zabthefab's review against another edition
3.0
The best thing about this book is that you get to relive all the fluff and tension and build up you loved in the first part. You get the perspective of the worrying party and relive all the angst and drama I love it, sign me the f*ck up.
Main point of critique: not enough Delphi, I'm in love with her
Main point of critique: not enough Delphi, I'm in love with her
artsygirl_'s review
3.0
This book series is edgier than I am used to, but I was entertained by the first book enough to want to know what happens. I think I prefer the second book because I like female point of view better and I was more interested in the palace life of the FMC overall. Anyway, I was entertained but wished that there wasn't a cliff hanger...
bloopers's review
1.0
1 star -- would've given 1.5 but as I wrote this review I started realizing how bad this book actually was.
This review does contain slight spoilers for the beginning third of the novel, but no big twists. Also be prepared for some unorganization with some typos here and there.
qn = quick note
tl;dr at the end
————
So lets get the formalities down really quick, I LOVE the cover of the book, along with the synopsis. I was prepared to be a bit bored since this was essentially TSC, just from a different POV, meaning the same tournament, same characters, etc. I was also prepared to get through the sheer length of all 560 pages, hopefully learning more about Thessen along the way!
What I was not prepared for was the disappointment I got from what was essentially a book full of fluff—yes there was some new information here and there but a very unsatisfying amount so. There were many opportunities to take this book to an upper level, but none of them were taken.
I'll get to the main problem of this book, the lack of character depth. I think Leila was supposed to be this bad bitch who would do anything to survive. Instead, I got some random woman murdering people and also was a healer for the first 3/4ths of the book. During that last fourth she finally starts to take action, but the previous events were just so unsatisfying that it passed onto this last section.
Leila's character wasn't well developed, especially her emotions. She follows the personality type of hard on the outside, soft on the inside. While I don't mind this, it's written in a way where it only shows that hard sadness, with only little glimpses of happiness coming every few scenes. Even if it is really like that for Leila, mainly angry and sad, the writing style doesn't capitalize on those emotions and delve deep into their roots, causes, potential change, or the realization that she will always be angry/sad. All these branches to take a character arc, and none of them were taken, and it sucks since I really do want to like Leila.
The same thing goes for all the side characters such as her servant group(Faun, Nix, etc), the entire Senate(the government rulers;Wembleton, Romulous, etc), and other groups I likely forgot to mention. While I understand that side-characters shouldn't be developed as much since they won't be featured as often, it would be nice to have something.(qn: there is a glimmer of hope, Cosmina! One of the Savior's sisters, down a few paras from here)
Since I'm on the topic of characters, I'll go to Tobias and his & Leila's romance. I don't really have much to say about him. He's Tobias, a kind respectful man who's fighting for his family and has a big cock, I barely get to know about him.
(qn: I absolutely hate the amount of times the word "cock" is used. I get that it's better than something like "member" and that the characters are living in a different society so they might use different words, but once you hear/read it so many times it becomes weirdly distorted and uncomfy)
On the topic of romance, it was, like all these characters, underdeveloped. It was more of an insta-love type romance which isn't my personal tastes, but it's okay. There was still time to develop the romance itself, right? All the time used was just a waste of them talking about unimportant events that didn't add character and romance depth which was especially disappointing for Tobias since this was his only source of his development, at least in TSS.
Yes, he does have a whole book based on his POV, but I don't remember that. This leads into something else: how I hoped to refresh my memory on who Tobias was, how the tournament was doing, etc. Like every chapter there would be some scroll or whatever that said something like: "___ died because of ___. ___ won the challenge, expect his reward of ___ soon"
Instead we get the Proctor, Romulous, telling a somewhat informational two-sentence summary of the tournament for like 3 chapters until he just suddenly stops, likely due to plot.
Before I get onto other things, I wanna talk about Cosmia, the sister Leila trades her spot of Savior with. I loved her character, she had this distinct minipulative-royal like voice and I wished that the other characters had this distinction. She is like the perfect combination of a queen, being horny, and manipulation all at the same time and I just wish her backstory was more delved into.
Now, finally, to the plot. It was like so many things would happen, but nothing at the same time. Now to get a few things straight so nobody will be confused, I'll quickly explain what Leila does during the first maybe 3/4ths of the book(this is where the slight spoilers come in):
After learning that she is to die, Leila starts torturing and killing the Senators for information. She recruits Romulous and Wembleton and threatens their life to do some tasks, but overall they're not important. With that explained, lets go on.
Lets say Leila plans to torture a senator. First she wakes up and goes to a Senate meeting where she learns about unmeaningful information about trade, etc. Then she goes and does the deed and gets the information, and barely useful information at that, either vague or unneeded. As a "reward," Leila gets some alone time with Tobias which is also unhelpful in terms of romance and character development. While that's going on, Leila has all these thoughts about what she should do next, how she should go forward, etc, and while I get that path, it does tend to drag on due to other banter with side characters, This is what I mean, so many conversations and actions are happening, but at the end of the day, barely anything is given, say for a secret or rarely two.
