A review by bookedbymadeline
Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs

adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was really excited for this book because I loved Beowulf in high school and all things Viking/Norse myth related. It was a slow start and I almost DNFd but by the 20% mark I was more into the story. I enjoyed the character relationships and most of them are fleshed out/well written. For anyone that likes the found family trope, you may like this!

I normally love a switching POV novel but this one has too many. also they suddenly went away? For the start it was 6 characters getting a POV and then suddenly it changed to only 2 or 3 characters (plus the dragon). It felt like a weird choice, as most of the POVs were unnecessary. I especially didn’t enjoy the dragon’s POV chapters as it kind of pulled me out of the story.

The chapters were too long and too descriptive at times for my taste. It’s so much detail about the clothing and the views but somehow also zero world building! It’s a fantasy novel, where is the world building? Also with the descriptions; the gore and body horror was a little too much for me 🤢 it was so detailed it made my stomach turn.

The first half was so much better, I wished I had DNFd by the 65-70% mark. By the last third, I just began skimming the excessively descriptive passages because I couldn’t be bothered anymore. Sadly the most boring and lacking fantasy novel I’ve read.

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