This was supposed to be epic and amazing fantasy, but it was just...boring? the characters were so and so.

I received an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. I've missed the download deadline, but since the story sounded so good, I later on purchased it.
This plot had so many potentials, but as a whole it fell flat. Even though there were interesting aspects to the storyline I was bored most of the time. The chapters were from different POV, to the point where there were so many characters introduced that it was hard to follow and hard to relate to / emphatize with anyone.

The pace started out dynamically but than slowed considerably. I dnf-d it around 60% in.


My rating:
3 stars

To be honest, I haven't a lot to say about this one. It started good, I was intrigued by the story, but then there was a big lull until we met Arn. From this point on the pace pick up a bit, mostly because Arn is a more complex character than all the others we met. And we meet a lot of them. The story change POV at every chapter, and we have a lot of different POV. It is not a bad thing per se. I appreciated it, to a point. But then it is hard for the reader to really know the character, to emphatize with them. Arn aside, I had an hard time liking all the others. It is not that I disliked them, but I didn't like like them. And the plot is interesting but not enough to keep me hooked. All in all it wasnt' a bad book, it has some interesting point, and the world is interesting enough. But I won't continue this series, because I simply wasn't interested enough.

ARC from NetGalley

3.5 stars

The king is magically tied to the land. It thrives when he is healthy, but he is not healthy, and so the land and its people suffer.

This book is about the lines of succession and the lore surrounding it. Ardentia is named after the Celestial Arden. I don't remember the specifics because they are kind of peppered throughout the book, but the jist of it is that she gave her son to the people, and so all the rulers of Ardentia are male because they inherit the power of her son or something like that. They need to be male, but the king has no male heirs. The queen is a bit of a complex character. It seems she is quite self-absorbed, but she obviously loved her husband very much. She's fighting to make sure her daughter ends up on the throne, but it's obvious that she wants that for herself. She isn't a terribly loving mother.

This book is done from several different perspectives. It's done well. Everyone has a unique voice. The magic system seems quite interesting, though it isn't delved into very much. There are many different races, and I'm intrigued to learn more about them and their magic. I hope the author gets into it a bit more in the books to come.

There is a clear good/evil, light/dark thing going on here reminiscent of angels/heaven as there is a fallen Celestial come to earth who is prophesied to do some bad shit.

I didn't feel the need to burn through this book. It was interesting with some neat ideas, but it didn't give me that perpetual reading motor that a really good book will give me. The romance... Can SOMEONE please give me a decent romance already? I'm starting to think I hallucinated all the good ones I've read in the past. Jahna either ignores Arn completely or is mean to him. There are 2 sort of blips where she is a bit sexual with him, and it feels so off and weird because of her behaviour the rest of the time. I so want this to happen, so get it together Jo-Anne. Arn is that saucy street thief sexy bad boy that I live for. He has a good sense of humour, witty banter, and he saves their asses more than once. He has questionable morals, a lovely grey character. MAKE IT HAPPEN JO-ANNE. Give Arn and his relationship the attention it, and I, deserve.

~ ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ~

To my shame, I've had this book on my TBR for a while. Once started though, I couldn't put it down and I already praised it in one of my FB groups at 50% in.
At first, the many pov's are confusing, however, after few chapters, the pov changing make sense and the action flows smoothly.
Is amazing, it grabs you and keeps you under until the very end. I can't wait for next volume to see where the journey will take them, for Jahna, Liliac, Silko and Arn.

The land of Ardentia is vast and magical, carved by the Celestial Gods and ruled by their mortal descendants. With the once, great king mysteriously ill, thousand – years war raging in the east and whispers of an ancient evil’s return, Ardentia’s salvation now rests on the shoulders of Jahna and her guild of young outsiders.
Jo – Anne Tomlinson’s first instalment of her trilogy The Ardentia Saga did not grip me. It has some good ideas in there, but the story itself is not executed well.
I had a number of problems with it. For one, the dialogue! At times it was clunky, and on some occasions incomprehensible. There were a few times that I had to go back and read the lines again, which is never a good thing. This did not happen all the way through the book and it seemed to flow better when the story focused on the characters of Jahna and her group of friends, but when the perspectives of the book changed to the nobles of the story, the dialogue fell apart.
The book changes perspectives constantly throughout the book to each individual character’s view of the story and at times this hinders the flow and continuity. It’s not that I have anything against this style of writing, but I think that it has to add something to the story. This simply doesn’t!
Throughout the blurb, it mentions an ancient evil rising to take control. I never got this. There seemed to be no level of threat or jeopardy throughout the story and the main characters just tended to wander aimlessly from one city to another where a series of incidents happen. Why? We are not entirely sure. Yes we know that Jahna’s mother is killed, but you never get any real sense of urgency or threat driving the action on.
There are the typical fantasy tropes in there. You know, party of people have to go on a quest to find a magical item in order to stop the bad guy taking over the world etc, etc. There is a party of people with the same set of skills that you expect to see in any RPG – the warrior, the thief, the scholarly type one and the brooding leader, but apart from them being a mixture of male and female and with a woman being the warrior, not much was ever done with them. There are some attempts to highlight gender politics but it is only touched on and never really explored to be honest.
There were some moments of light relief, particularly when the party gets captured, but all in all I didn’t get anything special from it. Even the villains weren’t that particularly villainous, if I could actually work out who the villain was to be honest. We are told about ‘The Dark Star’, the main baddie of the plot, but it is only there for a brief interlude in the final act of the book. We never really know why they are bad or what their motivation is.
However, there are some parts of it that I found interesting. The world building is ok, introducing some kind of sprite creature that was interesting when two of the party members attempt to steal a book from the library. And the magic system looks interesting.
But unfortunately, these were not enough to save it from a dull plot.