I dealt with this for a long time until it just kept going and going and eventually got bored. The information was still so miniscule, I didn't feel any connection or romance between Tobias and Leila, and eventually, the only reason I was reading was because of the hope that it would get better.
It did get better. On chapter 33, The Culmination, 524 pages in the hardcover version of the book. It was also the second-to-last chapter, and quite possibly the only good one since it had drama, twists, good communication, and everything was simply perfect from these 20~ pages.
The thing is, that perfection came too late. 524 pages of trudging through unmeaningful filler, just to get 20 pages of goodness which would soon simply go away in the next(and last) chapter.
This kinda goes with plot, the writing. I liked it, it was engaging, but the content it was included in was boring. It was also descriptive, perhaps too descriptive, but other than that it was... fine. I honestly don't know what to say about this, it was just fine. Oh yeah - the dialogue was written weirdly. I don't know if it was because of word choice, but it constantly changed from 30 - 17 - 25 yrs old which gave me a bit of whiplash.
Now I wanna get into the worldbuilding. There doesn't seem to be any uniqueness from Thessen to somewhere like the U.S. They supposedly eat the same things, speak the same language, wear more-or-less the same clothes the main difference being the inclusion of magic. There is one other nation in particular, Khovaria. They have multiple different dialects, unsure on the food, but do wear different clothes, more focused on practicality than reality.
Now for my one last disappointment, the government. I hoped to learn more about the ins and outs of Thessen because Leila was constantly involved in Senate meetings talking about trade, financial, and other problems. The thing is, all of the information was so *boring*. There wasn't even a bit of drama to keep me interested in all of the boring stuff. This could've been to empathize that Thessen was a perfect nation, but my thoughts constantly moved to other topics like a different dark-fantasy romance novel I could've gotten instead of this one.
---
tl;dr - Promising plot but all contents disappointed me as it was essentially filler and a bridge for the third book. Perhaps a third of the book could be removed and it would be the same. Okay writing, weird dialogue but compensated with good description. Characters were VERY poorly developed(especially Leila), with no knowledge about any of them, along with no unique voices say for a few side characters. Poor romance too; insta-love and I felt no connection during any of their interactions. Poor worldbuilding too, Thessen didn't feel unique and barely anything is learned about it here.
I would strongly recommend not getting this book unless you wanna give Moreci a kind of thanks for giving writing advice, but even so there's still her Patreon and merch store, but in the end it's up to you if you follow a bad or good review.
---
(Unrelated) I'll probably still get TSA(which I'm like 99% sure is The Saviors Assassin) since Leila and Tobias will *FINALLY* get into more of the world (mostly) alone. This means so many more chances to develop characters, romance, and worldbuilding. If this book somehow flops, then all hope for this series is just completely gone for me.
This review does contain slight spoilers for the beginning third of the novel, but no big twists. Also be prepared for some unorganization with some typos here and there.
qn = quick note
tl;dr at the end
————
So lets get the formalities down really quick, I LOVE the cover of the book, along with the synopsis. I was prepared to be a bit bored since this was essentially TSC, just from a different POV, meaning the same tournament, same characters, etc. I was also prepared to get through the sheer length of all 560 pages, hopefully learning more about Thessen along the way!
What I was not prepared for was the disappointment I got from what was essentially a book full of fluff—yes there was some new information here and there but a very unsatisfying amount so. There were many opportunities to take this book to an upper level, but none of them were taken.
I'll get to the main problem of this book, the lack of character depth. I think Leila was supposed to be this bad bitch who would do anything to survive. Instead, I got some random woman murdering people and also was a healer for the first 3/4ths of the book. During that last fourth she finally starts to take action, but the previous events were just so unsatisfying that it passed onto this last section.
Leila's character wasn't well developed, especially her emotions. She follows the personality type of hard on the outside, soft on the inside. While I don't mind this, it's written in a way where it only shows that hard sadness, with only little glimpses of happiness coming every few scenes. Even if it is really like that for Leila, mainly angry and sad, the writing style doesn't capitalize on those emotions and delve deep into their roots, causes, potential change, or the realization that she will always be angry/sad. All these branches to take a character arc, and none of them were taken, and it sucks since I really do want to like Leila.
The same thing goes for all the side characters such as her servant group(Faun, Nix, etc), the entire Senate(the government rulers;Wembleton, Romulous, etc), and other groups I likely forgot to mention. While I understand that side-characters shouldn't be developed as much since they won't be featured as often, it would be nice to have something.(qn: there is a glimmer of hope, Cosmina! One of the Savior's sisters, down a few paras from here)
Since I'm on the topic of characters, I'll go to Tobias and his & Leila's romance. I don't really have much to say about him. He's Tobias, a kind respectful man who's fighting for his family and has a big cock, I barely get to know about him.
