We're less than two months into 2024 and this is the third thing I've read where the love interest has purple eyes. It's going to ruin the color purple for me.

A Broken Blade has been on my TBR for a while, so I put it on hold on a whim, and now that I read it...I don't know what to think. I'd read that it follows a lot of popular tropes and it does. Like, the majority of the book is just tropes.
The plot follows the king's Halfling assassin - Keera - as she is ordered to find and kill the mysterious vigilante rebel figure called the Shadow. Keera falls in love with Riven, a Fae with purple eyes (and is that shadow magic I spotted?) and then they decide to kill the king because he's kind of an elf-racist. Honestly, I feel like most of the book felt a bit like preparation for a climax that never happened. They blew up a dam, sure, but my e-book said I had another 5% but then the book was over. I know it's a series, but this all felt like a lead-up. It was also fairly predictable, but it did have some unique twists.
The issue for me was that every single male character was kind of creepy. Both princes - Damien and Killian - flirted with and/or kissed Keera. Nikolai (my favorite character I guess?) also flirted with Keera. And, obviously, so did Riven and they actually made out at like 20% through the book. I didn't really like any of the characters besides Nikolai, although I didn't hate Syrra. I just wish we got a little more depth to them.
Fans of YA fantasy who love books filled with their favorite, most popular tropes will love A Broken Blade, but if you're not a fan popular tropes, I wouldn't try this book.
3.5/5
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