A review by ozshark
Of Us and Them by T.L. Coughlin
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Love the concept behind this one, dragons are actually aliens that have been secretly living on Earth for centuries. 12 Chosen Ones must use their power to help the aliens, but our heroine isn't able to come into her power make this happen. Dragon lore is fascinating and I think Coughlin makes good use of the universality of these legends to form the basis for her story.
Love the concept, but I found the first few chapters very confusing. Evren talked in circles to herself and I have no clue what it was that happened to her in the water in the early chapters. However, I liked the description of her relationship with her mother, and the tension between achieving the mission and the love Evren so obviously craved.
Once we got to Nexum, I would have liked to find out more about the other Paladins and about the world in general. We get told the world is in a bad state, one of the reasons the people of Nexum believe that the Leviathans returning are humanity's only chance. However, there is little detail and I felt left to wonder whether it was describing the state of our current world, or if things had gotten much, much worse.
The cast of characters is very diverse, which possibly feels a little too calculated. I think the relationships between these characters could have been developed further, some of them were just blank holding spaces.
Unfortunately, this ends on a complete cliffhanger. While I understand this is the first volume in a planned series, I do like some resolution in each volume.
Overall, this was very enjoyable and I am keen to read the next part of the story. Thank you to the author and Book Sirens for the advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Love the concept, but I found the first few chapters very confusing. Evren talked in circles to herself and I have no clue what it was that happened to her in the water in the early chapters. However, I liked the description of her relationship with her mother, and the tension between achieving the mission and the love Evren so obviously craved.
Once we got to Nexum, I would have liked to find out more about the other Paladins and about the world in general. We get told the world is in a bad state, one of the reasons the people of Nexum believe that the Leviathans returning are humanity's only chance. However, there is little detail and I felt left to wonder whether it was describing the state of our current world, or if things had gotten much, much worse.
The cast of characters is very diverse, which possibly feels a little too calculated. I think the relationships between these characters could have been developed further, some of them were just blank holding spaces.
Unfortunately, this ends on a complete cliffhanger. While I understand this is the first volume in a planned series, I do like some resolution in each volume.
Overall, this was very enjoyable and I am keen to read the next part of the story. Thank you to the author and Book Sirens for the advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death
Minor: Child abuse