Thank you to Union Square & Co. for providing this book as a digital galley in exchange for an honest review!
One Sentence Summary:
Keera, the King’s Blade, debates joining a rebellion of her kind to put an end to her employer’s tyranny.
My Review:
I’d like to first say that this is much more of a positive 3/5 than it is negative. However, it is a 2.75/5, mostly because of the writing, which I’ll talk about in a minute.
As always, let’s start off with our characters. The main two here are Keera, a Halfling and the king’s Blade, and her rival, Riven, a Dark Fae and the Shadow thwarting her. Keera deals a lot with trauma from the death of an old friend and her alcohol addiction, so keep that in mind when going to read! Also TW for self harm post-kills. Keera is such a complex character, which I love. There’s an element of mystery about her even though the book itself is first person POV. Additionally, Riven has a very similar feel of suspense. He and Keera talk to one another, but in a way that promotes healthiness, not a way that demolishes the mystery of them and their relationship. I definitely didn’t have any complaints here!
Next, our relationships! Although we do see background platonic relationships, the only relationships Keera is a part of are her budding friendships with Syrra and Nikolai and her romance with Riven. However, all of these develop slowly and organically. Keera can’t trust the people she meets in the Fae lands and they don’t trust her, which makes for the development of some really interesting relationships. I loved how by the end, you can see just how much they all care for one another and how far they’ve come.
Lastly, plot/worldbuilding and in this case, writing, Starting off with the positive, I really liked the plot. I thought it was predictable at times, but it was also readable and everything was both understandable and relevant. Although I do prefer to have less Capital Letter Species in my fantasy worlds, I thought the world-building elements were great too. I had no trouble understanding the politics and building blocks, but they were fun to learn about. My real issue lay in the writing. I wouldn’t call it BAD, but I thought it was a bit weak compared to other works. Obviously this could happen in any first person work, but I found the constant use of “I did [x], I did [y],” to be grating at one point. It felt like Blair was running out of ways to switch things up. Additionally, it seemed so matter-of-fact at times that the writing didn’t flow as well. This is a very common, slightly stupid phrase when it comes to writing, but to quote it, it was always telling, not showing. I did like the book, but that prevented it from being four or five stars for me.
I’d definitely recommend this for fans of darker fantasy books, NA, and enemies to lovers with lots of character development. The writing just wasn’t quite there for me, but I’m confident that I and a lot of other people can enjoy this book.
⭐⭐✨/5 (2.75)
The Fiction Feature 