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A review by offictionandfantasy
Forbidden Ties by Kyrie Wang
3.0
Content warnings: violence/war/injury, prejudice against a tribe (due to their hair color and way of life) and people with leprosy, cannibalism, animal death, implied/foreshadowed/unrequited incest
Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Enemy's Keeper: Forbidden Ties follows Heather, a young woman who works as a watermill keeper and generally keeps to herself. She is caught between three opposing sides: the Normans, English rebels, and a fictional tribal society. Desperate to find her 'childhood sweetheart' Spencer, Heather instead discovers she may not have known him so well after all. Will the unraveling secrets and mysterious strangers affect her loyalties and alliances?
Pros:
• This was a fast read!
• I liked Toby! He was the wittiest and most dynamic character to me, and I felt a desire to learn more about his past and his connections to the other characters.
Cons:
• I knew upfront there would be a cliffhanger, but the plot of book 1 felt mostly like Heather running away from the different groups of people and then the book ending.
• I think this would have been more enjoyable as a Middle Grade! Heather reminds me a lot of myself/my friends at age 12-15 in terms of emotional maturity. This would have better explained how blatantly and obliviously one-sided her love for her "childhood sweetheart" was and why she so often ran away from all situations instead of considering her options/what others had to say.
• Some things didn't make sense to me personally, such as how a character could hang upside down for nearly a day and be perfectly fine afterward, how some of the characters didn't bleed to death in different scenarios, or why Matthew was significant enough to need a POV. I am, however, not a medical professional and it's possible Matthew is the main character in a future book!
People who might enjoy this book: fans of alternative medieval history, short adventure reads, and slow-burn romance!
Spoiler
(The MC is in love with her adopted brother and spoiler: I also wonder if the new love interest is her adopted mother's biological son. This may not be true, but in case this makes anyone uncomfortable).Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Enemy's Keeper: Forbidden Ties follows Heather, a young woman who works as a watermill keeper and generally keeps to herself. She is caught between three opposing sides: the Normans, English rebels, and a fictional tribal society. Desperate to find her 'childhood sweetheart' Spencer, Heather instead discovers she may not have known him so well after all. Will the unraveling secrets and mysterious strangers affect her loyalties and alliances?
Pros:
• This was a fast read!
• I liked Toby! He was the wittiest and most dynamic character to me, and I felt a desire to learn more about his past and his connections to the other characters.
Cons:
• I knew upfront there would be a cliffhanger, but the plot of book 1 felt mostly like Heather running away from the different groups of people and then the book ending.
• I think this would have been more enjoyable as a Middle Grade! Heather reminds me a lot of myself/my friends at age 12-15 in terms of emotional maturity. This would have better explained how blatantly and obliviously one-sided her love for her "childhood sweetheart" was and why she so often ran away from all situations instead of considering her options/what others had to say.
• Some things didn't make sense to me personally, such as how a character could hang upside down for nearly a day and be perfectly fine afterward, how some of the characters didn't bleed to death in different scenarios, or why Matthew was significant enough to need a POV. I am, however, not a medical professional and it's possible Matthew is the main character in a future book!
People who might enjoy this book: fans of alternative medieval history, short adventure reads, and slow-burn romance!