kiahgardner's review
3.0
I went back and forth on 3 or 4 stars. I really liked a lot of it, but some parts left me wanting more. The battle scenes were great, but the ending felt a bit too fast for my liking. That being said though, I enjoyed it!
rainlovrr's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
rosiethespy's review
4.0
Some suspension of disbelief required for plot/character motivations, but overall really enjoyable. It's really engaging really quickly, and Eelyn is majorly BA. The story is nice and complete, which I like, but I also want more?
kaitinreallife's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
eva_wissman's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
novelheartbeat's review
4.0
Honor above life.
This book is dark. Gritty. Violent. But it felt raw and realistic, and was heartbreakingly beautiful! What a kickass viking fantasy! I had zero problem picturing everything in my head as it was happening. Young's stunning prose brought the world and characters to life. It was cinematic!
The characters were compelling and real. The characterization of this book is phenomenal. Even the side characters were important. I found myself attached to each and every one of them! The sense of family and loyalty in this story was strong and downright beautiful. I was blown away by how invested I was in each and every character in this book.
Eelyn was a badass! She cried, a lot, but it never seemed whiny or annoying. She was a strong character - full of fire and steel. No matter how many times she got knocked down, she got back up. She wasn't afraid to fight until the very end. Her character arc was incredible!
This book is full of feels to the point that certain relationships and meaningful interactions between characters were enough to make my heart ache. It's so relatable!
As for the romance, I will never get sick of enemies to lovers stories, no matter how cliche it is! And this one was perfect! It took a long time to develop, which is reasonable because they were both raised to hate one another. The hatred between the clans felt palpable. It was deep set, almost sentient.
I have a few minor complaints that keep this book from getting 5 stars. I would have liked to have seen some sacrifice - while I do enjoy a HEA, it seemed unrealistic in comparison to the violence and hardship of the rest of the book. No one really gave anything up in the end. The ending also felt very rushed to me.
Spoiler
The Herja had been built up the entire book as a terrifying demon-like enemy, yet they were defeated in the span of a couple chapters, and with no real loss on the side of the Aska and Riki. There wasn't really much of a fight at all. Also, the life-long prejudice was surmounted fairly easily and I felt like there wasn't enough resistance there. While they were distrustful of each other, as soon as they fought side by side they seemed to give up their hatred just like that. Prejudice like that is deep-seated and not so easily overcome.This review was originally posted on Novel Heartbeat. To see a breakdown of my assessment, please visit the full review here.
annakim's review
4.0
This book was unique in that the author took her inspiration from Viking culture, which is not very common for young adult fiction. As expected, there is a lot of violence and the story is pretty fast-paced. I was able to finish reading it in a couple of days.
c_humo's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0