A review by ishouldbewriting
The Savior's Champion by Jenna Moreci

5.0

Spoiler

A lot of people seem to find so many issues with this book that I'm questioning how easily impressed I am. Or maybe I'm biased because I've been a fan of Jenna's YouTube channel for a while. The only parts I found close to boring were the gushy romance, but I went in expecting that because I was reading for the dark fantasy not the romance. Though even my cynic's heart found some of the couples' dialogue adorable or funny.

It took me exactly a month to finish and that's only because I was reading it in short bursts whenever I found time before bed or at work. I found the pacing fine, though I'll admit I think I went into it slowly because the size intimidated me a little. It also doesn't make for very comfortable holding while reading.

As for lack of worldbuilding, I found that more of a positive because I got more than a library's worth of worldbuilding from Game of Thrones and frankly, I'm okay taking a break from that. Sci-Fi worldbuilding is still intriguing to me, but when it's a book in some random place like Thessen, I can get on just fine imagining the lesser details. What little explanation we get for the magic system leaves some to be desired, I'll give the reviewers that. I do feel like at least the use of magic was properly explained. If it seemed mysterious and out of place for a moment, it was thoroughly wrapped up with an explanation by the end.

I did enjoy the roller-coaster of character development we got for Tobias, where he didn't just go from a good, quiet guy to a murderous killer. He wavered between the two and settled somewhere in the middle and it was interesting to see the mental strife he went through as he struggled to keep hold to his values and sense of self.

I'd argue for 4/4.5 stars only because of the predictability of the tropes and the events as they unfolded. I am usually horrible at making guesses about TV shows, movies, and books alike, so if I was unsurprised at every turn, the turns were very easy to see coming. As for the big twist ending, however, I liked the predictability only because it wasn't an crazy, outlandish ending that came out of nowhere. Jenna sowed the seeds for that twist very frequently in the book and I found most of them as I went along, so it didn't feel as "boringly predictable" so much as "she clearly had this idea all along and is letting us know from the get-go." And now I feel smarter for being able to pick up on all those little clues, which /is/ a plot twist.

All in all, I had a great time reading this and by the end, was finding every spare moment to read. I am definitely going to read the sequel, just maybe not yet, because I need to take a breather with some smaller, easier books before getting back into Tobias's world.