Reviews with content warning for Blood - Autumn's Tithe

3.5 stars. It was fine. It wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t amazing. It was pretty predictable in most spots but the ending surprised me so there’s that. But at the end of the day I have a feeling I’ll forget everything about this book so I can’t give it four stars because it felt a bit forgettable.

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camiandkitread's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

“Autumn’s Tithe” has a great concept and interesting world building, choosing to take a darker approach to the fae than most of the current fantasy books tend to.

Unfortunately, the characters and plot all feel extremely one dimensional. At no point in the book did I feel a connection to any of the characters. There were no scenes that helped develop the characters’ relationships with each other, and thus few scenes for the reader’s to connect with them.

Even the death of a main character lacked to illicit any real emotions from me because we got very few scenes with him. We were told his story, but never shown his character, and so the scene left one feeling nothing as they flipped to the next page.

Additionally, the entire book felt like it had been stripped down to the barest bones, only the most necessary scenes. Since “Autumn’s Tithe” is the first book of a trilogy, this seems like an unusual decision. Stand-alone novels need to make sure every page, every word, counts. But with a series, there’s more room to flesh out your characters and your story, especially in the first book.

Had “Autumn’s Tithe” taken a little more time to explore its characters, all of whom should have been interesting, it would have been a stronger book. I also believe it would have been stronger if more of the world building had been done by showing it to us in descriptions rather than endless info-dumping conversations between the human character and one of her fae companions.

In summary, “Autumn’s Tithe” showed great promise for a darker story, but ultimately it felt lackluster and was kind of a disappointment. The characters felt flat and there was too much telling rather than showing.

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lyricalreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

What a debut force!! With this story, Parker completely revitalized the faerie narrative, something that I left behind years ago. However, I will absolutely read book 2 because I need more of this AUTUMN’S TITHE crew! Also…Parker knows how to dig into the emotions and pain of her readers🥲

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