Not for me unfortunately...

I went into this with high hopes, sounded really good from the description but sadly I just didn't don't enjoy it.

I found the pacing wasn't very good and there was too much dialogue and not enough description.

I couldn't connect with the characters and they didn't seem very fleshed out.

I think the plot was promising but felt rushed.

It's a shame as I feel with a little work could have been good.

Read the book on holiday and enjoyed it. I liked the plot and there were some good twists and turns. I feel like the characters and settings could have been more fleshed out and the book could have benefitted from more descriptions, but once I got engaged in the plot, I noticed this less.

This novel is a good one that I’ve read this year! The characters are so dynamic yet relatable. I loved the flow of the story. It held my attention the whole time.

Entertaining but shallow middle grade fantasy. I love a training story, but Anna's progression through the ranks is far too easy and is devoid of a lot of emotional context - she does something heroic and is promoted, on repeat. Despite losing her parents and being embroiled in an enormous, life threatening war, I never felt like she had to struggle for anything, nor think about anything in any great detail. For someone raised on Tamora Pierce's semi-military training stories, this seemed like it wanted to do a similar thing but fell flat.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions are my own.
This has the potential to be a great story but feels very much like a first draft. The author glosses over four days of traveling in the beginning as though nothing could happen to two children who are alone and just survived a vicious attack-did the enemy just disappear?. The characters felt flat and uneven and there wasn't enough description of the world to become invested in.

I wasn't able to get into Descent of Shadows as much as I had wanted to. I was intrigued by the concept, and I wanted more dark middle grade, but I just couldn't get hooked.

I'm a sucker for a good fantasy novel and this one lived up to my hopes! The world, characters, and story were so creative, so enjoyable, and so intriguing. It was such a fun and exciting read!

2.5 stars!

It makes it a little better knowing this is a Middle Grade, and apparently a series.

I had really liked the first few chapters, it brought a lot of anticipation and had started very well!
However...as it carried on it didn't progress as well for me, I stopped caring for the characters and was more annoyed at several of them. It didn't help that through the rest of the book they were rather flat to me.

I really liked the fantasy themes of it, with the Wraiths especially.

And parts of it did remind me of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card a bit, a younger generation helping and fighting for the human race. I liked the plot and where it was going.
But overall, the execution of the plot and characters could have been done better and more of ended up chasing me away. Anna had held a lot of potential, and so had the side characters...but it seemed to just...go away somehow?

This book was an enjoyable read for me. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. I would be interested in reading more from this author in the future!

DNF at 20%
This book is clearly intended for young readers, and as such, it didn't hold my attention. Although I liked the worldbuilding and the creativity, it lacked descriptive prose. Perhaps this would resonate with a younger audience. I felt like I was being rushed through from action scene to action scene with no description and little explanation. I also felt like the emotions and motives of the main characters were hardly explored.
I received this book as an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Descent of shadows age genre was not really here or there. It wasn't enough to be a young adult or a middle grade. It's more on tween (i guess) genre.

Anna , our protagonist whose parents are brutally murdered flees to the army and basically save the world.

The plot was intriguing enough to pick up . But the characterisation was unrealistic. Anna has just lost the entire world she known , but it never really gets on her?! Tris from divergent is really criticised for her adaptation as a dauntless while it was her own choice. Anna was just so so unrealistic.

The world building was great but the magic amulets were so childish?! Overall i think the book should be more focused and edited from the point of target audience.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC

I was initially interested in reading this book, however my tastes have shifted and I do not think I will be able to get to it now. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a digital copy!

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book!*

I am sorry to say that I didn't really like "Descent of Shadows" by Ryanne Glenn. First of all, it is not written for my age group (but usually that isn't a problem) but for older children or young teens. The protagonist, Anna, is 13 at the beginning of the novel when her parents are brutally murdered, she has to flee and then joins the army.

I like strong female leads but Anna was a flat character. She didn't really mourn her parents, she behaved either extremely childish or extremely mature with nothing in between. Her joining the army and then receiving a command just seems unrealistic and weird. All her friends are also flat characters.

The world-building is interesting but it lacks details, background and 'colour'. It's more 'sketched' than 'drawn' so to speak.

