Ora and the Old God is a story of a young girl overly sheltered by her mother. On the day of her 17th birthday, her brother takes her on the Tabas Hunt. However, during the hunt, they run into trouble. Ora is taken to Tirnan by the menacing Tyg and her husband Callum. As Ora's held in Tirnan against her will, she refuses to conform in the hopes of finding her brother.

During her captivity, Ora learns about the differences in magic within the fae realm. It is during this that Ora gets swept into the magic and her ability to wield it.

This book was delightful, especially with the world-building. The fae world introduced has vastly different magical creatures. Each of these creatures has a hierarchy. The first of these hierarchies to be presented is within the royal city of Mysanhal. It is confusing with all of these different creatures, and I hope there will be more explanation in the second book.

The main protagonist, Ora, is not that complex of a character. Whereas the antagonist, Tyg is villainous and downright delusional in her actions to defend her people. Ora’s motivation and goal are pretty simplistic in this book: returning home and finding her brother. But with Tyg, there seems to be a more complex storyline that hopefully will be fleshed out in the second book.

Overall, the book is fascinating, and I can not wait for the second book. There are so many questions regarding Ora and her lineage and Tyg and her desire to destroy the sylv and “lesser” creatures. These questions will likely be answered during the second book, or perhaps small tidbits of information will be given, leaving the reader eager for more.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free e-copy of this ARC.

I received a copy though NetGalley for review.

So overall I actually enjoyed this one.
The writing hovers somewhere between middle grade and YA.
If you have been looking for something romance free- here it is. There so far is absolutely no romance for the MC. Which feels refreshing. That's right a 17 year old girl who isn't looking for a husband! Feels like a miracle.

Ora is hurled into the world of Fae- the majority ruler is of a sect call the Dren.
From what I can gather in this world, different fae have different magical abilities. Some have power within, others are elemental, some alchemical. And there are some things that are very, very old, and seem to like to meddle with their own.

The Queen knows Ora is not what she seems, and hands Ora to the household of leaders of her guard .
Tyg Marigen known as the Magis (the most power combat mage) and her husband the leader known as Valor of the Yewolyns.
Tyg is power hungry and vicious. Threatening anyone who challenges her, and will kill and maim without hesitation.
Ora does her best to blend in, while she looks for a way to escape. Her only thoughts are how to get away and transform her brother back into a human. Before he can be hunted as a brush pig.

She makes some interesting allies along the way. And the discovery of her powers, she has a lot of potential if she can harness it properly.

This book felt somewhere between a novella and a prequel. And I'm looking forward to see where this heads next. As the ending was somewhat surprising. There's a big clash coming up!
It was a fun read.

For fans of ACOTAR, An Enchantment of Ravens, and The Folk of the Air.

Ora takes readers on a journey to a fae world that exists adjacent to the human realm, separated by crossing portals. Kidnapped during a hunt on her seventeenth birthday after a run-in with a fae species called dren, Ora desperately works to find a way to return to the human realm to save her brother, who was transformed into a forest pig when the fae stole her away. Various encounters with the fae reveal there may be more to Ora than she had been lead to believe by her family.

The author really shines in the concept of this story. The lore surrounding the fae has been well developed and their world is clearly rich and vast, even if we don't get the opportunity to learn too much about it. While at times the action could be slow, the plot made sense and flowed in an easy-to-follow manner. There were also scenes where the author's writing style really shined, where the reader can tell the author was excited to share the next plot point. The author also doesn't fall into the trap of most fantasy books of info-dumping on readers. The dissemination of information about the world was appropriately timed and doesn't overwhelm the reader.

Unfortunately, the details of the books weren't developed enough for me really enjoy the reading experience. The concept is definitely here, but the execution is a bit missed.

I found the characters to be one-dimensional, paper dolls instead of fleshed out beings with motivations, hopes, and fears. Half the characters have no apparent motivations for their actions, and the ones that do are unrelatable. Little time is spent actually giving readers a sense of who these characters are, so I found myself completely apathetic towards what happened to them. At the very least, I expect to have a sense of who the protagonist is and what motivates them, but really all we know about Ora is that she's a 17 year old girl who is annoyed by her mother's over-protectiveness and likes listening to stories from her uncle. That doesn't really give us a sense of who she is. From there, the rest of the characters get progressively less interesting.

Additionally, the pacing of this book is quite awkward. It feels a bit like the reader is in stop-and-go traffic, jerking rapidly between plot points with not much to bridge between them. There were many instances throughout the book where the author would set up a scene and then spend one paragraph giving a summary of what happened next, often covering a timeline of hours in a few sentences. I almost couldn't get through the first chapter. The pacing does improve significantly after the first chapter, but there is definitely still entire portions of the book throughout that feel really awkward to read.

This is the authors's first book and I'm excited to see where their writing career takes them. The potential for greatness is here, in my opinion. They are definitely one to watch.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3. This novel isn't bad. It's just... okay.

First of all, I'm not sure what category this is supposed to be for. Ora, the protagonist, is seventeen, but she acts a lot younger. The novel is also written more like a Middle Grade than a YA, so take heed. There isn't any romance either.

I really did enjoy the worldbuilding, and Day's writing style is lovely. Very atmospheric and magical. But the characters seemed flat and one-dimensional. The plot was predictable to the very end. Nothing about this novel was new.

Our protagonist Ora and her brother go out into the forbidden woods. Her brother accidentally kills a fae creature and is transformed into a pig as punishment. Now Ora is whisked away to the fae realm to serve as a human servant girl to an evil, human-hating lady mage named Tyg. As Ora is desperate to escape, she learns that she has magical powers, and there is a war brewing on the fae borders...

Does that summary sound familiar? Yes. You've read it a hundred times before.

I think this is my fault for expecting more out of that summary. Hot take: I think this novel would be greatly improved if Ora and our villain Tyg fell in love. Yes, you heard me. It had potential. Besides, doesn't their situation sort of remind you of The Cruel Prince? Just me?

I don't know. I think that would have been the ONE thing that this novel could have built up to so it could separate itself from the rest of the genre. Tyg pretty much hates Ora for no reason (other than that she's humaaan and she's disrespectful to her captor blah blah). And we got Tyg POV chapters so, hey, genre conventions...

If you've read as much YA fantasy as I have, then you should probably skip this.