Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Name-Bearer

I really enjoyed this introduction to the series, and it’s very evident that a greater goal of this book was to set us up with world building. As someone with a beginner’s comfort level with Spanish, the bilingual nature wasn’t intrusive to me, and I thought it integrated fine. The mix of characters, their roles, their history and their beliefs kept me engaged, and I enjoyed the protagonist’s time with the women warriors especially.

Once she left the temple, the book started to slow down some, and this is where I had to go back and re-listen to chapters in the audiobook. It didn’t keep me as engaged, but again, I acknowledge that this book is the first one and has a job to do as it leads us into the rest of the series. The audiobook narrator did an alright job of differentiating each character vocally, but I had moments where it wasn’t perfectly clear whose dialogue I was listening to.

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ladymickbeth's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Plot: 4.5/5
World building: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Writing: 3.75/5
Grammar/editing: 2/5

In general, I enjoyed this book and the unique premise. Unfortunately, I don’t think this book was edited at all. There was some expositional elements repeated when they didn’t need to be, and there were a ridiculous amount of typos and missing or incorrect punctuation marks. There were also quite a few run-on sentences. The obvious lack of editing took me out of the story often.

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andykarnik's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The summary is more a summary of the whole series than of book 1, so the pacing was way off from what I was expecting.

Overall a very enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to setups paying off in book 2, but my library waitlist is supposedly 2 months long!

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mj_86's review against another edition

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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? No

4.0

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sopajoh's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Very few books I have read span as much time as this one does. I loved watching the characters grow up from children to young women coming into their own.

While not an egregious cliffhanger, there's a lot unresolved by the end. So glad the sequel is already out!

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takarakei's review

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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? No

3.5

I really loved this when it first started off! I was immediately intrigued by the concept of this child 'name-bearer' and the world building. I love a prophecy gone wrong. However, once I got about ~30-40% into the book it really began to drag plot-wise and ultimately by the end I didn't really feel as if much had happened (feels like all the action will be coming in a sequel). So ultimately a bit of a disappointment overall - if this is just a duology I might still listen to the sequel to see the conclusion of the story.

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