(qn: I absolutely hate the amount of times the word "cock" is used. I get that it's better than something like "member" and that the characters are living in a different society so they might use different words, but once you hear/read it so many times it becomes weirdly distorted and uncomfy)
On the topic of romance, it was, like all these characters, underdeveloped. It was more of an insta-love type romance which isn't my personal tastes, but it's okay. There was still time to develop the romance itself, right? All the time used was just a waste of them talking about unimportant events that didn't add character and romance depth which was especially disappointing for Tobias since this was his only source of his development, at least in TSS.
Yes, he does have a whole book based on his POV, but I don't remember that. This leads into something else: how I hoped to refresh my memory on who Tobias was, how the tournament was doing, etc. Like every chapter there would be some scroll or whatever that said something like: "___ died because of ___. ___ won the challenge, expect his reward of ___ soon"
Instead we get the Proctor, Romulous, telling a somewhat informational two-sentence summary of the tournament for like 3 chapters until he just suddenly stops, likely due to plot.
Before I get onto other things, I wanna talk about Cosmia, the sister Leila trades her spot of Savior with. I loved her character, she had this distinct minipulative-royal like voice and I wished that the other characters had this distinction. She is like the perfect combination of a queen, being horny, and manipulation all at the same time and I just wish her backstory was more delved into.
Now, finally, to the plot. It was like so many things would happen, but nothing at the same time. Now to get a few things straight so nobody will be confused, I'll quickly explain what Leila does during the first maybe 3/4ths of the book(this is where the slight spoilers come in):
After learning that she is to die, Leila starts torturing and killing the Senators for information. She recruits Romulous and Wembleton and threatens their life to do some tasks, but overall they're not important. With that explained, lets go on.
Lets say Leila plans to torture a senator. First she wakes up and goes to a Senate meeting where she learns about unmeaningful information about trade, etc. Then she goes and does the deed and gets the information, and barely useful information at that, either vague or unneeded. As a "reward," Leila gets some alone time with Tobias which is also unhelpful in terms of romance and character development. While that's going on, Leila has all these thoughts about what she should do next, how she should go forward, etc, and while I get that path, it does tend to drag on due to other banter with side characters, This is what I mean, so many conversations and actions are happening, but at the end of the day, barely anything is given, say for a secret or rarely two.
I dealt with this for a long time until it just kept going and going and eventually got bored. The information was still so miniscule, I didn't feel any connection or romance between Tobias and Leila, and eventually, the only reason I was reading was because of the hope that it would get better.
It did get better. On chapter 33, The Culmination, 524 pages in the hardcover version of the book. It was also the second-to-last chapter, and quite possibly the only good one since it had drama, twists, good communication, and everything was simply perfect from these 20~ pages.
The thing is, that perfection came too late. 524 pages of trudging through unmeaningful filler, just to get 20 pages of goodness which would soon simply go away in the next(and last) chapter.
This kinda goes with plot, the writing. I liked it, it was engaging, but the content it was included in was boring. It was also descriptive, perhaps too descriptive, but other than that it was... fine. I honestly don't know what to say about this, it was just fine. Oh yeah - the dialogue was written weirdly. I don't know if it was because of word choice, but it constantly changed from 30 - 17 - 25 yrs old which gave me a bit of whiplash.
Now I wanna get into the worldbuilding. There doesn't seem to be any uniqueness from Thessen to somewhere like the U.S. They supposedly eat the same things, speak the same language, wear more-or-less the same clothes the main difference being the inclusion of magic. There is one other nation in particular, Khovaria. They have multiple different dialects, unsure on the food, but do wear different clothes, more focused on practicality than reality.
Now for my one last disappointment, the government. I hoped to learn more about the ins and outs of Thessen because Leila was constantly involved in Senate meetings talking about trade, financial, and other problems. The thing is, all of the information was so *boring*. There wasn't even a bit of drama to keep me interested in all of the boring stuff. This could've been to empathize that Thessen was a perfect nation, but my thoughts constantly moved to other topics like a different dark-fantasy romance novel I could've gotten instead of this one.
---
tl;dr - Promising plot but all contents disappointed me as it was essentially filler and a bridge for the third book. Perhaps a third of the book could be removed and it would be the same. Okay writing, weird dialogue but compensated with good description. Characters were VERY poorly developed(especially Leila), with no knowledge about any of them, along with no unique voices say for a few side characters. Poor romance too; insta-love and I felt no connection during any of their interactions. Poor worldbuilding too, Thessen didn't feel unique and barely anything is learned about it here.
