The living god was much to slow paced for my taste. It seemed to drag on and on. It contained very little worldbuilding and the magic system was completely unexplained.

I want to start out this review by saying I think this book either needed to be longer so it would fill in some of the past better or cut out some of the extra content that seemed unnecessary until you finished the book. I found the living gods starts out so strongly but then talks about past events so often without completely filling in the events it brings up. At times I wondered if there was a previous novel I missed from the holes in the middle. I also found it scattered the plot too much for 300 pages. Sadly this book almost became a DNF which is rare for me because I like to find out how stories end.
I wish I could like this book more since the characters were interesting enough. The author also added an excerpt from the next one that made me want to read it. I have a hard time recommending it to people based on the arc copy I read. If the finished one was fixed up in the places I found problematic then I would consider recommending it. I just feel like this novel had so much potential to be more.

The synopsis of this book drew me in, and I can honestly say that this book had a lot of great stuff going for it.

A headstrong princess who is unafraid to venture onto the battlefield is always attractive in a book. Saran is unafraid to make the choices she knows are right, despite them going against her own country, army, or people. Not respected by many in her court, Saran, a Time Mage, is also the "black sheep" of the royal family, which is refreshing for a novel with a royal protagonist.

This story is epic, everything you would expect from a fantasy novel. Magic, prophecies, royalty, and epic battles make for an exciting story. The characters interact within the story in ways that are unexpected, and for the most part, this improved the novel itself. However, there were some issues that I just could not see past with this story.

The beginning of "The Living God" did not hook me in at all, unfortunately. The excitement of starting in the middle of a battle was overshadowed by the fact that I had no clue what was going on, who was fighting, or (most importantly) WHY they were fighting. Where some novels can start in the same way and earn the reader's attention by giving the right details in the right way, unfortunately, this novel does not.

Although the story and characters were entertaining and exciting, it just didn't meet my expectations as a reader.

Saran is a mage in control of time, fighting a war her father the king insists on fighting. He wants death and destruction, and the rise of the Living God in accordance to old prophecies. Saran is conspiring against him with Keilar, a fire mage that has a demon known as an oruke inside of him. That causes fear as well as respect, as there are those who believe that Keilar will become the Living God of prophecy. Keilar just wants to be a fire mage, love Saran, and continue to fight against the king with the rest of the rebellion. When Saran's magic is locked away as punishment for defying her father, Keilar starts losing control over the demon. There is a lot on the line, and risk at every turn.

This is actually the start of a series, so its ending is fairly open to be continued on in other novels. There is a lot of political intrigue here as well as discussion of the different elemental magic styles, the two other alternate realities (one of which is our own) where magic was lost. I was caught up in the story, and the relationship between Saran and Keilar, as well as the push and pull of magic in this world. It was interesting to see how parallel universes played out in the prophecy and religion in this book, as well as the usual problem of avoiding prophecies tend to help make them happen. There were multiple betrayals throughout the novel, and right up to the very end were a few surprises regarding motivations and those you thought you could trust.

There are a lot of characters in this, considering we have the main kingdom at war, different rebels, the mages, and new names mentioned here and there from other universes. They all talk about events from the past, making it feel as though there is that much more weight and history for everyone here. I love touches like that in a book, especially if we're dropped in the middle of the action at the start of the novel, and the past events only gradually get referred to or explained later. I'm sure the next novel in this series will unfold in a similar way.

The story started off pretty promising. The cover is one that draws you in. It’s a story about tyrants, mages and destiny. The only thing is, it’s really slow. It at times felt like it dragged on and I couldn’t seem to enjoy the story because of it. All in all, I wasn’t super impressed. I’m not sure if I’ll continue on with the series.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC, all opinions were my own.

I was immediately pulled into this book because the premise is promising and the cover is gorgeous. However., you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and that definitely applies here.

I was thoroughly confused reading this book. You’re immediately thrown into action, but I’m not really sure who is fighting or why. You’re just launched into the middle of a world with no background or map to at least give you a clue to what’s going on.

Saran is the princess of a tyrant and is magically tied to Keleir. They are able to sense one another through a special bond that they have. Saran controls time and Keleir controls fire. I didn’t much care for their relationship because it seemed so obsessive. Additionally, the characters seem incredibly one dimensional.

The pacing of this story is slow. The pages just seemed to drag on, and I just wanted the story to be done.

