A review by medea_jade
The Centaur's Wife, by Amanda Leduc
4.0
Ultimately, this book left me a little bit underwhelmed.
I felt very strongly for the main character, Heather, but I didn't feel like I built up much of a connection for the rest. They felt a little bit like afterthoughts, sort of all dragged in to support Heather's story. Yet, I also get the sense that maybe that was the point.
What I did love was the writing style. It's present tense with the exception of some flashbacks and story telling, and that's not a common literary choice because it's a challenge to do well. This author did it well. It's evocative and dark, like the plot, and drew me in so much so that I devoured the book in a few hours over the course of two days.
It's super rare in an fantasy book to find POC who aren't from the south; Sothoros, Southron, etc and those POC almost never come to us in shape of magical creatures. In this book the POC come from the mountains and are the magical creatures! A refreshing change from the typical blonde elves and white skinned, raven haired maidens.
Yet, having put the book down last night, I did not wake finding myself still thinking about it, which to me is always the sign of a 5 star book.
I felt very strongly for the main character, Heather, but I didn't feel like I built up much of a connection for the rest. They felt a little bit like afterthoughts, sort of all dragged in to support Heather's story. Yet, I also get the sense that maybe that was the point.
What I did love was the writing style. It's present tense with the exception of some flashbacks and story telling, and that's not a common literary choice because it's a challenge to do well. This author did it well. It's evocative and dark, like the plot, and drew me in so much so that I devoured the book in a few hours over the course of two days.
It's super rare in an fantasy book to find POC who aren't from the south; Sothoros, Southron, etc and those POC almost never come to us in shape of magical creatures. In this book the POC come from the mountains and are the magical creatures! A refreshing change from the typical blonde elves and white skinned, raven haired maidens.
Yet, having put the book down last night, I did not wake finding myself still thinking about it, which to me is always the sign of a 5 star book.