itsgalactic 's review for:

A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim

3.5

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

---

I am so conflicted about “A Forgery of Fate”. It was one of my highly anticipated reads and there was so much I do love about it: our heroine, Tru, her dedication and her relationship with her family, how the beauty and the beast elements were used (although I feel it could have used more as it seemed equally inspired by Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle as I saw one review say), the settings, how Shani's motives were ultimately handled, and even the reveals for how Elang's curse worked. My huge conflict of feelings comes down to one of the big twists for the book as well as the  how the ending is handled.

Serious Spoilers here on out:

I feel more time with the main couple was needed but my real conflicted feeling comes from the twist reveal with our MMC, Elang, had secretly interacting with Tru in disguise since she was a girl and was the true identity of her mentor, Gaari. This was something that made me put the book down because I remembered that Tru is 18 (she never says "I am 18 years old" but at one point says she is 18 winters old) while Elang is 21. With the age difference, the dynamic between Gaari and Tru is re-contextualized in this weird light where the then 19 year old Elang disguises himself as an old man to begin mentoring the then 16 year old, Tru. To be clear this is never painted as a romantic relationship and merely a friendly one but I do understand people who hate this reveal as I am still mulling it over. Additionally, our protagonist being 18 serves no narrative purpose (kinda would have thought it might as her mother believed she would marry rich but no such marriage scheme is ever attempted before Elang makes his proposal) so I do wonder why Tru isn't a little older. I almost got the impression that the author felt Elang had to be 21 to justify all the skills and actions he had done in his life but didn't feel that Tru's painting abilities or time training couldn't also benefit from a few more years in her age. 

To be clear, this is not me calling out the author for an age gap relationship but it does feel the author clocked how Elang interacting with Tru as her mentor when she was underage and he was not might come across and made choices for the ending to smooth it over. The ending with Elang's death and sudden rebirth after a 3 year time jump felt less like it was earned through the actions of the characters or happened because of the established rules of the world but like a convenient way to hit a reset button on their relationship with a three year time jump. This time jump has both characters either 21 or Tru being 21 and Elang, now being 24 (the reincarnation is not really explained so it could be either). While I did like Tru telling him he'd have to woo her again when he returns, the epilogue felt too rushed to be satisfying when I would have rather them really talk about what they went through and choose each other after everything.