TBR & Tangents by Rachel

Imagine Hunger Games meets Harry Potter-ish, meets ACATOR-ish. I know it sounds weird but let me tell you, it 100% works!!! This was an entirely unique reading experience, and I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to do an arc read for this debut novel.

At first, I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect with the duel POV. I’m normally not a fan of it at all, but this actually worked out for the better. I found myself actually liking the staggered timelines of Hope and Lenna. It felt almost like a race to figure out when the two would meet, and how they would react to one another. The cast of characters is decently sized, and each held their own unique personality which kept the story interesting. There is a lot of political inner workings and political intrigue that happens within the plot line. Again it’s good for the plot but it’s a lot for the reader to keep track of.

I’ll be honest, I wish there was more snd heavier spice lol. This is 100% my opinion and I will say that I really loved what we got, including the build up to said spice. Because we have two FMC you can in fact expect a few different routes. I will say I thought we would get more LGBTQIA rep but I was mistaken 😅 still overall besides my opinion, I thought it was well done and I really am excited to see the progression in future books.

The world building and magic system is incredible and it absolutely blew me away. There are bits and pieces that reminded me of certain aspects of different books, but nothing felt too copy and pasted. This world is seemingly gigantic, and I would have loved to see more of it. I’m hopeful that we’ll see more of that in the future books. Because this is a magic system that is first of its kind (duh) there is a lot to learn and keep track of. For the most part it’s done well with clear explanations and it’s not all at once. But still, it is a lot of information to process so the story at points can feel kinda bogged down. There were portions of the story that I didn’t really understand the dynamics of at first which created a lot of re-reading. Again not a huge deal but it didn’t flow as seamlessly as I would have liked. 

For a debut novel, I thought this was really, really well done. I noticed a few flaws concerning the tone as well as how the reader was presented information was given, but nothing that definitively ruined the story.

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