Thank you Inkshares and NetGalley for the eARC. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.

Other than the gorgeous cover, I really didn’t know much about this book when I placed a request for it on NetGalley. There seemed to be a lot of interesting magical tidbits peppered throughout the book description, so that was a point in its favor. But, unfortunately, none of those little tidbits added up to a book I enjoyed.

Saran is a Time Mage, and as the name suggests, she has the ability to manipulate time. She is also a princess and the daughter of a tyrannical king whose violence is taken out on his family and his country. Saran is joined in her fight for her country by her love, Keleir, a Fire Mage who has his own internal demons, quite literally. Together, they work to overthrow Saran’s father in a rebellion, made only more difficult when Saran loses her time manipulation abilities.

This was…a weird read. Not having a whole lot of expectations going in, it seems weird to now write that it surprised me, but somehow that’s still the case. Most of those surprises weren’t of the good variety, but I’ll start with a few things I did enjoy.

As characters go, I did like Saran and Keleir, though he could veer a little too far into overprotective at times. But, overall, they were both interesting and complex characters, each dealing with their own traumas: Saran, with the challenging tightrope she walks trying to pull off a rebellion under her vicious father’s nose, and Keleir working to contain a demon that lives within him and had, in the past, forced him to do terrible things before Saran saved him. I also really liked their romance (though some of descriptions of intimacy were awkward at best). It’s not that often that you come across a fantasy novel with an established couple at its heart, so I thought that read as a breath of fresh air.

But other than the basic outlines of those main characters and the novelty of the established romance, I struggled with this book. For one thing, it’s very slow. I’m often ok with slow books, too, so I feel like there was something in particular about this book that made this stand out to me. I think it comes down to two things. One, for a story about a time mage and a fire mage, after the initial first chapter of action, there’s a lot of planning and talking about plans and truly very little action. If action was never going to be at the heart of this story, fine. I can get behind a political fantasy. But this doesn’t feel like that, instead spending an inordinate amount of time talking about plans of action instead of carrying them out.

Two (and I think this is the real issue), there were a lot of references to past events that read as really important, eventful, and potentially more worth reading about than what we got in this book. It was really strange, to the point that in the second or third chapter of this book, I actually set it down and went on Goodreads because I was convinced that this must be the second book in a series, and I should check out the first one first, since man, it looks like some cool stuff happened there! But no. There was no first book and these awesome and important past events are just dropped in casually. I don’t know how to describe it or think of a time I’ve come across something similar. If anything, I think the author has a huge missed opportunity on her hands here as it seems that she missed out on writing a really cool book in lieu of writing a fairly bland one with references to said awesome, but nonexistent, book.

And then there was the sudden introduction of other worlds, including our own. This just hit me out of nowhere and not in a good way. Maybe it’s worth blaming the cover art, but I felt completely blindsided by this twist and it ultimately threw me out of a story that I was already either bored by or confused with.

I was really disappointed not to like this book more. Like I said, I can get behind slower fantasy fiction. Indeed, half the time I read fantasy, especially YA fantasy, I feel like the stories could benefit by being slowed down, giving more attention to fleshing out characters and worlds. But here it didn’t work out, mostly I think because there were so many references to really cool past events that we never got to actually see. And then the established romance was also a pro, but not enough to counterbalance these other issues. If you like slower-moving fantasy novels, you may like this. Especially if you go in prepared, unlike me, about the fact that this will read as if there should have been a prequel and yes, there are alternate worlds involved.

Rating 5: Why oh why didn’t we get a first book before this first book in this series?!

Slow to get into, but once I got into the storyline, I was intrigued and looked forward to being able to read it whenever I could. I'm very interested in the sequel and what could happen next if there will be one. Good plot twists throughout and at the end that surprised me!

The summary of this book made me really excited, but I have to admit that I was kinda disappointed in this one..
I really liked the beginning of this book, you are immediately thrown into the middle of an action scene. This was really confusing, but it was really well done, which made me really intrigued to continue on! I also really really liked the magic system in the beginning of the book!
As that sentence already implies, halfway through the book I wasn’t really liking the magic anymore. Not because it was not interesting, but it still was not really explained. Like why do some people have magic? Why are they all different? Who can do what exactly? I WANT to know!!
This is a really action-packed book, which in most cases I would say is a good thing! I really like an action filled book, but this book was literary action action action, and gave you no time to breathe or process what happened. Which might be the reason why I just got confused. Like who works with who? Why do we not like this guy? Why is he going running that way? So much confusion!
This is not a huge complaint but, I don’t understand why the summary focusses so much on the living god (and it’s even the title..), since yes it is important to the story but it didn’t feel like the biggest plot part. But I guess it might have a reason for the second book!
Now I complain a lot about this book, but the writing was good! I liked the characters! I would be interested in other works by her, but I’m not sure if I would continue this series!

