This cover is simply stunning, and what drew me to look further into the title.
I found the writing style to be stiff, which really took away from the action scenes, making them slow-paced and hard to read.
Great original idea though.

*I received this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Alright well obviously this book is not without it's controversies. I did, particularly initially, feel a bit uncomfortable by the way this book was presented- the white saviour trope was played out in its' entirety. But it's also not as if this is something new- it's all a bit Pocahontas/Avatar/The Winner's Curse etc etc- colonist, racist depictions of fictionalised worlds are something I've seen time and again. Is it right? No. Is it surprising that readers have taken such umbrage with this book specifically? Yeah kinda.
Honestly, if you picture the main character as a WOC then everything ends up balancing out a bit more nicely overall, which is what I did.

Moving right along, in terms of actual story line, I am a sucker for a new person trying to live and love in a foreign place. The whole romance was a bit insta-love for my liking- initially we were getting a nice slow burn that, whilst predictable, I was enjoying, but one kiss and BANG it's pet names and eternal declarations. And for some reason despite the direst of circumstances, all very chaste??

For me this had vibes of A Flame in the Mist, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Whilst this wasn't executed quite as skilfully, this is also the author's first novel. I predict she will improve as she writes, and will hopefully take the issues this book has had in stride as she plans her future works.

Would read the next in the series, as I'm intrigued to see where it goes.

Actual Rating: 2,5 stars

Cover Art:
The cover art I really don’t understand. On the bottom, I’m assuming is the Spire and on top a glacier? There were a couple icebergs mentioned in the book, never with a real purpose and a lot of snow, but never a glacier. So I simply don’t understand what the point of that being on the cover is. Also, the city displayed on the bottom doesn’t look anything like how the Spire was described.

Writing:
The book is poorly written, to be honest. I don’t have much to say about it really. It is just meh. My main problem with the writing though was its extreme predictability! Especially at the start of the book. If you are like me and don’t read the synopsis of books, then you wouldn’t have any clue what books would be about.
So yeah, I didn’t have a clue what this book was about but I soon guessed as it was blatantly obvious what was going to happen! Literally, the most predictable thing in the book was towards the beginning and that thing is vaguely mentioned in the synopsis of the book. Spoilers ahead in italics! So, for some base info, the event was a plane accident. Leading up to the plane accident it is mentioned 100 bloody times that none of their planes has ever crashed. They even say multiple times that they took 5 out of the 6 escape pods out because they had never been used in any of the planes and they were a waste of space. Take any guesses at what happens? Of course, the plane is going down and the MC’s parents put her in the escape pod… I saw it coming from the first time they mentioned that the plane wouldn’t crash, like how could they have made it any plainer!?

I’m not going to talk about all the Racism comments that a lot of people are claiming. When I read fantasy books I don’t even think about similarities to races and such in the real world. So no, I didn’t see the similarities between the people of the Continent & our own Native American & Japenese people.

Plot:
I have a couple problems with the plot, besides the predictability. The main one is the ending! It ended so abruptly! The battle went for a little bit but then within one or two pages everything was over and resolved! Of course, what happened was also so obviously coming but was meant to be a huge plot twist.

Characters:
The characters were underwhelming and a bit typical. I also felt absolutely no connection to any of them and the only one I even slightly cared about was Noro’s little brother Keiji as he was really awesome and a cute character. So yeah, beside him I don’t have anything to say as I didn’t like them or hate them.

Overall:
Overall I didn’t love this book. The best thing was that it was a really quick read as it was only 300 pages. The book was extremely predictable & just not set out very well. It felt like they spent a bit of time on the beginning but had a max of 300 pages allowed and got to page 280 and was like ‘holy fuck better wrap this up’ and that was the last 20 pages just thrown together and ending so suddenly! And where the hell was the map?! There was so much talk about this amazing map that the MC made of the Continent and you still don’t put a map in the front of the book (as I read the eARC, there may be a map in the final copy, if there is just retract what I just said).

As an adult who will hopefully never get too old for YA, I occasionally have this problem. Sometimes a book is written for me 20 years ago. This is a well-written, well paced novel, but...I have read too many similar things recently. I also struggled with some culturally insensitive parts of the book, which took me out of the narrative.