Thank you Xpresso Book Tours and NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. My review is my own and not influenced by others.

The cover and description caught my attention on NetGalley so I decided to request an e-arc and was eager to start reading this book.

The first chapters were very interesting and the way the writer wrote the story was very nice. You could see the world without too much information to use your own imagination.
This book is written with multiple POV’s, in my opinion too much POV’s to hold my attention. The writer however, did choose to start each chapter with another POV so it is demarcated and not chaotic and follows the story in a good way.

Good start to the series. I found the MC to be a bit difficult to connect with. The story was slow to grab me and Jahna was rather cold. Her two main friends were more likable. The last half of the book moved along at a rapid pace and I felt myself pulled in and enjoying it. This is a cliff hanger so beware.

I really liked this book for the most part. Jahna as a protagonist is likable and her motives are sound. Her friends, Silko, Arn, and Lilac are fun, three-dimensional, and very loyal. The characters that I didn't like were the royals. It was probably on purpose, but the princess really annoyed me. I did find it interesting how Tomlinson's writing changed with the POVs. It made it easy to understand who we were following, but everything about the royals' POVs annoyed me. They all felt very juvenile, even the antagonist and the queen, who should've felt more cunning and savvy. The princess and her sudo-love interest drove me to hate their parts. The romance isn't even hinted at in the princess' POV, but then in the guy's, they're all over each other. The guy's motives were also confusing, as he seemed to like her at some points, but at others he seemed to just be using her.
The plot is well flushed out. There are good reveals to keep the story interesting, and the world is dynamic and unique. It's easy to follow and I'm excited for the next book.
The biggest complaint I have is the amount of POVs. It feels like everyone gets at least a chapter. It should've been limited to Jahna, the princess, the queen, and the magic guy. They make sense and add to the story, everyone else feels unnecessary and makes the story feel cluttered. I wish the queen's storyline was more flushed out because something is introduced at the end that I wish was brought up earlier, or at least hinted at. But even with these issues, I would still definitely recommend reading it.

Jahna a thief, liar and a halp breed who finds out just who her father is. Silko a nerdy scholar, Lilac, the muscle of the group but also a funny one. Then we have Arn the Madroff thief whos motive is unclear. This was an enjoyable book. There was good plot, the action was fast. Truly enjoyed it.

This was an enjoyable read. The first chapter in particular hooked me, but I did feel as though it lost focus a little further in, which made it harder to stay engaged. I felt as though the descriptions and the world-building were done well, and I was certainly left interested and wanting to know more in that respect. I struggled a little with the characters, but I think that may be because I am older than the characters/target audience, although I will say I loved that Lilac was the muscle, and incredibly down to earth and she was easily my favourite character. It will be interesting to see how they and the plot develops in the next book.

The storyline was very well written and I enjoyed the good writing style. The plot is traceable and very interesting. The descriptions of surroundings are great and I liked the characters also very much.

I’m going to rate this 3/5 stars. It was an interesting idea and I enjoyed learning about the different places. Overall, it was a little too juvenile for me though and that made it difficult to stay interested. The book was also a bit on the short side, especially considering it’s going to be part of a new epic series. I felt like there was so much information and details missing that would have helped to make the story more intriguing and make me feel more invested. Overall, I did like the book, I just think it could have been a lot better (for me) if it had been more detailed and had a more mature dialogue.

I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book started off a little confusing for me. There are MPOV and jumping from one place to another.
It started off interesting but then it seemed like the sequence of events went out of order for a few chapters. After that I was able to get into the story. Unfortunately this book was only so-so for me. I think my main issue was I really didn't feel much connection to the protagonist. She just seemed like a bossy friend for the most part. I was also unsure what besides her git made her the best choice for future queen. I mean the princess was a weak-willed easily manipulated girl but Jahana was a bossy thief. I'm sure as the series goes on we'll learn of her finer qualities but it would have kept me more committed to the series to see more of her redeeming qualities in the first book. Silko was also an alright character for me. He was a good friend even though they seem to treat him rudely for the most part. I respected that he was able to stand up to the girls occasionally. My favorite of the trio was Lilac. She's the muscle of the group and comic relief. She had me laughing out loud a few times. There were times she was a jerk to her friends but he was also able to recognize when she was out of line and correct herself. She also showed compassion at times to others.
Overall this book was ok for me. I'm not shy to shelf a book when I'm not enjoying it. This was not one I felt that pull to give up on. But I don't think I'll be reading the next books in this series either.
BTW I know there are those of you who HATE cliff hangers... This one leaves you on a big cliff. Just FYI.