I would strongly recommend not getting this book unless you wanna give Moreci a kind of thanks for giving writing advice, but even so there's still her Patreon and merch store, but in the end it's up to you if you follow a bad or good review.
---
(Unrelated) I'll probably still get TSA(which I'm like 99% sure is The Saviors Assassin) since Leila and Tobias will *FINALLY* get into more of the world (mostly) alone. This means so many more chances to develop characters, romance, and worldbuilding. If this book somehow flops, then all hope for this series is just completely gone for me.
honeybee_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
red_sky's review
1.0
I had so much hope for this book. I was so excited leading up the release, but I could not be more disappointed.
Nowhere did it say that this was a retelling of TSC. I specifically avoided reviews because I didn't want to see spoilers, but I think that should have been more clear. It is misleading to label it book 2 establishing expectations of a sequel.
***spoilers****
I rated THC 5 starts when I read it and it became one of my favorite books despite some flaws. This book however has actually ruined the first books for me as well.
The savior was so selfish, shallow, and one dimensional. Her whole motivation for not telling Tobias that she is the savior is because he says 'he hates the savior' when he is clearly referring to Cosima. Because of that she let's him go to his death in the arena without a blessing because she is throwing a tantrum.
At least in TSC it was ambiguous enough that I assumed Leila had some good reason for everything she did that would be explained later. Well, this book explained her every thought and her reasons were just as shallow and selfish as they appeared with nothing below the surface. She is mean and hurtful to all her friends which she thinks of as servants but yet the still loved her unconditionally, cause reasons I guess.
The sovereign was one of the worst villains I have ever read. In the first book I though he was a good B plot villain. Scary and in the background but he wasn't the main threat to Tobias (the tournament was.) The sovereign is a mustache twirling villain with no thought behind his actions. His entire motivation are just to hurt Leila because he is eeevil. He openly hates and undermines her but yet the people of the palace are shocked that he isn't this loving father. He goes out of his way to kill the artist even though there is no reason reason to other than to make Leila suffer. This is not the plans of a smart leader who (in my opinion) would be happy Leila is distracted making it easier to carry out his plans. How does killing the artist help him? And Im talking about earlier in the story when he wasn't a threat of actually winning, but simply someone leila liked. He only wanted to kill him for pleasure and to make leila suffer because eeevil. He had no depth and his plans were stupid and ill conceived (and no, that's not me saying I want a 3rd book from his point of view.)
Rereading the exact conversations from the first book was tedious and didn't add anything to the world.
The magic was inconsistent at best, and used mainly as a plot device.
The characters were inconsistent, especially leila, who claims to love Tobias but would then forget that there were even challenges happening until he came back to the palace covered in blood and disturbed.
There is more I could say about this book but over all it took things from the first book and over explained them into stupidity, retroactively distroying the actions and character motivation from the first book.
It would take a lot to get me to pick up book 3 considering every review on here seems to be paid for anyway. Very disappointed in a story and author I previously had a lot or respect for.
Nowhere did it say that this was a retelling of TSC. I specifically avoided reviews because I didn't want to see spoilers, but I think that should have been more clear. It is misleading to label it book 2 establishing expectations of a sequel.
***spoilers****
I rated THC 5 starts when I read it and it became one of my favorite books despite some flaws. This book however has actually ruined the first books for me as well.
The savior was so selfish, shallow, and one dimensional. Her whole motivation for not telling Tobias that she is the savior is because he says 'he hates the savior' when he is clearly referring to Cosima. Because of that she let's him go to his death in the arena without a blessing because she is throwing a tantrum.
At least in TSC it was ambiguous enough that I assumed Leila had some good reason for everything she did that would be explained later. Well, this book explained her every thought and her reasons were just as shallow and selfish as they appeared with nothing below the surface. She is mean and hurtful to all her friends which she thinks of as servants but yet the still loved her unconditionally, cause reasons I guess.
The sovereign was one of the worst villains I have ever read. In the first book I though he was a good B plot villain. Scary and in the background but he wasn't the main threat to Tobias (the tournament was.) The sovereign is a mustache twirling villain with no thought behind his actions. His entire motivation are just to hurt Leila because he is eeevil. He openly hates and undermines her but yet the people of the palace are shocked that he isn't this loving father. He goes out of his way to kill the artist even though there is no reason reason to other than to make Leila suffer. This is not the plans of a smart leader who (in my opinion) would be happy Leila is distracted making it easier to carry out his plans. How does killing the artist help him? And Im talking about earlier in the story when he wasn't a threat of actually winning, but simply someone leila liked. He only wanted to kill him for pleasure and to make leila suffer because eeevil. He had no depth and his plans were stupid and ill conceived (and no, that's not me saying I want a 3rd book from his point of view.)