I'd recommend to fans of the Hunger Games, The Selection, The Jewel etc

I have been putting off reviewing this book because I read about the backlash that it originally received, I did not read the original release so I don't know how much has changed.

People were apparently upset about racial stereotypes and the fact that the MC was a privileged white girl.

I have to be honest I didn't read into the book this much so I didn't really notice anything like. I found that some characters were unnecessary and I wish that we had been given the opportunity to send time with other supporting characters.

I found the MC to be a bit OTT naive which was fine at the start but it started to grind my gears towards the end. The story also read way too smooth kind of like "and they all lived happily ever after" situation which bugged me.
I didn't really get a chance to connect to any of the characters which was disappointing but the story was an easy read.
I was a little disappointed with the lack of backstory and world building in regards to the location/s in the book and the history of the different tribes. I would have loved to have read more about the Continent

I didn't love the book or hate it. As a general guideline I would recommend this book to people that don't feel the need to connect with all the other characters, and to people who want a fairly quick easy read.

I received an arc of this book from NetGalley and can only assume I received the updated version, since, with regard to the controversy surrounding the original book, I didn’t see anything different to many other popular YA books.

I loved this story. I found it fast paced and the world building of the continent was excellent. The romance also wasn’t too insta-loveish for me.

I liked the fact that Vaela’s realization of her privilege did not automatically grant her acceptance by all of the Aven’ei people. That she had to work to prove her worth and usefulness.

I dislike books that have the spoiled rich girl become an instant warrior as soon as she needs to be. The Continent didn’t make me feel like that. Vaela still had her naivety about war firmly in place for the entire book.

4 Stars from me. There were lots of great characters and the storyline was gripping and raw.

I was tossing up between a "liked it" rating and an "it was okay" rating because there are a LOT of negatives about the book, but overall I think I did enjoy it. I thought to myself, would I read the sequel? And the answer to that is probably yes, at some point- so I bumped it up to the "liked it".

If you aren't aware, The Continent's publishing date was pushed back from the original date because of a lot of controversy about the way the fictional races portrayed resembled real races i.e. Native American, English, Japanese. I'm not sure how much was changed from the original as I never read it, but to be honest, looking at the negative reviews coming up on the front page of its Goodreads page, it looks like not much? The things that were brought up in those reviews seem to still be there. I suppose it's a bit difficult to overturn the basic premise of the novel.

I did like the overall concept of the novel where you're able to "tour" a nation very different from your own, but the execution was not so good. It's a bit odd, I can't really put my finger on any standout positives about the novel, but I feel like I did enjoy it overall. It's a bit like The Selection, I guess. I would never read that series again, but for some reason did enjoy it while I was reading it.

To give a quick list of those negatives in dot point form:
- the book is extremely predictable apart from maybe one or two events which didn't really end up shocking me because I didn't care too much about the particular characters it involved
- the romance is rather sappy and doesn't feel well developed (did end up being cute at times though)
- side characters stereotypical and also not that well developed, except maybe Keiji, the love interest's younger brother
- Vaela was pretty naive about some things, one in particular that I can remember was how she thought the Aven'ei should get toilets, but then of course had no idea how they worked or how to set it up and was basically a bit entitled- and this was never really addressed in the rest of the novel, she was just like "oh I actually don't know how they work, never mind then!"
- the start was really slow, I was literally just waiting and waiting for the plane to crash and for her to land on the island
- there were a ridiculous number of death flags at the start of the novel, like plz make your foreshadowing more subtle

So overall, would I recommend this novel? Maybe...........but probably not.

Ratings
Overall: 4/10
Plot: 2.5/5
Romance: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
World Building: 2/5
Character: 2.5/5
Cover: 3/5

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book. I found the characters oddly formal and stilted, and the love interest predicable and a little too much 'insta-love' for my liking.
The world building was probably the best part of it - though the fact that the Aven-ei could conveniently speak the same language as the Spirian's was irritating to me (even though the Author explains why, I feel like it was a plot device, and was not done in a believable way).
This book is not for me.

