karpidiem11's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
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? Yes
5.0
bookish_spoonie's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
3 Stars
I was so excited for this book as it sounded like my kind of read. Unfortunately it just didn't work for me overall, although I did enjoy parts of it.
Faebound is based in a world where there were once Fae, Elves and Humans but the humans were killed off. Our two lead characters (we read through both their POVs) are elves and sisters. Yeeran, the elder sister is high up in their army which is fighting against another section of elves over an energy source. Lettle, the younger sister works with divination and learns prophecies. When Yeeran goes against orders, she is exiled into lands beyond where the elves live. Lettle and Rayan (one of Yeeran's top soldiers) follow to find Yeeran. After an incident, they are all captured by Fae that haven't been seen in a millennium and taken to their underground world.
The story and worldbuilding was decent but I did find it overall lacking in detail. I found the story to be very obvious to the point I guessed all of the twists and turns very early in the book. This was made worse by the prophecies used in the story that were so obvious and just spelled out exactly what was going to happen. It made the story rather predictable and boring. This was made worse by the first 75% of the book being so slow and lacking in any real action. It was dull and if I hadn't been given the book as an eARC, I would have DNFed early on. The POVs of both sisters made this worse as they both found out the same information the chapter after the other and meant it felt like I was reading the same thing twice. The last 25% was much better but unfortunately not enough to save the book for me.
I did like the magic used and my favourite aspect of the story was the animal companions that brought the only humour and personality to the page. I also liked the world of the Fae which sounded magical and I could easily visualise it.
The writing was decent and held my attention. It was the story that let this book down. I constantly wanted the story to pick up pace but unfortunately it stayed quite dull and slow for the majority.
The human characters were lacking in any real personality. Although I generally liked them, I didn't feel any real connection to them. My favourite character were Lettle and Rayan as they had the most about them and I enjoyed both of their growth through the book.
The romances were mixed. Again, I liked Lettle and Rayan's romance, it was sweet and grew naturally. I wanted it to work and cared about the outcome which wasn't the case for Yeeran's romance. That was lacking in any real growth, it went from hatred to love in 1.5 seconds and just didn't feel realistic. Also the smut scenes were boring and could have easily not been there.
Overall, this just hit the 3 Star mark for me. The story and a few characters let the writing and imagination down. I don't think I will be continuing this series and sadly wouldn't recommend it as there are better similar books out there.
Please note that I was given this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
I was so excited for this book as it sounded like my kind of read. Unfortunately it just didn't work for me overall, although I did enjoy parts of it.
Faebound is based in a world where there were once Fae, Elves and Humans but the humans were killed off. Our two lead characters (we read through both their POVs) are elves and sisters. Yeeran, the elder sister is high up in their army which is fighting against another section of elves over an energy source. Lettle, the younger sister works with divination and learns prophecies. When Yeeran goes against orders, she is exiled into lands beyond where the elves live. Lettle and Rayan (one of Yeeran's top soldiers) follow to find Yeeran. After an incident, they are all captured by Fae that haven't been seen in a millennium and taken to their underground world.
The story and worldbuilding was decent but I did find it overall lacking in detail. I found the story to be very obvious to the point I guessed all of the twists and turns very early in the book. This was made worse by the prophecies used in the story that were so obvious and just spelled out exactly what was going to happen. It made the story rather predictable and boring. This was made worse by the first 75% of the book being so slow and lacking in any real action. It was dull and if I hadn't been given the book as an eARC, I would have DNFed early on. The POVs of both sisters made this worse as they both found out the same information the chapter after the other and meant it felt like I was reading the same thing twice. The last 25% was much better but unfortunately not enough to save the book for me.
I did like the magic used and my favourite aspect of the story was the animal companions that brought the only humour and personality to the page. I also liked the world of the Fae which sounded magical and I could easily visualise it.
The writing was decent and held my attention. It was the story that let this book down. I constantly wanted the story to pick up pace but unfortunately it stayed quite dull and slow for the majority.
The human characters were lacking in any real personality. Although I generally liked them, I didn't feel any real connection to them. My favourite character were Lettle and Rayan as they had the most about them and I enjoyed both of their growth through the book.