Rereading the exact conversations from the first book was tedious and didn't add anything to the world.
The magic was inconsistent at best, and used mainly as a plot device.
The characters were inconsistent, especially leila, who claims to love Tobias but would then forget that there were even challenges happening until he came back to the palace covered in blood and disturbed.
There is more I could say about this book but over all it took things from the first book and over explained them into stupidity, retroactively distroying the actions and character motivation from the first book.
It would take a lot to get me to pick up book 3 considering every review on here seems to be paid for anyway. Very disappointed in a story and author I previously had a lot or respect for.
cegj's review
1.0
I hoped this would be better than the Savior's Champion, but it was worse.
Pros: This book did answer pretty much all of the questions and confusion that TSC left me with.
HOWEVER, companion novels should be able to stand on their own, and having to invest in another half-baked book for the other half-baked book to make sense is nothing but a greedy marketing ploy. I can appreciate the full story of the Sovereign's Tournament now, but I should have been able to figure it out independently rather than relying on two 500 word books to tell one crazy, frustrating story.
Cons: The grammatical choice to capitalise all of Leila's pronouns was distracting and disorienting, and for me it had a huge impact on the readability, syntax and flow of the novel.
This book made me hate Leila and Delphi. There was so much wasted potential in these characters, and the story could have been so compelling, especially in the exploration of Cosima, who I think did a wonderful job at playing Savior. I would have loved to see Pippa explored more too—and not as "duckling", but as an adult woman. Her portrayal was extremely problematic for reasons I don't think I need to explain.
This book was riddled with misogyny and misandry, which was a huge problem for me simply because the characters couldn't even do that justice. To sum up TSS, I couldn't use anything but "shallow"—that applies to the plot, the characters, and the concept of companion novels in general.
And yet, I will be reading the next books in this series because I'm invested in seeing improvement in this story. It can be saved, and I really hope that Moreci takes the reader feedback on board and puts more effort into characterisation and intelligent plotting.
Pros: This book did answer pretty much all of the questions and confusion that TSC left me with.
HOWEVER, companion novels should be able to stand on their own, and having to invest in another half-baked book for the other half-baked book to make sense is nothing but a greedy marketing ploy. I can appreciate the full story of the Sovereign's Tournament now, but I should have been able to figure it out independently rather than relying on two 500 word books to tell one crazy, frustrating story.
Cons: The grammatical choice to capitalise all of Leila's pronouns was distracting and disorienting, and for me it had a huge impact on the readability, syntax and flow of the novel.
This book made me hate Leila and Delphi. There was so much wasted potential in these characters, and the story could have been so compelling, especially in the exploration of Cosima, who I think did a wonderful job at playing Savior. I would have loved to see Pippa explored more too—and not as "duckling", but as an adult woman. Her portrayal was extremely problematic for reasons I don't think I need to explain.
This book was riddled with misogyny and misandry, which was a huge problem for me simply because the characters couldn't even do that justice. To sum up TSS, I couldn't use anything but "shallow"—that applies to the plot, the characters, and the concept of companion novels in general.
And yet, I will be reading the next books in this series because I'm invested in seeing improvement in this story. It can be saved, and I really hope that Moreci takes the reader feedback on board and puts more effort into characterisation and intelligent plotting.
mandimoon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
3.25
I enjoyed this book a lot more than the 1st one, I wish the 1st and 2nd were somehow in tandem instead of the same story in a differnt perspective and as their own book. But I did get a lot more backstory and world building with this one. I will read the 3rd one.
writehollydavis's review
5.0
Ahhh I devoured this book!! Loved reading all the scenes from Leila's POV plus all the hidden happenings we never saw in TSC. It made everything come together full circle. Jenna weaved the story and two POVs from two books seamlessly. I was hooked!
ngreads's review
2.0
First off, spoilers for The Savior's Champion to come. If, for whatever reason, you are reading a review of book two without reading book one. So. You know. Spoilers.
There's a couple things to know about me before going into this review.
1. I don't think I've ever read a companion book. I mostly read fantasy, where companion novels are few and far between.
2. I don't often reread books. I reread parts and scenes that come to mind, but I rarely reread a book from cover to cover.
This is important, because not only is it a companion novel, it's a companion novel that has many scenes that are exactly the same aside from perspective character.
But, enough of that. Here's the good, the bad, and the hot take at the end.
The Good:
- Leila's a fun enough character to read. She's spunky. I like spunky.
- The writing, once again, is pretty decent.
- The romance between Leila and Tobias (when it's not feeling angsty), was still pretty dang cute. I like cute romances.
The Bad:
- Let's talk villains for a moment.
Personally, when I read, I want to read a villain that makes my skin crawl. I want to have the urge to look away while they're on the page, but for them to have enough charisma for me to be unable to take my eyes off them. A character like Straff Venture in Mistborn, or Hojo in Final Fantasy VII, or Blackjack Randall in Outlander.