<i>Many thanks to netgalley for the arc, this is a review based on my honest and fair opinion.</i>

2.5 stars. And not because it disgusts me. Firstly, I want to point out, if I had to put aside all the racial controversy about this book (and I really want to, but I can't ignore other commentary on this in the face of looking ignorant), this book isn't that bad. But on it's own, it's definitely fallen into the genre it seems to come from. Harlequin (somewhat), speculative sci-fi fiction romance. Or something similar. I say this because it's a) sci-fi & futuristic, b) romance focussed, and c) the deeper speculativeness loses to the romance development.

Secondly, I requested this initially because the blurb had interested me, and only found it out later on that it had a cloud of controversy hanging on its tails, which somewhat twisted my mind, but I still read it in hopes that it wasn't as bad it's been said to be.

So, this is how the review will go. I'll first discuss everything but the controversy, then at the end, I'll address those things in relation to what I read and understood from the text. Just keep in mind, personally, I hate all this discussion about racism. It's this kind of inflammation that doesn't constructively help create stories for others to enjoy.

<b>So, story only, and not the other stuff...</b>
The continent begins strong. I quite liked the way it developed this image of a world, where you have a utopian like setting versus a constantly warring nation. It's imaginative. It's unique. If we put aside colour and race depiction issues, then there was a lot of potential in the Continent to really present a story about a privileged girl suddenly thrown into a world of needing to survive. I would have liked to see her go from pampered to finding her sensibilities tested and challenged, to her at last accepting that she is part of that world, and that she can no longer look back. What I got instead was more romance than anything else. I think the story aimed at a 'happier' ending, with saviours and whatnot, but truthfully, I didn't like it. It took away from the powerful telling this could have given and placed more emphasis on the romance.

The romance was fair. But it was also far too simple. As if it was expected, with no other developments in character or around the characters to really give them a push to be together. This is probably why I label it as typical harlequin (even though I know that's the publisher, but it's become it's own freaking genre), where the romance will win out.

The characters. Individually:

<b>Vaela</b> - I liked her at first, until I didn't like her, but why, I'll explain later in the bottom part. Her naivety shows how privileged her life was and that her luxuries seem universal. That is until she encounters life on the Continent.

<b>Noro</b> - I believe his name was changed (I'll discuss this later), anyway, he was interesting. But his portrayal had me face palming. As a character, there was something to him, he was quite reasonable.

<b>Everyone else</b> - what can I say? Some made a strong presence in the background, but others were not as strong gave space for filling up a cast.

The worldbuilding is missing a lot. We have the general idea of the world, that there's this place and that, that the Spire is a united nation, and the Continent is not. The Continent seems to be like Antarctica? And it is inhabited by two dominating ethnic groups. I think a lot of concern for this book is the underdevelopment of the worldbuilding. The lack of, means that readers don't know how they relate to each other, nor do we know how important each are. It seemed like these divisions in the world merely existed to create the conflict for the romance. But I do want to say that the world the author has created is actually interesting. A safe world, and then a world like the Continent (not with those listed cultures but) that is endlessly warring is fascinating. I really wanted to read a story that dealt with dealing with a warring nation without the White Saviour Troupe.

As for writing. It's descriptive but not overly. I.e. We know some things that are convenient, but things like history and whatnot are not elaborated on. It's not beautiful writing, but it is useful. Useful but not boring.

And....I think that is it.

<b>And now, the hard stuff.</b>
Now, after reading many reviews that, really, just makes me sick. And not sick because of what they referred to but because of the backlash being dealt. I don't know how many read the book in detail, but, there is constructive criticism and then there is simply bitching.

Alright, here are my points;

<b>[1] Political correctness, censorship, etc, etc, etc.,</b> What stands out the most in many reviews and what mostly irritates me is this carelessly thrown around word 'racism' and who says it. I do agree that writers should be wary of how their works should be perceived, and that they aren't offending anyone. But we need to remember what the story is being told. How would you as a person describe someone you've never met before, who is so different to you, who might seem like a 'barbarian' or 'savage' to you? You might not be aware of this, but unexpectedly, and unconsciously, our mind needs to find the words to describe these new things. And so we 'latch' onto these words, and that's how we begin describing things. The problem however, is <i>how</i> a person deals with overcoming these differences. Although I don't agree with how much has been described of the Continent natives, I also think that Vaela <i>has not</i> experienced such worlds up close. And has probably been brainwashed to <i>think</i> of the natives as savage and unlike her when living in the Spire. She probably never went through a course of Intercultural Communication or International Communication or anything similar. Which brings me to the problem that I see:

<b>[2] Vaela as the primary problem</b>, and also been criticised for being fulfilling the 'White Saviour' troupe. She does actually fall right into that. Anyway, why do I say she is the problem? Because though she begins as a fantastic character, her development throughout the book does not see her as assimilating, but more and more becoming that annoying white saviour no one really needs. Her attitude is not obnoxiously awful, but it tends to come across as 'superior' unintendingly, and there are many moments, even by others where there is this supposed overall underlying assumption that the Spire IS better than the Continent. This becomes a trend more and more towards the end of the book, right about from the point where the romance takes over the plot and other things fall sideways. If Vaela had been less about her culture, and more open to understanding, less imposing about the Spire and asking more questions about the way of Aven'ei life, then maybe there would have been less 'race' discussions and more something else. In my opinion, Vaela was the greatest flaw, even if I know where the author might want to go with her, her development didn't suggest that she had interest in the Aven-ei, but simply her newfound lover. It's no surprise that this receives criticism for fulfilling that White Saviour troupe, as many actions taken, i.e. getting help from the Spire by Vaela, really needing that external help, Vaela is the one with answers aka the maps (which is understandable because she's a cartographer but well), are moved forward by Vaela or on the expectation that Vaela would succeed.

<b>[3] Talking about race</b>, personally I hate the term 'race' as much as I hate the term 'ethnic'. But these terms are being used, and rather than talking about how we hate it (I am POC btw, Asian parents), we should think about how to claim ourselves in this world. For this book, to be fair, the portrayal of different races are so general, it's no wonder it got criticism. I have nothing against almond eyes but not everyone has them if they're asian. What this book lacks, is recognition of diversity within diversity, and also the very fact that stereotypes, while not avoidable, should have been explored and justified in more depth. Awareness should be raised, not just generalised. And I think this is also where the author goes somewhat askew. She doesn't mention variation. Only the Spire has variation because their unified nations. And she talks about ninjas, she gives them a different name (sort of), but there's little explanation or worldbuilding to give us reasons why they are dressed that way, or why are they needed, or why else.

<b>[4] Fantasy worlds</b> are always going to be inspired by real cultures. Developing them can be hard. I asked myself why, all through this book, why this book got such a bad rap when other books did not. Ie. Sky in the Deep or Winner's Kiss, the two that come to mind. Or An Ember In the Ashes. Sky in the Deep deals with people of similar cultures, but warring against each other, and there is plenty of diversity present. Who is superior depends on which side one looks i.e. side a vs side b. And not just side a, and side b agreeing with side a. Winner's Kiss, we had an mc who was culturally sensitive, and wanted to get to know the other cultures, while also showing respect and also showing us readers how the coin can be flipped, how what was once superior can be made inferior, how the inferior can rise, and that most of all it's politics of war. We deal with it, and we learn. And Ember in the Ashes, well, you get the picture. Anyway, there are probably plenty ther examples that deal with culture that don't get criticised (An Ember in the Ashes is similar to Sparta and Ancient Rome, plus others, while Winner's Kiss is harder to derive roots of). Choosing a culture as inspiration as fine, even using the language of that culture is fine too (making up a language is really hard, you can just pick out words, or you can create the whole thing, but the short is that it's hard) but it's respecting it in the written work that's something else. Mix it up, add some olives to that lettuce salad for your fantasy culture. Where are the tomatoes and cucumbers? It's no surprise that reviewers critique this representation.

<b>[5] And just changing small things don't cut it...</b> is what several reviewers have commented about when discussing the racism of this book. And I half agree. In the revised version (not the one I received), I've seen that not many major revisions had been done. Changes to names and culture group names, were done, but... well. Truthfully, that wasn't the problem - not the way I see it. This book is written in first person after all, so it's the character development and perception that is a problem.

<b>[6] I don't believe those in the culture should be the only ones to write about that culture inspired stuff, and whatnot</b>, this argument was really small among reviewers though there were a few who commented by saying that they themselves were poc and disagreed. I think anyone can do any kind of writing of any character, however you have to do research, you have to go out and actually understand that culture is not just a visual thing, but it's deep down. It's also more diverse than you think. If you're not confident, then put the mind to developing a new culture that may be inspired but that one but yet has its own uniqueness.