The romances were mixed. Again, I liked Lettle and Rayan's romance, it was sweet and grew naturally. I wanted it to work and cared about the outcome which wasn't the case for Yeeran's romance. That was lacking in any real growth, it went from hatred to love in 1.5 seconds and just didn't feel realistic. Also the smut scenes were boring and could have easily not been there.
Overall, this just hit the 3 Star mark for me. The story and a few characters let the writing and imagination down. I don't think I will be continuing this series and sadly wouldn't recommend it as there are better similar books out there.
Please note that I was given this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
rubywhatashmoo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
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? Yes
4.5
abhimanyu01's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
everlorebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
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? Yes
3.5
goodstrongwords's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
laurasjager's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
madelyne_bookdiary's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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? No
5.0
One of my absolute anticipated book of 2024 and with reason.
Once again Saara stunned me with the world building and the story.
Whilst there is more romance than in The Final Stride (which I live for), she still manage this perfect balance between plot, romance and character development, which makes this book perfect for every fantasy fan.
Now onto waiting at least a whole year before I get to see Yeeran again.
This is gonna be long.
river24's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
3/5
Thank you HarperCollins UK for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, this book really missed the mark for me. I didn't enjoy it half as much as I've enjoyed El-Arifi's other works. I found the premise for the worldbuilding interesting, but throughout the book found that it wasn't explored in any significant way and even that lost my interest. I think what my fatal error was was thinking this was an epic fantasy like The Ending Fire trilogy, or a military fantasy like you might predict from the opening chapters. This book, to me, reads more as a romantasy and that's sadly not a subgenre that I enjoy as much.
I found a lot of the plot quite bland as not much seemed to happen for the vast majority of the story and I also found it all quite obvious. The problem with incorporating prophecies into your plot is that you need to make sure it's either a dreadful, looming thing that everyone understands and fears or, if you want it to be shocking, you must make sure the wording of it is subtle enough for a clever twist. Unfortunately, the prophecies in this book yielded their answers fairly easily. Therefore, when the twist revealed itself, I couldn't help but be annoyed that I knew this information hundreds of pages before.
This was a problem I encountered throughout most of the book. Everything was too obvious. It became predictable and stale under the light of such blatancy. Not only did the plot beats not hit because of this but the romances didn't either because I could see everything coming from a mile away.
This is quite a critical review and I do apologise for being so negative, I much prefer raving about books I love. I think what made this so disappointing was that I know Saara El-Arifi can write with much more nuance and intricacy. I'm not even as much of a fan of The Ending Fire trilogy as others are, however that series is a much better show of skill. It confuses me that these series are written by the same author.
Perhaps this all stems from my lack of interest in romantasy as a genre, perhaps not. I just vehemently dislike when everything is dropped for the sake of a romantic plotline, it rids the rest of the story of any substance. The world in this book felt more like a backdrop for these relationships than an actual world teeming with life. The plot, too, felt very simple and forgotten about for a lot of the story in order to focus on the character relationships. Don't get me wrong, I love character-driven stories, but this book didn't show meaningful choices or changes in the characters enough for me to connect with them. Everything felt like an afterthought to the romances, as if only there to facilitate that aspect of the story.
When I read The Final Strife, the first book in El-Arifi's other series, I didn't fully connect with it, however I could admire what was being done and what it was clearly setting up for in the next book (which I enjoyed a lot more). With this book, there weren't even those aspects for me to admire or sit in anticipation for. Honestly, a lot of this book felt unnecessary.
I'm being quite negative, but that's sadly been my experience reading this book. It's been such a disappointment for me, but I do hope others enjoy it more. Sorry everyone!
Thank you HarperCollins UK for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, this book really missed the mark for me. I didn't enjoy it half as much as I've enjoyed El-Arifi's other works. I found the premise for the worldbuilding interesting, but throughout the book found that it wasn't explored in any significant way and even that lost my interest. I think what my fatal error was was thinking this was an epic fantasy like The Ending Fire trilogy, or a military fantasy like you might predict from the opening chapters. This book, to me, reads more as a romantasy and that's sadly not a subgenre that I enjoy as much.
