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A review by xcrissy67x
Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
So I sped through this book. Literally took me only one day so needless to say that I was hooked. I have very mixed emotions about this but it is only the first book of the trilogy. I have higher hopes for the next few books.
The book follows Lillian ‘Lily’ Proctor (who I shall call Lily for reasons you shall see), a girl who has many allergies and due to these, is constantly ill. The only person who seems to be able to deal with all these allergies is her only friend Tristan. I will not be spoiling any of the plot but let's just say some stuff happens and as she's thinking to herself that she wants to get away from it all, she is suddenly transported into an alternative universe filled with monsters, witchcraft and an evil alternate version of herself who likes to be called Lillian (that's why).
The concept is honestly very good and I was very interested to see where the plot goes. I found the alternate world she was in was (mostly) well thought out and the concept of will stones was unique. I haven't seen a book with something like that, but I could just be looking at the wrong books.
Lily was quite a likeable character, however I wouldn't say anything really stuck out about her. I didn't dislike her, but I also didn't fall in love with her character. Unfortunately, she's about as good as it gets with the characters.
The other characters in the book aren't exactly bad, but I would say that most of them are a little… functionless?
I wasn't really sure what the purpose of Tristan or Caleb. Maybe it was because I didn't feel connected to them at all, or maybe it's because the author didn't really give them much if a function other than just kinda being there. If they were small side characters, I'd understand, but these two were quite big characters and you just didn't see anything really develop with them. At first you saw the relationship building with Lily, but after a while that just dwindled down and you didn't get to see these characters interact in a casual way at all.
Juliet is supposed to be a big character. I guess her function is to help guide Lily and be her helping hand, but you don't actually see her fulfil that role very well. I don't think this is the fault of the character but rather the fault of the author. Juliet seems to flit in and out of the story even though she seems to play a big role in the actual plot.
Finally there's Rowan. I didn't dislike him but I didn't love him. Rowan is the romantic interest of this book. He is the one mostly seen with Lily throughout the book and you can see their relationship build slightly better than with Tristan or Caleb. Their relationship is a bit odd in my opinion. It's a little unnatural? Rowan had a relationship with Lillian and Lily just kinds of brush past that fact. At the beginning it also felt very hot and cold and then suddenly it was all perfect and dandy about midway through the book. Again, I didn't dislike it, but I also didn't love it.
The plot itself was quite fast-paced. I do like a fast-paced book, however I think this was part of the reason why I couldn't connect with the characters. There was no chance to get to know them in-between the low-key info dumping about the alternate world, and the action. I would have happily read a longer book if it meant I was allowed to get to know the character better.
The ending was interesting and left on a cliffhanger to set it up for the next book. It was a little confusing, again because of the fast pace (felt a little rushed), but it wasn't so confusing that I had to reread it to try and figure out what the heck was going on. I will say that there some things that are left very open and unanswered at the end of this book, but there are two more books in the trilogy which I hope will answer my questions.
The one thing that really grated on my nerves was the fact that Lily, who just came from a world with absolutely no magic, comes into a world and is suddenly absolutely amazing at magic. In this world, they start training at around 6 years old to master their powers, yet Lily was able to do extremely powerful things in a few days? Absolutely not. I refused to believe it but alas it happened. I'm not a fan of the whole “instantly powerful and knows how to control it” thing that some writers do. It feels so unnatural and does make me roll my eyes sometimes.
Overall, the book wasn't bad but it wasn't amazing. The plot and the world building was very interesting to me. The main things that I wasn't a massive fan of were the lack of connection with the characters, and how unnatural the growth of Lily’s power was. I'm hoping to build a stronger connection in the next book but I think a strong connection with characters in the first book is extremely important to make readers want to read the next.
The book follows Lillian ‘Lily’ Proctor (who I shall call Lily for reasons you shall see), a girl who has many allergies and due to these, is constantly ill. The only person who seems to be able to deal with all these allergies is her only friend Tristan. I will not be spoiling any of the plot but let's just say some stuff happens and as she's thinking to herself that she wants to get away from it all, she is suddenly transported into an alternative universe filled with monsters, witchcraft and an evil alternate version of herself who likes to be called Lillian (that's why).
The concept is honestly very good and I was very interested to see where the plot goes. I found the alternate world she was in was (mostly) well thought out and the concept of will stones was unique. I haven't seen a book with something like that, but I could just be looking at the wrong books.
Lily was quite a likeable character, however I wouldn't say anything really stuck out about her. I didn't dislike her, but I also didn't fall in love with her character. Unfortunately, she's about as good as it gets with the characters.
The other characters in the book aren't exactly bad, but I would say that most of them are a little… functionless?
I wasn't really sure what the purpose of Tristan or Caleb. Maybe it was because I didn't feel connected to them at all, or maybe it's because the author didn't really give them much if a function other than just kinda being there. If they were small side characters, I'd understand, but these two were quite big characters and you just didn't see anything really develop with them. At first you saw the relationship building with Lily, but after a while that just dwindled down and you didn't get to see these characters interact in a casual way at all.
Juliet is supposed to be a big character. I guess her function is to help guide Lily and be her helping hand, but you don't actually see her fulfil that role very well. I don't think this is the fault of the character but rather the fault of the author. Juliet seems to flit in and out of the story even though she seems to play a big role in the actual plot.
Finally there's Rowan. I didn't dislike him but I didn't love him. Rowan is the romantic interest of this book. He is the one mostly seen with Lily throughout the book and you can see their relationship build slightly better than with Tristan or Caleb. Their relationship is a bit odd in my opinion. It's a little unnatural? Rowan had a relationship with Lillian and Lily just kinds of brush past that fact. At the beginning it also felt very hot and cold and then suddenly it was all perfect and dandy about midway through the book. Again, I didn't dislike it, but I also didn't love it.
The plot itself was quite fast-paced. I do like a fast-paced book, however I think this was part of the reason why I couldn't connect with the characters. There was no chance to get to know them in-between the low-key info dumping about the alternate world, and the action. I would have happily read a longer book if it meant I was allowed to get to know the character better.
The ending was interesting and left on a cliffhanger to set it up for the next book. It was a little confusing, again because of the fast pace (felt a little rushed), but it wasn't so confusing that I had to reread it to try and figure out what the heck was going on. I will say that there some things that are left very open and unanswered at the end of this book, but there are two more books in the trilogy which I hope will answer my questions.
The one thing that really grated on my nerves was the fact that Lily, who just came from a world with absolutely no magic, comes into a world and is suddenly absolutely amazing at magic. In this world, they start training at around 6 years old to master their powers, yet Lily was able to do extremely powerful things in a few days? Absolutely not. I refused to believe it but alas it happened. I'm not a fan of the whole “instantly powerful and knows how to control it” thing that some writers do. It feels so unnatural and does make me roll my eyes sometimes.
Overall, the book wasn't bad but it wasn't amazing. The plot and the world building was very interesting to me. The main things that I wasn't a massive fan of were the lack of connection with the characters, and how unnatural the growth of Lily’s power was. I'm hoping to build a stronger connection in the next book but I think a strong connection with characters in the first book is extremely important to make readers want to read the next.