Most of all I was annoyed by how flat and unrealistic characters and plot are respectively.

2 Stars. Maybe young teens like it better, but when I think back to what I liked to read at that age, I'm not too sure.

I read Descent of Shadows with my son. He's in middle school. He really enjoyed this story and wished it were longer. He also said that all the kids in his class would like it too. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute little fantasy book fit for Middle Grade. It's not the best, but it isn't terrible either. The MC Anna was a good main character. Some of her characteristics weren't always fluent as well as the other kids. There's some trauma for the MC and I just don't think she addresses that very well. I think the author meant for her to be a strong, independent female. But I just think it fell short. All in all. I think this is a cute book that MG audiences will enjoy. Great thrills, and a cool group of characters. helped to make this an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of Descent of Shadows by Ryanne Glenn. I voluntarily read and reviewed this copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*beware of spoilers below*

Descent of Shadows is about a girl named Anna who loses her parents when the wraith king Roland attacts her home. In search for revenge and hope of taking back her home, she joins the army with a few kids her age. They become the youngest regiment in history and turn out to be the key in defeating Roland and his wraith army.

Unfortunately I have some mixed feelings about this book. The premise had great potential but didn't fully reach that potential for me. The world-building and background of the characters was minimal. This is something that I really missed, because that sets the story for me. At times I felt like the storytelling wasn't as smooth as it could be. Some things felt rushed while others felt like they came out of nowhere.

Personally I think that the reveal that all the people in Anna's regiment were descendents of those mighty warriors was a little far fetched. If it was one or maybe two people it would be more believable. And then that was it, it didn't really get adressed again. It didn't really compliment the story in any way.

I did really enjoy the training, fighting and combat parts. Those were written really well and made the story flow nicely. I also enjoyed the reveal that the wraith king Roland used to be a human in the sanctuary and how it was shown how he got to where he is now by his diary being read. The "traitor" was a bit too predictable for me, but was handled in a good way in the end.

The ending wasn't as satisfying as I hoped it would be. After reading Anna's journey, I didn't feel like she would leave like that. But if the ending was purposefully written this way to leave room for any sequels, then I do understand it. All in all, Descent of Shadows is a fun read, but it didn't satify my expectations.

This book was rather boring. I didn't care much for it and I found it repetitive and I just couldn't buy into the story. Its an easy one sitting read. only a few errors that I saw. Just very basic middle schooler writing.

Not for me. I went into this with high hopes, sounded really good from the description but sadly I just didn't don't enjoy it. I found the pacing wasn't very good and too much dialogue and not enough description. I couldn't connect with the characters and the didn't seem very fleshed out. I think the plot was promising but felt rushed, it's a shame as I feel with a little work could have been good.

I read this in one sitting so this book had that going for itself. But I didnt like this like at all. I found the writing to be extremly basic and the story itself to be very generic. It read as a very middle grade Game of Thrones. The book opens in the middle of some political drama which leaves the reader confused and makes it hard to care.

Descent of Shadows, Ryanne Glenn's debut middle-grade fantasy novel, is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of success in satisfying the reader. There is very little descriptive prose which meant it was nigh on impossible to imagine the setting and the characters, and there were times that new individuals were introduced without so much of a word as to who they were or why they were relevant to the story.

I liked protagonist Anna as she was a strong and feisty female role model, and it's clear the author intended her to be inspirational, however, this was not as successful as the author likely hoped. Anna had much adversity to overcome, but this was not reflected in the way she acted and so was rather lacking in believability. I would've appreciated it more had she struggled to come to terms with the events in her life and then slowly evolved and grew over time. I feel it's important to portray the genuine struggle we all go through and not to make it seem as though it's normal to "just get on with it" without it affecting our thoughts and behaviours.

There was a lot of action, perhaps too much, and the events that happened occurred serendipitously and therefore lacked realism. Things wrap a little too conveniently for my liking. When you enter a world that works differently to our own the author really must explain the way it works, but there was no such explanation here leading to confusion and frustration. I hope the next instalment is better as the story certainly has potential. A fun, fast read that may appeal more to middle-graders than older readers such as myself.

Many thanks to Atthis Arts for an ARC.