Great cover eerily beautiful. I was intrigued plot but the way it was delivered I often found it lacking. I was able to visualize the fantastical setting and felt like I was there. Its premise intrigued but the world building is too fast-paced or falling into show don't tell. I did not mind the gruesomeness as original fairy tale were quite dark. I did find the ignorance of the lead annoying but I still emphasized with his plight. I will likely read sequels to this book

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. What follows are my honest thoughts and feelings I had while reading this book.

First off, let me just point out that the cover for The Harrowed Half-Breed is GORGEOUS! It caught my eye immediately. I recently finished The Cruel Prince by Holly Black and my fantasy-loving heart is desperate for more Faery stories.
Unfortunately, this book falls far short of what the cover and description promised.
While the premise is strong, and the overall idea is intriguing and gripping, the execution did not deliver.
From the very opening Prologue, I found the world-building weak and too fast-paced to immerse myself. It felt rather forced, and not fully-planned. Many details of the world and the setting felt like they were added last-minute, and didn’t match with the rest of the world.
Characters were not original in their entirety, but I did feel like they had potential, given more time to develop and show us who they were.
This book suffers from its length, perhaps. At 31,000 or so words, it’s more of a novella, and perhaps the ideas and characters would have been stronger had they been given the space to grow properly.
The writing overall felt choppy, and immature, sort of like a first draft. I felt like the old adage of “show, don’t tell” was very heavily ignored, and the story really suffers for it. Viewpoint changes in the middle of a scene, also, which had me putting the book down several times in frustration. The ending felt dissatisfying and rather hopeless.

Overall, I very badly wanted this book to be better than it was. I believe it can be. The author has a very strong and solid vision for his world and characters, and I want to read his next story in the world to see what happens next.