Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lisashelves 's review for:
Blade of Ash
by C.F.E. Black
⭐️⭐️ / 2 stars
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book via BookOfMatchesMedia in exchange for an honest review!
Blade of Ash is a fantasy romance book about Fredrick and Alyana, who have to work together to cure a death cure cast on Fredrick.
I was super excited to start reading this book. I was it a lot on my feed when the cover was revealed and it sparked my interest! I am a sucker for fantasy romance books and a royalty aspect makes it even better. So, I was stocked when I got the change to read the book early!
I feel like I was a bit let down in some way. I had thought the story was going to take another route than it did for some reason, I don’t really know why myself. I took some notes for myself but the overall feeling was just confusion while reading. I know there is a prequel novella, and maybe I would’ve understood the story and whole magic system better when reading that first. I just think that as the first “book” in the series it should be able to read this one first and understand everything, which wasn’t the case for me.
In the first chapter a lot of terms are thrown around without any explanation as to what they mean, such as a reckoning, truthwell and stripped. None of these terms are explained later in the book, which adds to the confusion I’ve felt while reading. Through the lines you can pick up some things which might’ve explained the terms. But without any real explanation that is just guessing on my part.
The plot is also not something I’m the biggest fan of. It seemed repetitive and I wasn’t really invested in the story because of this. The confusion also helped in this, since the confusion overshadowed a lot of the story for me personally. I also missed a bit of build-up in the events that were happening to make me invested in what was happening. It felt like the big answers the characters are seeking are immediately known after they asked/search for answers instead of some suspense as to what the answer may be.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the characters. Both Red and Aly seemed a bit two dimensional to me. Both were also really repetitive in their thoughts and I kept getting irritated at how easily Aly kept crying. It just didn’t help with the overall feel for the book.
The ending was way better than the beginning and middle of the book! I still didn’t feel much for anything that happened, but that is mainly just because of everything I’d read before the end happened. While the ending did seem convenient with how everything just solved itself.
Overall, this book just didn’t do it for me. I had a hard time finding a connection with the characters and wasn’t invested in the story until around 62% in. It seemed to have a lot of potential, as the plot and characters can be really good, but with the way it was written it wasn’t just my cup of tea.
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book via BookOfMatchesMedia in exchange for an honest review!
Blade of Ash is a fantasy romance book about Fredrick and Alyana, who have to work together to cure a death cure cast on Fredrick.
I was super excited to start reading this book. I was it a lot on my feed when the cover was revealed and it sparked my interest! I am a sucker for fantasy romance books and a royalty aspect makes it even better. So, I was stocked when I got the change to read the book early!
I feel like I was a bit let down in some way. I had thought the story was going to take another route than it did for some reason, I don’t really know why myself. I took some notes for myself but the overall feeling was just confusion while reading. I know there is a prequel novella, and maybe I would’ve understood the story and whole magic system better when reading that first. I just think that as the first “book” in the series it should be able to read this one first and understand everything, which wasn’t the case for me.
In the first chapter a lot of terms are thrown around without any explanation as to what they mean, such as a reckoning, truthwell and stripped. None of these terms are explained later in the book, which adds to the confusion I’ve felt while reading. Through the lines you can pick up some things which might’ve explained the terms. But without any real explanation that is just guessing on my part.
The plot is also not something I’m the biggest fan of. It seemed repetitive and I wasn’t really invested in the story because of this. The confusion also helped in this, since the confusion overshadowed a lot of the story for me personally. I also missed a bit of build-up in the events that were happening to make me invested in what was happening. It felt like the big answers the characters are seeking are immediately known after they asked/search for answers instead of some suspense as to what the answer may be.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the characters. Both Red and Aly seemed a bit two dimensional to me. Both were also really repetitive in their thoughts and I kept getting irritated at how easily Aly kept crying. It just didn’t help with the overall feel for the book.
The ending was way better than the beginning and middle of the book! I still didn’t feel much for anything that happened, but that is mainly just because of everything I’d read before the end happened. While the ending did seem convenient with how everything just solved itself.
Overall, this book just didn’t do it for me. I had a hard time finding a connection with the characters and wasn’t invested in the story until around 62% in. It seemed to have a lot of potential, as the plot and characters can be really good, but with the way it was written it wasn’t just my cup of tea.