I actually quite liked this book, being fairly new to YA and especially the high end fantasy side of the spectrum I found it quite enjoyable, fun escapism with lead characters that were not total carboard cut outs, although the romantic interests of both Rielle and Eliana were typical personality-less heroic male types – however I didn’t mind this too much as I was far more focussed on the storyline and the two main protagonists. The writing is good YA writing, fast action, quick dialogue and enough decent worldbuilding and description to create a realised fantasy setting. Some of the themes are quite dark, neither of our heroines has had an easy time of it growing up and Eliana in particular has spilled her fair share of blood.
I did, however, have a couple of issues with this book. First, although action is a plus in YA fantasy there just seemed to be a little too much happening all the time in this book, often the action seemed to get ahead of itself and became difficult to visualise. It was also non-stop with no real opportunity to allow the reader to take a breath and reflect on what had happened before the next high-speed fight scene and/or trial had broken out. The structure of the book is that of alternating viewpoints between our two protagonists, every chapter is fairly short and almost every chapter ends on a cliff-hanger – I understand this being utilised as a tool to keep the reader turning the pages but it’s overuse became a little draining and meant that the impact was somewhat dulled every time it was employed. However, and I’m inclined to think that I’ll be checking out the next instalment to see how these characters develop into what we assume they are going to be.
For now, I would give this book 3/5 stars but am keen to see how the two main characters develop and how the author realises their destinies.
I did, however, have a couple of issues with this book. First, although action is a plus in YA fantasy there just seemed to be a little too much happening all the time in this book, often the action seemed to get ahead of itself and became difficult to visualise. It was also non-stop with no real opportunity to allow the reader to take a breath and reflect on what had happened before the next high-speed fight scene and/or trial had broken out. The structure of the book is that of alternating viewpoints between our two protagonists, every chapter is fairly short and almost every chapter ends on a cliff-hanger – I understand this being utilised as a tool to keep the reader turning the pages but it’s overuse became a little draining and meant that the impact was somewhat dulled every time it was employed. However, and I’m inclined to think that I’ll be checking out the next instalment to see how these characters develop into what we assume they are going to be.
For now, I would give this book 3/5 stars but am keen to see how the two main characters develop and how the author realises their destinies.