for the dialogue. And the narration itself feels very stilted. After a while I opted to not listen and just read.
My Review: There was nothing terrible, but also nothing great and the story is kind of forgettable. I liked the FMC well enough. She's no nonsense but has her flaws and demons. The worldbuilding is a little under baked. It feels like the reason for the king's hatred of elves and halflings needed to be fleshed out more. How are elves and halfling born? How do they still exist if the king has been systematically killing them? If the Order is so powerful how does the king control them? The MMC is also kind of one dimensional. His motivations are not very well fleshed out or explained. The overall plot is pretty standard romantasy rebellion against an evil king stuff. The "twists" were pretty predictable. I want to continue the series, but it might be on the back burner for now.