A review by breesel
Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller

5.0

now when i read the blurb months ago and saw that ziva had anxiety, i knew i had to read this.. ziva the MC has social anxiety and i’ve never felt so seen in a fantasy book before???? it made me so genuinely happy to see this sort of anxiety rep in a book, especially in a fantasy setting.

the first thing i noticed was that i loved how fast paced this book was! lots of fantasy books have tons of world building that can be draining to read sometimes, but it was a light read and understandable. if you’re looking for something like that, this is for you!.

anotber thing i loved was the group of characters the book followed and the sisterly bond between ziva and temra. temra is quite literally zivas opposite and sometimes acts as ziva’s buffer in most social settings, whereas the other two other characters come in a little later. seeing all four of the characters relationships grow through this book was really nice to read especially when they would open up more to eachother (specifically zivas anxiety i literally never felt so called out)


this book does have romance in it! it’s definitely not the main focus but it’s there! ziva and kellyn, the mercenary, have a slow burning type of relationship but they were very cute and gentle and i loved them very much.


the only problem i had with this book was the fact that after being a bladesmith for so long, you’d think ziva would have at least some skills in fighting and defending herself?? i completely understand her hesitation considering her anxiety and not wanting to bring any attention to herself but they lived in more secluded location and somehow didn’t practice self defense by herself?? idk. it was sort of frustrating to see the other characters around her fighting against the people after them and had ziva act defenseless even when she had some of the magical weapons at her disposal. i hope in the second book we will see more growth on some sort of fighting skills because i know she physically capable !

anxiety isn’t something that can just go away and i really loved reading about someone with social anxiety but i’m looking forward to more of her personal growth in the second book next year (booooo)

NEVER FORGIVING TRICIA FOR THOSE LAST COUPLE CHAPTERS BTW . THAT RUINED ME .