Format: ebook
Release Date: August 17th, 2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Goodreads
Rating: 2/5 Stars
This book was a little bit of a let-down. It was okay, and the writing was decent, but overall it felt a bit muddled and didn’t offer anything that made me feel completely invested in the characters or the situations they’re in.
Prince Calle’s brother is about to choose a wife. He chooses the woman Calle is in love with, and Calle tries to fight for her, but ends up sold as a slave. Years later, the prison is invaded by Valkyries – a group of women who, for no actual reason given, hate men with a passion that sees them kill every man in the place. So, our introduction to these characters is women who indiscriminately kill a bunch of men who have likely been unjustly imprisoned. Great start.
One of these is Skaja, a Harpy, which makes her kind of special. For some reason, she is unable to kill Calle, and instead rescues him. And of course, this being Fantasy Romance, she is drawn back to Calle, and helps him, despite it going against everything she believes in as a Valkyrie.
Slight spoilers here: it turns out the woman who heads up the Valkyrie’s – who despite the ‘Fantasy’ names of all the other characters is simply called Paula – kidnapped Skaja as a child. And she’s not the only one. Yet it’s just accepted that the Valkyrie are out there and murdering men, kidnapping children, and it’s all fine and good. Oh! There is another character with a ‘mundane’ name – Calle’s brother. Turns out you can spot the antagonists here by their names.
I think there was potential here, but I just didn’t mesh with it. It was a little all over the place – the characters are fae, but also there’s harpies – bound to the ruling family – and the Valkyrie group. None of them match up to the mythical representations of these groups, really, which is fine, but it doesn’t feel like it’s done in a conscious manner, more like the names were just picked out because they sound good?
There was missed potential here, and Winward is a decent writer, but the worldbuilding felt lacking. There’s different types of fae, but this was never really explored, and a lot of the interesting aspects were skimmed over. Characters come across as one dimensional, with a set role each fulfils. It feels very much like it could have done with a touch more work and depth added to it.
Reading Challenge
The Disney Reading Challenge
Prompt: Pocahontas – If I never knew you – a forbidden romance
Progress: 6/40 Completed
Unwrapping Words 