Scan barcode
A review by istraka1701
Dark of the West by Joanna Hathaway
4.0
I'm kind of shocked how little reviews/traction this series has. Right after finishing this book, I'm really excited to dive into the second.
I absolutely adored Athan and Aurelia. It was almost refreshing to see their young love blossom in a time of tension. They were seemingly ... innocent? Is that the right word? It was a juxtaposition against the prologue and all the politics going on, which made it special to me. I really like the premise of this trilogy, and I'm really interested to see where the next two books go. As new things were uncovered, I got more and more into it. The last third of the book flew by. I saw some people say the writing was pretentious, but I actually mostly enjoyed it. It was flowery at times, but I personally feel like it worked in this world and setting. Some of the characters here are quite complex - more than I think we can see just yet. The main grouping of characters are fairly well done. Also! This is a personal note, but I ride horses and normally I never get proper riding explanations. I understand that the author rides too, which makes sense because I really enjoyed the proper descriptions of horses and riding!
I wasn't the only one who felt this way, but it was dang hard to get a sense of the world and politics going on in this book. I had to read slowly and even reread parts, particularly in the first half. We're kind of thrown in with no life raft in the beginning, expected to understand from the get go. That's pretty impossible as there is *so much* going on and different things at play. To that extent, all of the side characters got confusing. Most of them were necessary, but with all the different lines moving and changing with the politics and potential war, I kept asking myself, who is this guy and who's side is he on? Honestly, there are stuff I'm still confused about! Violet confused me too. Maybe she has a role to play later on, but at this point she was just annoying me. And same for Reni. He gave me big little brother energy because he's the older, only brother in line for a throne. Also, this isn't a fantasy in my opinion. It's a fictional world based on WWII. As a last note, this entire book is setting us up for the next two. We don't get a lot of action, except for a bit at the end. I'm sure (hoping) that everything will tie together in the next book or two.
The reasons I give this four stars instead of three (normally confusing world building is a no no for me) is because of Athan and Aurelia and the planes and sky. I personally think their romance is really well done. It feels budding and innocent and pure. Their letters?! Are you kidding me?! That goes hand in hand with the planes and sky (ifykyk), but I bring those up because as difficult as this world was to understand, it was an entirely unique one for me. It's complex and obviously thought out. The descriptions and POV from a pilot is one I haven't really seen and enjoy. It was interesting enough for me to actually try to understand the world and politics going on.
I absolutely adored Athan and Aurelia. It was almost refreshing to see their young love blossom in a time of tension. They were seemingly ... innocent? Is that the right word? It was a juxtaposition against the prologue and all the politics going on, which made it special to me. I really like the premise of this trilogy, and I'm really interested to see where the next two books go. As new things were uncovered, I got more and more into it. The last third of the book flew by. I saw some people say the writing was pretentious, but I actually mostly enjoyed it. It was flowery at times, but I personally feel like it worked in this world and setting. Some of the characters here are quite complex - more than I think we can see just yet. The main grouping of characters are fairly well done. Also! This is a personal note, but I ride horses and normally I never get proper riding explanations. I understand that the author rides too, which makes sense because I really enjoyed the proper descriptions of horses and riding!
I wasn't the only one who felt this way, but it was dang hard to get a sense of the world and politics going on in this book. I had to read slowly and even reread parts, particularly in the first half. We're kind of thrown in with no life raft in the beginning, expected to understand from the get go. That's pretty impossible as there is *so much* going on and different things at play. To that extent, all of the side characters got confusing. Most of them were necessary, but with all the different lines moving and changing with the politics and potential war, I kept asking myself, who is this guy and who's side is he on? Honestly, there are stuff I'm still confused about! Violet confused me too. Maybe she has a role to play later on, but at this point she was just annoying me. And same for Reni. He gave me big little brother energy because he's the older, only brother in line for a throne. Also, this isn't a fantasy in my opinion. It's a fictional world based on WWII. As a last note, this entire book is setting us up for the next two. We don't get a lot of action, except for a bit at the end. I'm sure (hoping) that everything will tie together in the next book or two.
The reasons I give this four stars instead of three (normally confusing world building is a no no for me) is because of Athan and Aurelia and the planes and sky. I personally think their romance is really well done. It feels budding and innocent and pure. Their letters?! Are you kidding me?! That goes hand in hand with the planes and sky (ifykyk), but I bring those up because as difficult as this world was to understand, it was an entirely unique one for me. It's complex and obviously thought out. The descriptions and POV from a pilot is one I haven't really seen and enjoy. It was interesting enough for me to actually try to understand the world and politics going on.