In The Savior's Champion, I had that with Kaleo. He gave me the creeps that I desired.
In The Savior's Sister, we are more focused on Brontes as the villain, and I couldn't take him seriously.
Here's the thing: to me, an overt asshole of a villain isn't scary or threatening. They're a loudmouthed twat who is too obvious and too overt to be an actual threat. They feel like a red herring.
Brontes didn't scare me. I get he's an abuser, but he was so overt about his abuse that it became almost laughable. Like, gee. Maybe calling your daughter - WHO IS LITERALLY WORSHIPPED AS A GODDESS - a daft cunt or a stupid bitch PRACTICALLY IN PUBLIC - isn't a smart move. And I get that he's meant to be an idiot, but that's not scary to me. He's supposed to be a loud mouthed asshole but he's ALSO supposed to be a mastermind in some ways, I think? Cunning and plotting and all that. But he's being that overt about his abuse? Really?
I couldn't buy him as an abuser. If he had been abusing her in private while putting on the face of a loving father everywhere else so that nobody would ever believe her when she tries to come forward about how he treats her, more like a narcissist or a real abuser, ESPECIALLY considering his position of power, I would have actually bought him. As he was I found him to just be a loudmouthed asshole, all bluster and no threat.
- The magic system really wasn't explained well. In book one, it seemed like the 'light' gave her the ability to heal the land and hold back the darkness. This makes sense with her healing and such. But now I don't know where that fits with teleportation. Is it because she's connected to the land? That doesn't seem to be the case. And, neat as it was, why could she see ghosts and emotions? There doesn't seem to be even a central theme to her magic, such as healing. It was kind of all over the place. I don't know what her magic was capable of. She could have suddenly shapeshifted or gained mind control and I would have believed it because I don't know what her abilities are. I'm hoping for more in the next book, but as it is I'm just lost as to what her powers are supposed to be.
- The language issue was back, but because I was rereading the same story again, all the issues I had with book one were amplified. The big one I noticed here, though, was that people are constantly saying things like 'God dammit' or 'Oh my God' or 'Oh God', but no religious system is ever mentioned. So...is there a religion? Why are you saying God? The Savior is the closest thing to a deity ever mentioned, so why aren't people swearing by the Savior? You call The Savior the Gift of God, but what is the relationship the people have with God? How do they view him? If we knew what the relationship with God is like, then we could even have Tobias's actual name meaning 'God is Good' used, rather than just 'Goodness.' If God didn't exist in this world, Goodness would have worked. If they worship a God, why not use 'God is Good'? So. You know. I have questions. I am confusion.
There's also the fact that Leila's pronouns are always capitalized, which is normally reserved for a deity. Here's the thing - we're reading from her POV, which means she mentally sees herself as a deity, though that doesn't seem to be in her character. She takes her power and position seriously, but I never saw her as thinking of herself as a god. I found it kind of jarring to read.
Also, cock. If you know, you know.
- How is it that there is somehow WAY MORE sexual conversation and objectification from the female characters than the male characters? Holy crap. Is every woman just the most horny being to ever exist? I don't mind a more sexually focused female character or female characters talking about sex, but there was something very uncomfortable about how characters we were supposed to like and root for were constantly objectifying and talking about Tobias like he was a piece of meat, while the male characters were condemned for speaking similarly about female characters in TSC. If it's being condemned in one direction, it should be condemned in the other. (Basically, how would it have been treated if a writer wrote about men talking about a female character the way Leila's servants spoke of Tobias? That kind of thing.)
- Artists - especially realism artists/ oil painters - use references. That's how they make things realistic. They don't just have a catalogue of images to paint in their heads. Unless they've painted something A LOT, odds are it's not going to be photorealistic. It would be impressionist, at best.
Tobias sketching Leila while being able to look at her is fine. Him painting flawless lilies while he hasn't so much as looked at a lily for the entire book is a little shocking, particularly since he hasn't been actively painting in years. Unless he was doing a crapload of flower studies during his training, I don't think he's going to be painting flawless lilies without a reference any time soon.
Yeah, it's a nitpick, but while I'm here I might as well bring it up.
- This felt a lot more romance heavy. I don't know why, it just did. It also felt angstier and a LOT more dramatic. Don't know why, it just did. I'm not a huge fan of angst and large amounts of drama, so that's just a me thing. If you're into it, you'll probably love it here.
- Edit, because I noticed another thing...
Hot Take:
In my honest opinion, The Savior's Champion and The Savior's Sister should have been combined into one book. Knowing who Leila is through Savior's Champion wouldn't ruin the book. (For example, I knew from basically the moment she showed up who she was in Savior's Champion, and it was still a tense enough read). A twist or a secret can still be effective if the reader knows what it is - what matters more is how the character reacts and how it changes the story. So long as we know why the character is keeping the secret, it can work.
