Reviews

Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena

teawithbree's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

maddiebills's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

lmwrites's review

3.0

I love any kind of medieval AU with magic, and this one does not disappoint. TBH, I wasn't paying attention to the chapter character headings, and in Cavas's first chapter I thought Gul was narrating. Got real excited when I thought she was queer, but quickly got over my confusion/disappointment as I got deeper into the magic.

abhisikta_reads's review

4.0

Hunted by the Sky is the first book of 'The Wrath of Ambar' Duology. It is a romantic fantasy and is set in Medieval India. Gul is born with a star-shaped birthmark on her arm. Girls having this birthmark are hunted down, as one of them is destined to kill the tyrannical King of Ambar. Gul and her parents have spent their entire life running from the Sky Warriors of the King. But one day, they found out the location of Gul and went to capture her. However, Gul's parents save her, and during this process, they are killed by the Sky Warriors. Gul flees away and is rescued by a gang of rebel women called the Sisters of the Golden Lotus. They start training her in warrior magic so that Gul can take revenge on the King for her parent's murder.

Cavas works in the palace as a stable boy and is ready to enlist his name in the King's army to save his terminally ill father. Circumstances force Gul and Cavas to cross paths where the latter gets entangled in Gul's mission of vengeance.
Will Cavas help Gul in her revenge? To know more, you have to read this book.

I wanted to read Hunted by the Sky as it is one of the talked about books of bookstagram and because I love reading fantasy fiction. Honestly, the book lived up to my expectations. The writing style of the author is brilliant. I loved how she has intricately described everything in the book, starting from the description of the palace, the clothes, and food.

I liked both Gul as well Cavas' characters. The book has been narrated from both Gul and Cavas' viewpoints. This helped me learn more about their backstories and understand their thought processes.

However, one thing that I missed in the book was the romance between Cavas and Gul. Surely, there were some sparks, but the chemistry between them (as stated in the blurb) was absent. Also, I felt the ending was a bit rushed and could have been better.

Hunted by the Sky reminds me of Children of Blood and Bone because of the similarity in the plotline. I highly recommend this book to people who love reading fantasy fiction or have enjoyed reading Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

angelhisugi's review

adventurous emotional inspiring fast-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

thebookedpath's review

3.0

Decent read. I expected more mythology or for there to be some sort of deity characters. This book was slow. I almost rated it lower, but it did start to pick up in the end. However, it wasn't enough to bring it to 4 stars. I liked the backstories of the three women who care for Gul. I liked this sort of sisterhood community they had and how they trained all these girls. I found Cavas to be annoying and a little judgemental. However, I liked the descriptions of the festivals and the colors used in the book.

slaapkameractivist's review

4.0

Yeah this was really good! It is fantasy and has mytholog based on Indian and Persian mythology. I absolutely loved it, I think the only thing I struggled with was keeping up with the information. It's a lot for someone with my cognitive issues. But not so much that it pulled me out of the story completely. Can't wait to start part 2.

cobaltbookshelf's review

2.0

2.75 stars

Ok story with insta-love romance, narrative is very slow. Hopefully sequels picks up pace.

gracepizza40's review

3.0

3.35 overall. Sometimes it felt like a 3 or 3.5 (avg. 3.4)
This book was interesting in many ways and I would read the next book, but it didn't give me a super impressed feeling. I just decided to read it when skimmed the preview flap at the library. Some scenes were harder to understand and I wish they were described more. I feel like there could have been more digging- It felt like I was standing just outside of a room with the right details. Partly why I didn't understand parts of the book was because I didn't read the glossary in the back of the book.

Spoiler

I really liked the whisperer magic in the book. What if we had that power? That would be pretty bad today I think, but sometimes good (depends on what they do with the magic). There are a lot of possibilities of the magic that I'm glad don't happen on earth; it would have changed a lot of things.

moth_dance's review against another edition

4.0

Thrilling and memorizing. Loved all of the characters.

I had a bit of hard time with the last few chapters, and I'm not quite sure why... But I look forward to reading the sequel next year.