Scan barcode
A review by talia012
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
4.0
Having a bit of a fae reading moment right now, and this book was my favorite of the bunch! The world is captivating, the writing solid, and the lore is really interesting. I was immediately drawn into the story and invested in the characters. Yeeran is my favorite of course, flaws and all, and I appreciated watching her journey unfold while hurting from the PTSD - from both her military and relationship past - she was fighting through.
The magic system was one of my favorite parts and I love how each character's approach/ability in different forms of magic reflects who they are. There's a lot more to uncover in the lore and curse-breaking and I think it was set up really well. This book covers a lot of ground for a first in a series, and it feels like its going to grow in scale and scope even more over the next books. Can't wait to keep reading!
Two small nitpicks: First, this book is so obvious. Usually I get a jolt of self-satisfaction from figuring out plot twists but here the clues were broadcasted rather than breadcrumbed. They eye-rolling did unfortunately detract from the experience a bit.
And second, I get this is a romantasy book, but these characters are shockingly lusty. It seems to be all they can think about even when their lives are in danger constantly. I feel like the author was caught between writing a fantasy and romantasy and added in the lust to compensate? I rooted for at least one of couples (the sapphics of course) and I was meh on the other (straight) one, so I'm not mad about it per se, but I think the horny levels could have been toned down at least 25%.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The magic system was one of my favorite parts and I love how each character's approach/ability in different forms of magic reflects who they are. There's a lot more to uncover in the lore and curse-breaking and I think it was set up really well. This book covers a lot of ground for a first in a series, and it feels like its going to grow in scale and scope even more over the next books. Can't wait to keep reading!
Two small nitpicks: First, this book is so obvious. Usually I get a jolt of self-satisfaction from figuring out plot twists but here the clues were broadcasted rather than breadcrumbed. They eye-rolling did unfortunately detract from the experience a bit.
And second, I get this is a romantasy book, but these characters are shockingly lusty. It seems to be all they can think about even when their lives are in danger constantly. I feel like the author was caught between writing a fantasy and romantasy and added in the lust to compensate? I rooted for at least one of couples (the sapphics of course) and I was meh on the other (straight) one, so I'm not mad about it per se, but I think the horny levels could have been toned down at least 25%.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.