I found a lot of the plot quite bland as not much seemed to happen for the vast majority of the story and I also found it all quite obvious. The problem with incorporating prophecies into your plot is that you need to make sure it's either a dreadful, looming thing that everyone understands and fears or, if you want it to be shocking, you must make sure the wording of it is subtle enough for a clever twist. Unfortunately, the prophecies in this book yielded their answers fairly easily. Therefore, when the twist revealed itself, I couldn't help but be annoyed that I knew this information hundreds of pages before.
This was a problem I encountered throughout most of the book. Everything was too obvious. It became predictable and stale under the light of such blatancy. Not only did the plot beats not hit because of this but the romances didn't either because I could see everything coming from a mile away.
This is quite a critical review and I do apologise for being so negative, I much prefer raving about books I love. I think what made this so disappointing was that I know Saara El-Arifi can write with much more nuance and intricacy. I'm not even as much of a fan of The Ending Fire trilogy as others are, however that series is a much better show of skill. It confuses me that these series are written by the same author.
Perhaps this all stems from my lack of interest in romantasy as a genre, perhaps not. I just vehemently dislike when everything is dropped for the sake of a romantic plotline, it rids the rest of the story of any substance. The world in this book felt more like a backdrop for these relationships than an actual world teeming with life. The plot, too, felt very simple and forgotten about for a lot of the story in order to focus on the character relationships. Don't get me wrong, I love character-driven stories, but this book didn't show meaningful choices or changes in the characters enough for me to connect with them. Everything felt like an afterthought to the romances, as if only there to facilitate that aspect of the story.
When I read The Final Strife, the first book in El-Arifi's other series, I didn't fully connect with it, however I could admire what was being done and what it was clearly setting up for in the next book (which I enjoyed a lot more). With this book, there weren't even those aspects for me to admire or sit in anticipation for. Honestly, a lot of this book felt unnecessary.
I'm being quite negative, but that's sadly been my experience reading this book. It's been such a disappointment for me, but I do hope others enjoy it more. Sorry everyone!
youcancallmefi's review against another edition
3.0
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy of this arc.
I was very daunted when requesting this. See, I have an issue: I love the author. I love attending panels hosted by this author, I love watching the interviews and reading about their inspiration and craft. But I did not enjoy their first book, The Final Strife to the point where I didn’t continue with the series.
I desperately want to enjoy this author, so I thought this might be it.
I can say that Faebound was a more enjoyable experience in reading, for me, than The Final Strife however it still fell short to my expectations. I wasn’t foreseeing a romantasy but I guess this is where the author is probably better versed. T
he Final Strife was marketed as an epic fantasy story but had more saphic and romantasy basis than epicness to it – nothing wrong about this, it is just deceiving for the reader.
Faebound was enjoyable and an easy read, but it lacked complexity and depth, especially regarding the magic system and the different skills between tribes
The other point that it failed short for me is how immature and ignorant the main characters act for the age they are supposed to be. I was expecting other profile to these characters and was surprised how YA they read.
I thought it was rather predicting, in terms of plot and outcomes for the characters. They adapted too quickly and accepted a lot of things too comfortably. Even the main villain reveal was rather predicting from the start.
I guess it was just not the book for me, but I can see how well received it will be for fans of ACOTAR, The Cruel Prince, etc..
I was very daunted when requesting this. See, I have an issue: I love the author. I love attending panels hosted by this author, I love watching the interviews and reading about their inspiration and craft. But I did not enjoy their first book, The Final Strife to the point where I didn’t continue with the series.
I desperately want to enjoy this author, so I thought this might be it.
I can say that Faebound was a more enjoyable experience in reading, for me, than The Final Strife however it still fell short to my expectations. I wasn’t foreseeing a romantasy but I guess this is where the author is probably better versed. T
he Final Strife was marketed as an epic fantasy story but had more saphic and romantasy basis than epicness to it – nothing wrong about this, it is just deceiving for the reader.
Faebound was enjoyable and an easy read, but it lacked complexity and depth, especially regarding the magic system and the different skills between tribes
The other point that it failed short for me is how immature and ignorant the main characters act for the age they are supposed to be. I was expecting other profile to these characters and was surprised how YA they read.
I thought it was rather predicting, in terms of plot and outcomes for the characters. They adapted too quickly and accepted a lot of things too comfortably. Even the main villain reveal was rather predicting from the start.
I guess it was just not the book for me, but I can see how well received it will be for fans of ACOTAR, The Cruel Prince, etc..