<b>[7] And the stuff outside the book that bothered me,</b> I heard that there was harassment from the author and to the author. Neither is in the right. But more critical beta reading to diverse groups would have improved this a lot more. A romance is fine, but this one pushed too much romance first and not enough concept first.

<b>Overall.</b>
I didn't want to give this a bad rating, but the foundation of the story was almost lost under the other stuff. In truth, I think the base concept is really interesting. I think I've said it several times. It's just a shame that this book was overshadowed.

*thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin (Australia), TEEN / MIRA for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*

*THIS REVIEW IS BASED ON THE REVISED EDITION*

3.5 stars.

I have heard alot of talk about this book. Particularly the 2016 edition. That edition has had so many negative reviews that I felt I really had to see for myself what this revised edition was like. I have not read the previous edition though I really wish I had been given the opportunity to do so. 

I read every page of this, and yes, there are racist remarks. Yes it was awful to read and yes, I was brought up from a very young age to never ever be racist, but it was far more mild than I was expecting. I am very interested in wanting to read the previous book just to compare them. With saying that, and putting the remarks aside without disregarding them, the story was actually rather good. I am not a fan of romance or the fight scenes so those parts were rather a struggle to push myself through because I just wanted to skip over them. At the beginning, it was rather painful to have to listen to these stuck up rich people. Mrs Shaw is who I mostly mean. She irrated me so much! I can't stand snobby people at all so she really rubbed me the wrong way, so to speak. 

The whole idea of this story was pretty good. I won't go into details because it gives part of the story away. I did not see it as a white girl jumping in to save the natives. I saw this story as one person wanting to help another person. I hope more people give this revised edition a chance. I do respect that alot of people wont given how badly they were hurt by the first edition, and I can definitely understand that, but if you feel up for it, this one might surprise you. It's worth a chance.

Thankyou to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.


So I requested this on Netgalley, knowing I'd seen the cover somewhere but not really connecting the dots. Then I realized it was on my to-read already, but from ages ago; why did I mark it to-read so long ago if it's only just getting published now? Oh well I thought, probably a good reason, and decided to just read the book.

Before long I received a hint there may have been a genuine reason this took so long to be published properly. I do warn you however, that if you are reading this review I'm going into spoiler territory because it's too hard to voice what is wrong with this book without REALLY voicing what is wrong with this book, you know? I didn't read any reviews before I began, and the one stars are going to tell you the same thing I thought; that this book is incredibly, overwhelmingly, racist and without apology. So here I am reading a book where a white girl and her family get a trip of a life time to watch two different people kill each other. It is literally the envy of the world, seeing these barbarians rip into each other, and of course only the super rich and super connected can go. Then the unsinkable Titanic sinks, and Vaela is stranded in the *horror* real world. She is almost immediately captured, almost raped and rescued by a man called Noro from the other side of this conflict.

Noro of course immediately falls for the blonde haired beauty, but due to a completely unknown reason he decides to hide this from her in a gentle but stern way. After all, he IS completely free of romantic ties in his own villages despite many women desiring him. Vaela returns the love, but also doesn't act, as she is drowning in grief. What begins next is perhaps the best part of the book; where Vaela grieves and then begins working for a living, something she has never had to do. She actually comes to appreciate her new life, makes a few friends and enemies and of course progresses with Noro. I actually would have been fine with the book ending there. She's realized that no, people who live differently than her aren't savages, and she could have settled into life in a new community. But no, war threatens, and it's up to her to save the entire continent by asking her own people to come in and save the day. 240 years of war, and someone else floats in and decides they know best and will put it all together again. -sigh-

Now I've read all this, and gone online to discover I'm not the only person who had problems with this book. Now imagine my surprise to realize that what I've just read is the REVISED edition, and that it was far, far worse before? I shudder to think what was cut!

There is no other way to see this book as a spoiled, rich, white character coming in to save the 'lesser' folk and doing it without any respect or tolerance. The beginning is exceedinly poorly written too; I almost quit early on. Reading this book has left a bad taste in my mouth. :/