The entire time I was reading, I felt like I was missing out on the action. It was a tournament story where we only saw the events outside of the tournament. The best comparison I can think of is if we had a companion novel to the Hunger Games that only followed Haymitch dealing with people in the Capitol. That's what it felt like to me.
Because of this, the story felt like it was missing half the plot, and half the tension. A lot of the tension and excitement in TSC came from Tobias in the Tournament - and while there was political intrigue in TSS, it didn't carry the momentum of the plot nearly as well as TSC. By the end, I found that I had to remind myself to pick the book up and keep reading, and was skimming most of the chapters that I had already seen through Tobias's POV just to get to the new content. I didn't care about seeing things I had already seen, I just wanted it to end.
I know it would require sacrificing certain scenes and replacing them with 'tell' moments, where a character thinks back on an event rather than having the reader experience the event with them. It would also require a bit of timeline shifting. It would be a bit more complex. But I think it would have made a MUCH stronger story than having the views split. The scenes from the opposite character's POV could just as easily be made into a bonus section, or put into a deleted scenes page on a website.
I'll still read The Savior's Army when it comes out. I still would like to see where it all goes, but I really hope that it's dual perspective next time. I have no desire to read another companion novel - I'd rather have both sides of the story shown in one book, with bonus content if need be.
There's a couple things to know about me before going into this review.
1. I don't think I've ever read a companion book. I mostly read fantasy, where companion novels are few and far between.
2. I don't often reread books. I reread parts and scenes that come to mind, but I rarely reread a book from cover to cover.
This is important, because not only is it a companion novel, it's a companion novel that has many scenes that are exactly the same aside from perspective character.
But, enough of that. Here's the good, the bad, and the hot take at the end.
The Good:
- Leila's a fun enough character to read. She's spunky. I like spunky.
- The writing, once again, is pretty decent.
- The romance between Leila and Tobias (when it's not feeling angsty), was still pretty dang cute. I like cute romances.
The Bad:
- Let's talk villains for a moment.
Personally, when I read, I want to read a villain that makes my skin crawl. I want to have the urge to look away while they're on the page, but for them to have enough charisma for me to be unable to take my eyes off them. A character like Straff Venture in Mistborn, or Hojo in Final Fantasy VII, or Blackjack Randall in Outlander.
In The Savior's Champion, I had that with Kaleo. He gave me the creeps that I desired.
In The Savior's Sister, we are more focused on Brontes as the villain, and I couldn't take him seriously.
Here's the thing: to me, an overt asshole of a villain isn't scary or threatening. They're a loudmouthed twat who is too obvious and too overt to be an actual threat. They feel like a red herring.
Brontes didn't scare me. I get he's an abuser, but he was so overt about his abuse that it became almost laughable. Like, gee. Maybe calling your daughter - WHO IS LITERALLY WORSHIPPED AS A GODDESS - a daft cunt or a stupid bitch PRACTICALLY IN PUBLIC - isn't a smart move. And I get that he's meant to be an idiot, but that's not scary to me. He's supposed to be a loud mouthed asshole but he's ALSO supposed to be a mastermind in some ways, I think? Cunning and plotting and all that. But he's being that overt about his abuse? Really?
I couldn't buy him as an abuser. If he had been abusing her in private while putting on the face of a loving father everywhere else so that nobody would ever believe her when she tries to come forward about how he treats her, more like a narcissist or a real abuser, ESPECIALLY considering his position of power, I would have actually bought him. As he was I found him to just be a loudmouthed asshole, all bluster and no threat.
- The magic system really wasn't explained well. In book one, it seemed like the 'light' gave her the ability to heal the land and hold back the darkness. This makes sense with her healing and such. But now I don't know where that fits with teleportation. Is it because she's connected to the land? That doesn't seem to be the case. And, neat as it was, why could she see ghosts and emotions? There doesn't seem to be even a central theme to her magic, such as healing. It was kind of all over the place. I don't know what her magic was capable of. She could have suddenly shapeshifted or gained mind control and I would have believed it because I don't know what her abilities are. I'm hoping for more in the next book, but as it is I'm just lost as to what her powers are supposed to be.
- The language issue was back, but because I was rereading the same story again, all the issues I had with book one were amplified. The big one I noticed here, though, was that people are constantly saying things like 'God dammit' or 'Oh my God' or 'Oh God', but no religious system is ever mentioned. So...is there a religion? Why are you saying God? The Savior is the closest thing to a deity ever mentioned, so why aren't people swearing by the Savior? You call The Savior the Gift of God, but what is the relationship the people have with God? How do they view him? If we knew what the relationship with God is like, then we could even have Tobias's actual name meaning 'God is Good' used, rather than just 'Goodness.' If God didn't exist in this world, Goodness would have worked. If they worship a God, why not use 'God is Good'? So. You know. I have questions. I am confusion.
