A review by noreadingdegree
Soleri by Michael Johnston

4.0

LIKES:
-KEPI: Poor girl has been through some trauma! I enjoyed the fact that instead of letting that trauma overcome her life she chooses to take certain steps to ensure her strength and perseverance prevails.
-HATE TO LOVE TROPE: I just love this trope, okay? and I will never not love it!
-EGYPTIAN INFLUENCE: I have always been fascinated w/ Ancient Egyptian culture and any book delving into that has my undivided attention.
-LGBTQIA+ rep: Although it was a minor character, I liked that his sexuality was not viewed as out of the norm and blasphemous (which may be the case to this book's religion, but it was not delved into more).
-THE LAST 50 PAGES: Boy, did this pages hit HARD. Lots of revelations, conflicts, and mysterious unveiled making me want MORE! The last 50 pages were 4.5/5 alone. After starting a new book, I found myself wishing that I was still in this world.
-CONSENT: A character is forced into a marriage and during their wedding night her husband attempts to have sexual relations w/ her and she says, "No, stop". And he immediately stops and they have a discussion about consent.

DISLIKES:
-WORLD BUILDING: I felt that there was not enough of it. I had such a difficult time visualizing this world and the only reason why I was able to is because I knew that it had Egyptian influence. And I won't say that this is necessarily the author's fault. I think my issue is that I am not familiar with such a setting (trying to remedy this!) and therefore couldn't conjure up a visualization even w/ descriptions.
-REN: To be honest, I found Ren completely fucking boring. We are meant to sympathize w/ his character, but I could have cared less. A majority of his story in this book is centered around missing a family he has never met and saving his closest friends. And I think my issue w/ this is that we were only told about these issues. There was little to no exploration of Ren's time in the Priory dealing w/ being taken away from his family or of Ren's friendships developing. Therefore, I had a difficult time connecting with his motivations. Yes, I understood them, but I wasn't compelled or engrossed by them. He is also a Gary Sue. BORING.
-FEMININE/MASCULINE SISTER TROPE: Although, I loved Kepi I disliked the fact that she was viewed as the ugly tomboy sister who loves to fight and her older sister is viewed as the beautiful and graceful one. Why can't Kepi love to fight AND love to wear a dress!?!?@!?@
-CONSENT: Although, there was a moment of proper consent, the same male character that I discussed above attempts the same moves on another character earlier in the book and the consent was not dealt w/ properly. The 2 characters are in a consensual relationship and it is mentioned that the female character wants a sexual relationship w/ this male. HOWEVER, they are in a public spot when he attempts his moves and she says, "No, not now". And instead of immediately stopping, the male character continues to pursue sexual relations. He then states, "I'm nearly through waiting, Merit". She then replies that it won't be much longer. Ek!