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A review by thebookdragonskeep
Woven in Darkness by Lucy Holden
4.0
Thrust into a life of braid-bound slavery with no memory her past, Zaria will do just about anything she can to protect her siblings from the harsh world they live in. But then her brother, Doron, gets sucked into a Dark Rip, her sisters are bought by 2 Indigold lords and her other brother is sent to train for the Braid Race in Doron’s place. Feeling as though her small family is being ripped apart, she joins the braid race herself for the chance to win back her and her siblings’ freedom… or meet her end. When the race doesn’t go exactly as planned, she is publicly claimed by the Savage King, a Woven Lord sworn to protect the immortal Weavers and the Woven Palace, who offers her a bargain - pretend to be his slave and help expose his enemies in exchange for his help in winning her freedom and riches in the Maverick Race. But there are bigger things at play as the stories of the past come to light and the darkness that has being looming over Astria is coming for all of them…
When I initially started this book, I had a hard time getting into it. There is a slight overload of information that is thrown at you right off the bat. The magical and political aspects of this story are very complex and expansive, to the point where I feel like there is probably even more that she could elaborate on in the following books, and I found myself being slightly confused while reading; although it could’ve been because I did a good bit of my reading at night. I feel like this story has a lot of potential, it is original and I did enjoy it, but at times it seemed to dragged on because of all of the information and stories from the characters. There was almost too much detail.
I did love the connection between Harken, the Savage King, and Zaria. It wasn’t forced and their relationship bloomed beautifully throughout the story. You really get a look behind Harken’s stoic mask the closer him and Zaria become. A little bit of everything is mixed into this story including slavery, Magic, alchemists, demons, shadows, werewolves and even a dragon! Reading that list probably doesn’t seem like a good mashup, but Lucy Holden really meshed everything together very well!
A few plot points seemed to have been barely touched upon and I’m hoping they come to light in the next book because I definitely have questions that weren’t answered! This book ends on a pretty good cliffhanger, so I will be watching out for the next one to see where the story goes from here! Thank you to Lucy for the free ARC, I am glad I was able to be among the first to read this story!
When I initially started this book, I had a hard time getting into it. There is a slight overload of information that is thrown at you right off the bat. The magical and political aspects of this story are very complex and expansive, to the point where I feel like there is probably even more that she could elaborate on in the following books, and I found myself being slightly confused while reading; although it could’ve been because I did a good bit of my reading at night. I feel like this story has a lot of potential, it is original and I did enjoy it, but at times it seemed to dragged on because of all of the information and stories from the characters. There was almost too much detail.
I did love the connection between Harken, the Savage King, and Zaria. It wasn’t forced and their relationship bloomed beautifully throughout the story. You really get a look behind Harken’s stoic mask the closer him and Zaria become. A little bit of everything is mixed into this story including slavery, Magic, alchemists, demons, shadows, werewolves and even a dragon! Reading that list probably doesn’t seem like a good mashup, but Lucy Holden really meshed everything together very well!
A few plot points seemed to have been barely touched upon and I’m hoping they come to light in the next book because I definitely have questions that weren’t answered! This book ends on a pretty good cliffhanger, so I will be watching out for the next one to see where the story goes from here! Thank you to Lucy for the free ARC, I am glad I was able to be among the first to read this story!