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abby_ace_of_books 's review for:
City of Rain
by William Lejeune
Literally, all of my annotations on this except one (and I'm not kidding) are me pleading for Cole to live...
City of Rain is an epic fantasy set in a world of wizards and temples and magic. There are a lot of political fantasy elements as well, which isn't usually my thing, but they were balanced well with the other fantasy aspects.
The story follows four POVs, starting with Summer - a young mage who comes across the murder of an older wizard and is entrusted with carrying a dangerous parchment to another wizard. However, she is framed for murder and pursued by Fenya (another student and lady of a house) and Arlen (basically a detective). The final POV is Cole, who is also a mage and student but who falls in with the wrong crowd through a series of unfortunate events. There's plenty of betrayal, a lot of political scheming, and a handful of action scenes. My only complaint is that it was a bit slow at times, especially when certain POVs tended to end on cliffhangers and others felt so incredibly long. However, the ending was very fast-paced at about the 85% mark and there were exciting parts throughout.
There were so many characters, so I'll stick to the I POV characters. Of the POV characters, Fenya was probably my least favorite just because I found her a bit boring until the end. However, her moral grayness and potential character arcs are intriguing. I also didn't love Arlen that much, but I think if we get more of his backstory in future books, I'll like him more. Summer was pretty cool, and I liked her as a main character, although I do wish she had a bit more initiative besides staying in the same town for, like, four months. Cole was my favorite (because he was a scholar, maybe), and I thought he had an interesting backstory plus a good deal of action throughout the book, and I'm excited to see him reach his destiny. As far as villains go, I did find Vasqo a bit disappointing just because he wasn't really relevant after the first chapter.
City of Rain is the first novel in a new epic fantasy series filled with realistic characters, plenty of turmoil, and the beginnings of an exciting adventure (and maybe found family?).
Thanks to Netgally and the publisher for the free e-ARC!
3.5/5
City of Rain is an epic fantasy set in a world of wizards and temples and magic. There are a lot of political fantasy elements as well, which isn't usually my thing, but they were balanced well with the other fantasy aspects.
The story follows four POVs, starting with Summer - a young mage who comes across the murder of an older wizard and is entrusted with carrying a dangerous parchment to another wizard. However, she is framed for murder and pursued by Fenya (another student and lady of a house) and Arlen (basically a detective). The final POV is Cole, who is also a mage and student but who falls in with the wrong crowd through a series of unfortunate events. There's plenty of betrayal, a lot of political scheming, and a handful of action scenes. My only complaint is that it was a bit slow at times, especially when certain POVs tended to end on cliffhangers and others felt so incredibly long. However, the ending was very fast-paced at about the 85% mark and there were exciting parts throughout.
There were so many characters, so I'll stick to the I POV characters. Of the POV characters, Fenya was probably my least favorite just because I found her a bit boring until the end. However, her moral grayness and potential character arcs are intriguing. I also didn't love Arlen that much, but I think if we get more of his backstory in future books, I'll like him more. Summer was pretty cool, and I liked her as a main character, although I do wish she had a bit more initiative besides staying in the same town for, like, four months. Cole was my favorite (because he was a scholar, maybe), and I thought he had an interesting backstory plus a good deal of action throughout the book, and I'm excited to see him reach his destiny. As far as villains go, I did find Vasqo a bit disappointing just because he wasn't really relevant after the first chapter.
City of Rain is the first novel in a new epic fantasy series filled with realistic characters, plenty of turmoil, and the beginnings of an exciting adventure (and maybe found family?).
Thanks to Netgally and the publisher for the free e-ARC!
3.5/5