This book really missed the mark for me. The premise was interesting, and I think there was the potential to be an interesting plot in there, but unfortunately it was overshadowed by dreadfully slow navel-gazing and a romance in which the two characters had no sparks. So much of the book was spent on things that just didn’t seem important. Basically, I got bored reading it, which, given how violent it is in places, is probably not a good thing. Not to mention. I love violence (I know, I know, this makes me sound terrible, but I am who I am.)

I’m gonna keep this short, rather than list everything that didn’t work for me. I think the world seems interesting, though I would’ve liked it a little better fleshed out, and honestly I want to know more about it. The writing itself was good, if a little—to borrow a word from another review—pompous in places. Too bad, because the description sounded interesting, and I got really excited when it turned out the protagonist had time control powers or whatever they were (they were not well-defined), and I thought the cover was gorgeous.

I dunno who I would recommend this to. At any rate, if you like high fantasy, and are a fan of star-crossed lovers, and don’t mind books that meander, maybe give it a try. I’ll probably keep an eye out for more books by this author, cause I do think she’s got some talent and definitely some interesting ideas.

Another great YA Fantasy is about to hit shelves! 

A headstrong princess fighting out on the battlefields AND has magical abilities? I think yes!

She's flung in a world full of immortals, demons, and magical elements. And immediately, I was captivated. 

Unfortunately, I wasn't as blown away as I thought I was going to be. Even though I was all-in during the first few chapters, the story began to slow down in a few parts once the world building was underway. There was a ton of character development, but the plot just felt a little below par. 

I really liked the forbidden romance. The unique circumstances led me to really devour their relationship, leaving me wanting so much more from them. The idea of the Mad King standing in their way was the perfect fantasy twist this story needed. 

I have mixed feelings with this book. In the end, I gave this one 3 out of 5 stars. I would've liked to see a bit more world building, but this could be something that we see more in the sequel. 

Overall, I think it was a decent start to a YA fantasy series.

The Living God follows three characters, Saran, a time mage who also happens to be the daughter to a merciless king; Keleir a fire mage with a demon inside him (is the former's love interest), and Rowe, Keleir's brother and lightning mage. Without wanting to spoil anything, this story follows all three characters in their attempt to overthrow Saran's father - King Yarin from the throne. But things happen that put a dent in their plans and they have to find a way around it in order to achieve their goal.

To be honest, the summary of the book is what initially caught my attention, I thought it sounded super interesting (which it was!) and that the plot was unique (again, it was!). The reason I'm giving this book a low rating has nothing to do with the plot/storyline, it was just that it read so slow! I felt like everything that happens, basically happens in slow motion in my head - even fight scenes. And while I'm always here for romance in books, I felt like the romance in this one just did not work for me.

I usually love love fantasy books and have read so many that I have an idea what is a great fantasy book. The cover is amazing- and would attract many readers but the plot was slow. I didn't finish the book, unfortunately.

The life of a princess is supposed to be filled with opulence, wealth, and filling your time doing good deeds and getting your hair done. Saran, daughter of the King of Adrid, lives in constant danger and violence. With the ability to alter time, she is used as a weapon and a pawn in his political endeavors. Along with her lover Keleir, she works to overthrow her father and end his cruel reign. But when she uses her magic to save a village, the King binds her magic leaving her feeling helpless and putting Keleir’s life at risk. Keleir is possessed by an Oruke, a demon that overtook his body at birth. Saved by Saran’s powerful magic, Keleir’s power over the demon is threatened after Saran loses her magic to the bind.
Together with Keleir’s brother Rowe, they race to find the key to Saran’s magical bind, overthrow the King, and save as many innocent people as they can.
This book is fast paced and action packed. I really enjoyed the author’s vivid descriptions of Saran and the others using their magic. Saran is an incredibly powerful and intelligent character and her loyalty to her people becomes the key to her survival. She is raised by her Healer after her mother’s death and even after years of her father’s abuse, she is able to focus on the people of her kingdom and protecting others. One of the more interesting aspects of the book is the setting. In this world, there are three worlds-The First, The Second, and The Third. Saran lives in the First, a medieval and magical world where mages rule. The First is very much like where we live currently. The Third is a world of death and destruction ruled by horrid rulers that steal slaves from the other worlds. Crossing between the worlds requires magical ability and meetings between important officials from the different worlds do occur. The ending definitely set up this up to be a series and I’m very curious if the next book will focus on the same characters but in one of the different worlds-or maybe new characters working with the old characters but in a different world? The possibilities are endless.
I highly enjoyed this book and would recommend it for anyone who loves, or wants to try out, fantasy.
Thank you the Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions are my own.

