"War was a cruel twist of fate, and they were all pawns in in."
-Ink and Ore, Hayley Whiteley
☆☆☆.5
Thank you to Hayley for sending me an ARC through Book Sirens! It is a fantasy story with strong female leads. It leans more on the politics and characters than it does on the fantasy aspect of the world. I’d definitely recommend this for younger readers who want a character-driven story with good female characters. I’d say this is definitely a good book, but I scored on the lower side of the scale as I found it slow to start and could not get behind the characters.
Some great aspects were strong female friendship, a unique magic system, political intrigue and a touch of romance. I find many YA books have romance as the main focus and female friendship in the background, so I appreciate the twist here. The romance was a nice little blush romance, perfect for YA.
While there were great aspects, some downfalls I had were the characters were a little bland and very naive. Though it was a unique magic system, I did not understand it, and I found that the story dragged. I have seen comments that the author has adjusted early chapters to help with the pacing. I would have liked some more depth to the characters. Unfortunately, I had a hard time remembering who was who. Katiel and Brenna were quite naive and almost overly positive at some points. They just felt a little juvenile. Maybe a younger audience could relate to them more than I could. The dialogue was a little bit awkward at times, which pulled me out of the reading experience.
Again, a big thank you to Hayley for an ARC, and congrats on your debut! I am curious as to where the series can go from here, are there are plenty of questions left unanswered. I hope to see more details about the magic system in the next book as it is unique. I enjoyed the majority of the book, and I liked some of the dynamics of the characters, like Katiel and Aton. For the reasons above, it was lower to a 3.5 compared to a 4 (though I am rounding up for Goodreads). I still enjoyed the book, though there was potential for more. The world itself has a lot of potential, and as this is the first book, there is only room to grow and expand!
☪ Received an advanced copy, but all thoughts and opinions are my own, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Death, kidnapping, violence
RATING: High School Readers
SPICE: 0/5 (Mild kissing)
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