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A review by kitvaria_sarene
Shard & Shield by Laura VanArendonk Baugh
3.0
I liked, but didn't love this. It's hard to put my finger exactly on what it was that was missing for me, as I liked most of the single contents, but somehow they didn't all add up to a "I can't stop reading!" It had all the right ingredients, but maybe the balance wasn't right for me?
I liked the setting of two worlds with different cultures and races, but I feel it could have been fleshed out a lot more. Both worlds had interesting cultures, but the way the switch between worlds worked, and how one world raids the other felt a bit on the shallow end. Compared to the the court and world's this part just didn't hold up.
The whole magic and fantasy part of the book wasn't really explained, so it's not a hard magic system at all, just people being able to do what needs doing by magic. Which isn't a bad thing in itself, I am happy with a hard or a soft magic system. In this book it just added to slightly two dimensional feel of some parts of the world.
The characters... I liked each of them in their own, and I especially enjoyed the interaction between the king's bastard Shianan and the slave Luca. They grow and learn about themselves as well as about each other.
Tam was interesting to read about, and I liked to see him switch between his two very different lifes.
Ariana and her father are supposed to be very powerful, and had a few moments were they could actually shine, but a lot of the time there was little agency. They just deal with what fate deals them, without really fighting it. This was also true of Shianan a lot of the time - just resign to how things are. At times I just wanted to shout at them all to just go and do things, instead of just reacting to things. Some of it for well with his backstory and the way he grew up, other times it just felt like it was simply convenient for the plot, and he changed his mind within a snap of fingers.
That's abothe rod my gripes - like with my last book - this seems to be mostly reactive instead of proactive, and there doesn't seem to be a clear focus on the plot. We just follow along as things happen, and don't really know what even is the "point" of the book.
One bit I really enjoyed was the almost non existent romance in Shard and Shield, so I found it rather annoying to have that seemingly added in at the end of the book. Yes, there's little clues along the way, but everyone is way too busy to deal with stuff to think about anything like romance. And then at the end
This didn't feel like a smooth part of the book, but really like it was an added afterthought the way it was handled. This is the main reason why I won't read teh sequel, as I have a big inclubg it will have a romance plot. Nothing wrong with romance, I just don't like to read it personally, as I usually find it boring. The little bit we got to see here, does not make me optimistic that any romance that might be in the sequel would be smooth and well developed.
Despite all this complaints, it was an entertaining read, which I did enjoy, it just didn't manage to fully grip me.
I liked the setting of two worlds with different cultures and races, but I feel it could have been fleshed out a lot more. Both worlds had interesting cultures, but the way the switch between worlds worked, and how one world raids the other felt a bit on the shallow end. Compared to the the court and world's this part just didn't hold up.
The whole magic and fantasy part of the book wasn't really explained, so it's not a hard magic system at all, just people being able to do what needs doing by magic. Which isn't a bad thing in itself, I am happy with a hard or a soft magic system. In this book it just added to slightly two dimensional feel of some parts of the world.
The characters... I liked each of them in their own, and I especially enjoyed the interaction between the king's bastard Shianan and the slave Luca. They grow and learn about themselves as well as about each other.
Tam was interesting to read about, and I liked to see him switch between his two very different lifes.
Ariana and her father are supposed to be very powerful, and had a few moments were they could actually shine, but a lot of the time there was little agency. They just deal with what fate deals them, without really fighting it. This was also true of Shianan a lot of the time - just resign to how things are. At times I just wanted to shout at them all to just go and do things, instead of just reacting to things. Some of it for well with his backstory and the way he grew up, other times it just felt like it was simply convenient for the plot, and he changed his mind within a snap of fingers.
That's abothe rod my gripes - like with my last book - this seems to be mostly reactive instead of proactive, and there doesn't seem to be a clear focus on the plot. We just follow along as things happen, and don't really know what even is the "point" of the book.
One bit I really enjoyed was the almost non existent romance in Shard and Shield, so I found it rather annoying to have that seemingly added in at the end of the book. Yes, there's little clues along the way, but everyone is way too busy to deal with stuff to think about anything like romance. And then at the end
Spoiler
both men profess their love for Ariana, and not even to her, but to her father.This didn't feel like a smooth part of the book, but really like it was an added afterthought the way it was handled. This is the main reason why I won't read teh sequel, as I have a big inclubg it will have a romance plot. Nothing wrong with romance, I just don't like to read it personally, as I usually find it boring. The little bit we got to see here, does not make me optimistic that any romance that might be in the sequel would be smooth and well developed.
Despite all this complaints, it was an entertaining read, which I did enjoy, it just didn't manage to fully grip me.