The pacing was a bit askew, but dispite that I found the plot to be widely entertaining. The smart concept didn't disappoint, but the characters did feel mildly written-for-the-plot, so there's that.

I like the title of this book a lot unfortunately, I have mixed feelings with my reading.

The author mixes the genres with this novel, we have a fantasy world with magic, royalty and other, plus parallel world including one similar to ours, and we feel that the author has a lot of ideas for her series. Unfortunately, I find that this first book does not go far enough, the political stakes of the book are hardly explored. There is the tyrannical king that our characters are trying to eliminate through a rebellion, however, we see nothing of this rebellion, everything seems to be concentrated within the castle and the outside world is kind of missing and it is the same for the motivation of certain characters, the beginning of the rebellion and the global context that leads to this social and political situation. A lot of informations seems incomplete.

Our two main characters are Saran and Keleir, Saran is the king's daughter, she is the first victim of his tyranny, and for years she has been ready to overthrow him, but she does not want power. She is a heroine who does not often make the right decisions and her love for Keleir will not help her in any way. Keleir has a demon in his body, he was saved from it by Saran and a relationship was born between them. I must admit that I felt detached from the characters, the style of the author was not immersive and I did not feel their emotions as much as I would have like.

Overall, this book is not bad, but it is not excellent either. We feel that there is research in the universe and mythology, but it is under exploited in my eyes and the characters are too far from the reader for my taste. I hope that the continuation will be exploited a little better the elements set up by the author.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ok this book was so much better than I initially expected. First off the beginning was like a smack to the head. You're just dumped into the middle of a battle right away, no intros, no explanation. It was an unexpected beginning and I loved it. We are quickly introduced to our three main characters, Keleir, Rowe and Saran. They are all powerful mages of different elements. Keleir also happens to be housing an Oruke demon inside him. Along with his internal battle, the battle for the kingdom is also occurring, and holy crap is that king evil! Like I haven't hated a villain this much in a long time. The characters are fantastic and they definitely walk that moral gray line at times. I really enjoyed the magic system, and the multiple worlds. These three worlds are all known to each other and interact with each other which is unique.

The pacing is good too. It starts all crazy, then slows down a bit and then picks right back up. Things go crazy at the end of the book. There are plot twists and a major cliff hangar. I am so excited for the next book. Someone let me know if there's an Oruke around I can sell my soul to for the sequel right now!

Emotionally gripping! I loved this new fantasy adventure that captured my attention from the beginning. Full of suspense and mystery I loved the various twists and turns trying to see where the story was going to go. I enjoyed the characters as well and look forward to seeing what happens next.

I tried with this one. I really did. The cover is gorgeous. But as soon as I started reading, I was confused, more confused, and then disappointed.
Saran is a princess and a mage, and is seeking to overthrow her tyrannical father along with the help of her true love Keleir, who happens to be possessed by a demon. The two must keep their love a secret, along with their plans to lead a revolt.
It sounds like a promising and exciting story. But just a few pages in I felt like I was missing something, The farther I got in the book the more I felt like I had missed important backstory, to the point where I double-checked to make sure this was not the second installment of a series. It just seemed like A LOT of important things happened in the past, and instead of characters just referring to those things, the reader should have experienced them along with the characters. The literal world-jumping was a bit of a shock, too, and instead of adding to the story it just took me right out of it.
This book was just not for me. I would not recommend it.

This book tries so hard, but it's not enough. It wants to be high fantasy, but the writing is pompous and devoid of any charm, boring and sometimes it doesn't really flow. The characters are insufficiently sketched, the worldbuilding is sorely lacking and seems to lift heavily from Shades of magic.