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peneloperea 's review for:
War Hour
by Lauren Loscig
Closer to 3.5 Stars.
Thank you to Lauren Loscig for the opportunity to read War Hour (The Broken Trials) by Lauren Loscig in exchange for my honest review.
In War Hour, author Lauren Loscig does something different and I was excited about it. Rather than characters being born with power, they have to earn it! WHAT!?!? If you’re a fantasy fan, how can that not hook you?
Our MC is Lysta, who we meet while flipping a coin with her “chosen” brother Thoman who puts their life on the line to get them some food. The kingdom is split between the Trialed and the Untrialed. Lysta, Thoman, and al the other Untrialed live in constant fear of being taken by King Drytas’ guards and forced to Trial. What’s the Trial you may be thinking? The only way to know is to be Trialed. But not everyone who Trials will survive and those who do get the choice of joining King Drytas’ guard or moving on up, but we never learn what that actually means.
The build-up to seeing our first Trial is great. The anticipation grew with every word. Then we got to see our first Trial and it left a “that was all” feeling for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Trial was easy or that it wasn’t scary. It just felt like it was over very quickly and then we were on to the next thing.
I’m a big fan of great characters. Lysta, whom we spend all of our time with was a lot. Let’s just say I had to remind myself that this was a YA book and YA characters can sometimes be very frustrating. I also had to remind myself that love at first sight or lust is very common, even if the reader doesn’t see it or understand it. What I liked about Lysta is her drive to keep going. She wants to protect the people of her kingdom, she wants to protect the ones she loves, she just doesn’t make the best decisions to do that.
We meet a list of characters along the way, especially when we enter into the political aspect of the story. To me, that’s where the fun begins. I found some of the characters really interesting like Sar, Bash, and Ardis - honestly can’t wait to learn more about those three. Then you have Torryn who plays such a big role at certain points of the story but also just disappears during parts that you’d think he would be in. Also his avoidance of sharing things with Lysta while “trying” to protect her didn’t work for me. There’s always a lot of secrets in stories, we all know that, but Lysta puts a lot of trust into people even though she’s constantly reminded to trust no one.
For me, the strongest part of War Hour is the world-building, in that it’s such a different take on magic that I really wanted to dig into that aspect of the story more than anything. You have 7 or 8 (I can’t remember now) kingdoms, all ruled by a different Crown, and in each kingdom the trial is different which leads to different magic based on the Trial and how you pass it. Such a fun, new, intriguing take on fantasy. I really wanted to spend more time learning about each kingdom, but that may happen in future books.
All that said, the beginning of the book was a tad slow for me, slower than I’d like. It took me to about 50% to really feel like I was in it. Once I hit that point I couldn’t stop reading and finished the book in one sitting. All in all, I would definitely recommend War Hour to YA fantasy readers. I enjoyed the world and the magic. The politics will get your blood boiling and tempt you to pick sides, the question is, will it be the right one? I’d return to Loscig’s world of magic for more. AND come on. That ending!!!! I need to know what happens next.
Thank you to Lauren Loscig for the opportunity to read War Hour (The Broken Trials) by Lauren Loscig in exchange for my honest review.
In War Hour, author Lauren Loscig does something different and I was excited about it. Rather than characters being born with power, they have to earn it! WHAT!?!? If you’re a fantasy fan, how can that not hook you?
Our MC is Lysta, who we meet while flipping a coin with her “chosen” brother Thoman who puts their life on the line to get them some food. The kingdom is split between the Trialed and the Untrialed. Lysta, Thoman, and al the other Untrialed live in constant fear of being taken by King Drytas’ guards and forced to Trial. What’s the Trial you may be thinking? The only way to know is to be Trialed. But not everyone who Trials will survive and those who do get the choice of joining King Drytas’ guard or moving on up, but we never learn what that actually means.
The build-up to seeing our first Trial is great. The anticipation grew with every word. Then we got to see our first Trial and it left a “that was all” feeling for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Trial was easy or that it wasn’t scary. It just felt like it was over very quickly and then we were on to the next thing.
I’m a big fan of great characters. Lysta, whom we spend all of our time with was a lot. Let’s just say I had to remind myself that this was a YA book and YA characters can sometimes be very frustrating. I also had to remind myself that love at first sight or lust is very common, even if the reader doesn’t see it or understand it. What I liked about Lysta is her drive to keep going. She wants to protect the people of her kingdom, she wants to protect the ones she loves, she just doesn’t make the best decisions to do that.
We meet a list of characters along the way, especially when we enter into the political aspect of the story. To me, that’s where the fun begins. I found some of the characters really interesting like Sar, Bash, and Ardis - honestly can’t wait to learn more about those three. Then you have Torryn who plays such a big role at certain points of the story but also just disappears during parts that you’d think he would be in. Also his avoidance of sharing things with Lysta while “trying” to protect her didn’t work for me. There’s always a lot of secrets in stories, we all know that, but Lysta puts a lot of trust into people even though she’s constantly reminded to trust no one.
For me, the strongest part of War Hour is the world-building, in that it’s such a different take on magic that I really wanted to dig into that aspect of the story more than anything. You have 7 or 8 (I can’t remember now) kingdoms, all ruled by a different Crown, and in each kingdom the trial is different which leads to different magic based on the Trial and how you pass it. Such a fun, new, intriguing take on fantasy. I really wanted to spend more time learning about each kingdom, but that may happen in future books.
All that said, the beginning of the book was a tad slow for me, slower than I’d like. It took me to about 50% to really feel like I was in it. Once I hit that point I couldn’t stop reading and finished the book in one sitting. All in all, I would definitely recommend War Hour to YA fantasy readers. I enjoyed the world and the magic. The politics will get your blood boiling and tempt you to pick sides, the question is, will it be the right one? I’d return to Loscig’s world of magic for more. AND come on. That ending!!!! I need to know what happens next.