There's also the fact that Leila's pronouns are always capitalized, which is normally reserved for a deity. Here's the thing - we're reading from her POV, which means she mentally sees herself as a deity, though that doesn't seem to be in her character. She takes her power and position seriously, but I never saw her as thinking of herself as a god. I found it kind of jarring to read.
Also, cock. If you know, you know.
- How is it that there is somehow WAY MORE sexual conversation and objectification from the female characters than the male characters? Holy crap. Is every woman just the most horny being to ever exist? I don't mind a more sexually focused female character or female characters talking about sex, but there was something very uncomfortable about how characters we were supposed to like and root for were constantly objectifying and talking about Tobias like he was a piece of meat, while the male characters were condemned for speaking similarly about female characters in TSC. If it's being condemned in one direction, it should be condemned in the other. (Basically, how would it have been treated if a writer wrote about men talking about a female character the way Leila's servants spoke of Tobias? That kind of thing.)
- Artists - especially realism artists/ oil painters - use references. That's how they make things realistic. They don't just have a catalogue of images to paint in their heads. Unless they've painted something A LOT, odds are it's not going to be photorealistic. It would be impressionist, at best.
Tobias sketching Leila while being able to look at her is fine. Him painting flawless lilies while he hasn't so much as looked at a lily for the entire book is a little shocking, particularly since he hasn't been actively painting in years. Unless he was doing a crapload of flower studies during his training, I don't think he's going to be painting flawless lilies without a reference any time soon.
Yeah, it's a nitpick, but while I'm here I might as well bring it up.
- This felt a lot more romance heavy. I don't know why, it just did. It also felt angstier and a LOT more dramatic. Don't know why, it just did. I'm not a huge fan of angst and large amounts of drama, so that's just a me thing. If you're into it, you'll probably love it here.
- Edit, because I noticed another thing...
Spoiler
How does Tobias know how to read? It's said that he had no tutors during the sparring scene in the labyrinth, which implies he's uneducated. Which means he should probably be illiterate, unless he was taught by some other source. If so, what is his level of education? Who taught him to read? Why does he have such a love for the scrolls that Leila shows him, and knows his spelling and whatnot? Did his art teacher teach him? I can believe an uneducated man getting an apprenticeship with a great artist based on talent alone, but Tobias seems to go from uneducated to literary nerd when the plot finds it convenient for an admittedly cute moment. This is an issue in Champion as well, but this is the book that gave me pause - BECAUSE I WAS READING THE SAME STORY AGAIN, AND THUS HAD TIME TO HAVE THESE QUESTIONS GET RAISED IN MY HEAD. So...yeah. This goes into the worldbuilding issues, but I'm very curious about the average level of education in this world. You can't have a character who is confused about tutors and complaining that he didn't have an education, and then have him well versed in classical poetry a few chapters later.Hot Take:
In my honest opinion, The Savior's Champion and The Savior's Sister should have been combined into one book. Knowing who Leila is through Savior's Champion wouldn't ruin the book. (For example, I knew from basically the moment she showed up who she was in Savior's Champion, and it was still a tense enough read). A twist or a secret can still be effective if the reader knows what it is - what matters more is how the character reacts and how it changes the story. So long as we know why the character is keeping the secret, it can work.
The entire time I was reading, I felt like I was missing out on the action. It was a tournament story where we only saw the events outside of the tournament. The best comparison I can think of is if we had a companion novel to the Hunger Games that only followed Haymitch dealing with people in the Capitol. That's what it felt like to me.
Because of this, the story felt like it was missing half the plot, and half the tension. A lot of the tension and excitement in TSC came from Tobias in the Tournament - and while there was political intrigue in TSS, it didn't carry the momentum of the plot nearly as well as TSC. By the end, I found that I had to remind myself to pick the book up and keep reading, and was skimming most of the chapters that I had already seen through Tobias's POV just to get to the new content. I didn't care about seeing things I had already seen, I just wanted it to end.
I know it would require sacrificing certain scenes and replacing them with 'tell' moments, where a character thinks back on an event rather than having the reader experience the event with them. It would also require a bit of timeline shifting. It would be a bit more complex. But I think it would have made a MUCH stronger story than having the views split. The scenes from the opposite character's POV could just as easily be made into a bonus section, or put into a deleted scenes page on a website.
I'll still read The Savior's Army when it comes out. I still would like to see where it all goes, but I really hope that it's dual perspective next time. I have no desire to read another companion novel - I'd rather have both sides of the story shown in one book, with bonus content if need be.
sfitzgerald04's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0