Three out of five stars
I would like to thank Boldwood Books for providing me with a free electronic ARC of this book, via Netgalley. The decision to read this book is my choice and any reviews given are obligation free.
An entertaining read that has the potential to lead to being book one in a great series.
I really enjoyed reading it, but being the reviewer I am, will include constructive criticism.
Firstly, it’s a great book, but not what I’d call historical fiction or sci-fi fantasy. But that may just be due to the limit options of genres offered by Netgalley when listing your book. To me, it was more a YA spec fic. And an entertaining one. The romance was definitely there, but came across as a little “cookie cutter” for me. And the drawn out reveal was drawn out a little too long.
I found the pace of the story good, but a tad too slow in places, and overly wordy in a way that looked like the author was told to beef out the word count, rather than add more story. If that makes sense. Then again, it was the first book and had a lot of world building to do. It just seemed a little over crammed with not much more than endless, repeated details. Good details! But, yes, over done.
But it was a lovely, almost original, concept that really does set the scene for a potentially entertaining series.
I know most of what my review says sounds harsh, but it truly was a fun read, and an author and (hopefully) series I will look out for.
Janis's Journal 