Dark of the West follows two POV’s. We have Aurelia, who is a princess in a kingdom of the North and Athan who is the the son of The General (a dude who controls the army in another country hehe). There are schemes, politics and wars. In it all is Aurelia & Athan meets and falls in love, being on opposite sides of the upcoming conflicts.

When I got accepted to read an early copy of this, I was so excited. Seriously, this books sounds and looks awesome. I thought I would love it, but sadly I didn’t. Now this review instantly sounds negative, but bear with me. I did really enjoy some parts, and I can definitely see me continuing this series. It just didn’t live up to my expectations.

First of all: the world. It was so confusing! They talk about countries and conflicts and wars, and I have no idea where all this comes from. They are all so vague about everything. In the beginning I expected to be confused, as I usually am in the beginning of all fantasy books before getting used to it. But while reading this I never got the “aha” feeling I was waiting for, when the pieces and the world clicks into place. The world that is being built, in theory it sounds and seems awesome, but I’m not convinced by it. It reminds me a bit of a post-World War II world, with planes and different countries etc. etc. I just feel like nothing was explained. Believe me, I don’t like info dumping, but there was just … no info?
(In my copy there was no map, and I think that would been have very helpful, so if others have a map to refer to while reading I think that would be a great help!)
But with or without the map, they talk about history and roles and monarchs and this League council things and a dude who is supposed to be really scary named Seth (or Sath?) and I don’t think it is explained all too well, if at all.

Then we have the plot. I love plotting and wars as any other fantasy lover. But here there was supposed to be a bigger scheme at play, and when get to the reveal of everything it does not feel enough? I just feel like nothing actually was revealed. There was also this plotpoint in the beginning of the book, and this is blamed on someone else. But it is so obvious who that was really behind it. This is not 100% confirmed yet, but I found some parts very easy to predict! The book feels like the first 200 pages of a 800 page book, something is missing. Now, I’m fully aware that this is a series, but I just feel like the story that we get in this book is intriguing enough to be one book.
I like the slow build up and how we get to know the characters and all that, that is actually the parts I really enjoyed! I liked the buildup, how the pieces went around on the board, it was just the endgame that didn’t bring satisfaction or answers.

I enjoyed the characters a lot, they felt fleshed out and brought a lot of different things to the table. I just thought Aurelia was a bit boring, tehe. But she was really fine, and I like how some of the characters are really questionable but sometimes have nice and soft moments! I’m really confused by some of them, but they make them more complex in my eyes and I’m curious to see how they will change or show their true colors in later instalments.

All in all I liked it, I just didn’t love it. I’m very intrigued by the characters and I’m hoping things will clear more up for me regarding the world. I did start to get a hang of it (sort of) in the end. I’m also hoping for more answers regarding, well, a lot. Let’s see in the next instalment! 3 out of 5 stars.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for providing me with an eArc.