First off, I would like to thank the publisher and author for providing me this ARC to review. Please note that the version I read was an advanced copy, and certain events/language may be changed in the published edition.

Stars (Out of 10): 5/10 Stars

Favorite Character: Albaric

Spoiler Free: When I checked out the Goodreads reviews after being accepted for this book, I was quite worried. It was sitting around a 3.06, and that’s probably the lowest scored book on Goodreads I’ve ever read. While in the end I did like it more than expected, there were many things I agreed with in some of the negative reviews I read.

Let’s start at the premise. The main selling point of this book will be the Faerie influence, as that’s a hot subject in YA Fantasy at the moment. Unfortunately, I have to say that this book fails to deliver much of anything on that front. The main purpose of the Faerie/Elfland was to give a backstory to Albaric, but besides that, it doesn’t mean anything at all. In fact, the entire “plot” of the book revolves instead around an entirely unrelated set of lore, and therefore I don’t classify this book as a Fae one at all.

When it comes to the writing, this seems to be a hit or a miss with most readers. While I enjoyed it stylistically, it made everything take ten times as long, since no sentence was ever simple. However, without it, I doubt I would’ve even liked the book at all.

In terms of the characters, this is where I feel the book succeeded the most. The main reason this book wasn’t a DNF was due to the interesting relationship between Aric and Albaric, and while it feels like insta-love but a sibling version, it does get explained later. Additionally, the pure love and caring between these two brothers was just interesting to read, since sibling rivalry is much more common in YA. Additionally, when it came to other characters, most played into the story quite well, and the complex relationships between everyone was where this book truly shined.

However, that did not fully make up for the lackluster plot and under explained world. While the world being weakly developed wasn’t that much of a problem due to its irrelevance to most of the plot, it was a bit frustrating not understanding the situation the book takes place in. We get hints here and there of Vikings and weaker civilizations outside of Calidon, but not much more than that. Even the inner workings of Calidon itself isn’t truly explained, and this leaves the plot unsupported and dull.

Additionally, the plot itself is rather overshadowed by the characters themselves. Aric doesn’t care about much besides Albaric, and therefore really only feels through Albaric, instead of feeling himself for the actions going on around him. We see his worry for his mother and father at times, but it is always overshadowed by the bond between Aric and Albaric. Lastly, the plot itself isn’t actually a tough thing to solve, and when the characters actually are forced to face the problem, it gets solved in a chapter. This ended up making the middle of the book feel very boring, with most of it consisting of Aric and Albaric frolicking around with occasional plot heavy chapters here and there.

All in all, I’m not sure if I’d recommend this book. It is an interesting tale about family and kinship, and an emotional one at times, but not much more than that.