I wanted to love this, but there were some execution problems that made it just okay.
It had all the pieces of an incredible story. I actually loved the story itself. The plot is what kept me going. I loved the worldbuilding, the four realms, the magic system, and the legendary beasts. The chitrionic magic and how it changed based on the realm you were in was really interesting. How toranic law worked was definitely confusing at first, but I think I understood it by the end. It almost felt like scifi on how technical the magic system felt.
The big miss on this book was in character development. I really didn't connect with the characters. I wasn't rooting for anyone. Arenal in particular was difficult. I thought he was going to have some sort of redemption arc or just become less annoying, but my opinion is him didn't change the entire book. The dialogue was clunky. There was a whole lot of telling not showing. I was very thrown off by the angsty love triangle (?) in this book, though I'm not actually sure that's what I was supposed to pick up. I'm sure it will be explored further in book 2 but I kind of wish the romance was left out.
It was disappointing, but i still enjoyed it and would read the next novel.
Thanks to bookish first and the publisher for a copy of this book for an honest review.
It had all the pieces of an incredible story. I actually loved the story itself. The plot is what kept me going. I loved the worldbuilding, the four realms, the magic system, and the legendary beasts. The chitrionic magic and how it changed based on the realm you were in was really interesting. How toranic law worked was definitely confusing at first, but I think I understood it by the end. It almost felt like scifi on how technical the magic system felt.
The big miss on this book was in character development. I really didn't connect with the characters. I wasn't rooting for anyone. Arenal in particular was difficult. I thought he was going to have some sort of redemption arc or just become less annoying, but my opinion is him didn't change the entire book. The dialogue was clunky. There was a whole lot of telling not showing. I was very thrown off by the angsty love triangle (?) in this book, though I'm not actually sure that's what I was supposed to pick up. I'm sure it will be explored further in book 2 but I kind of wish the romance was left out.
It was disappointing, but i still enjoyed it and would read the next novel.
Thanks to bookish first and the publisher for a copy of this book for an honest review.