A review by gloommistress
Heir of Fates by Rowan Redfield

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Thank you to the author for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own! 

As a lover of epic fantasy, Heir of Fates promised me everything I love in a book: high stakes, compelling mythology, and the politics that I always crave from fantasy novels. While I absolutely ate this book up, I do think it fell slightly flat in some ways. 

I will say that the interludes were my favorite parts of this book. While I was originally caught off guard by the new POVs these interludes introduce, it was nice to see the world expand organically. In particular, I was really fascinated by Lenora and Noelle’s chapter. I wanted so much more of them—
thought I suspect they’ll be much more present in the second novel given the ending of HoF
—and just thought that their experiences were so much more interesting than some of the POV characters. 

Which leads me to our cast. Like most fantasy books, you are introduced to a lot of characters very quickly. It’s difficult to discern motives for most of them, and some characters—Aurelia, for example—seemed to hold a great purpose but ultimately did nothing in the grand scheme of things. I found myself enjoying Nerisha and Serephine’s POV chapters the most. Nerisha, in particular, was my favorite character and the one I found myself rooting for the most. She’s everything I like from a protagonist: strong, smart, and not afraid to speak her mind. I will say I didn’t enjoy her place at court and that it did strike me as strange that she was forced to perform tasks and duties as what could essentially be considered a lady-in-wait despite her status as the king’s adopted daughter. 

I so badly wanted to like Silas, but a lot of his reasonings for doing things didn’t resonate with me. I didn’t like being in his head as much as I enjoyed Nerisha and Serephine’s perspectives, and I felt like he wasn’t as compelling as the badass women who makeup the rest of the main cast. 

I think the plot has some minor inconsistencies within it and I was confused by the timeline of this story. A lot of unexplained things happened in this novel as well. I understand wanting to lead up to book two and the rest of the series, but I wish there had been more explanation to some things than what we got (the creature Silas encounters at the very beginning of the book, for example). 

I also am wary to call this a true grimdark, at least as this book stands by itself without its sequels. I’ve read grimdarks and HoF just falls short of what I would consider one. 

That all being said, this is an incredibly ambitious fantasy novel that was addicting to read and, despite some of my grievances with the cast and the plot, something that I enjoyed. I also greatly appreciated the queer representation within this novel—especially the relationship that blossomed between Seraphine and a character I won’t name to avoid spoilers (though I will say that I would LOVE for that character to get a POV chapter in future books). It was wonderfully done and honestly, I just eat up any book with a healthy  dose of yearning in it. 

All in all, I’m looking forward to seeing where the author takes this story and will read the sequels! 

(PS: please give Nerisha a happy ending, I’m begging)
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