I've read some mixed reviews on this book but I definitely fall into the "I loved it" camp. Arianna Belvedor has grown up in some of the harshest conditions imaginable, and her only hope at a life outside of the hell she lives in is to be the best fighter in her city, which is one of the four corners. She's been learning how to fight for as long as she can remember, but that doesn't prepare her for the direction her life is suddenly going to take.

This is high fantasy at its best. The story has so many twists and turns it keeps you interested until the end. Arianna hooks up with some other travelers along the way, and little by little you get the whole backstory as to how the four corners came to be so hellish. It really was an interesting and different take, and I enjoyed it very much.

The characters were well fleshed out and had their own unique personalities, and the world building was phenomenal.

In summary, I really enjoyed this story and look forward to reading the other books in the series.

5/5 stars.

It is very dangerous to compare books to other books, especially those i`ve read. I`ve read Hunger games and Red queen, but not the last one so I cannot say anything about that. But my expectation gets high when that happends. In the end, this wasn`t much for me. I didn`t really connect or care my about the main character, Arianna or the story. My high expectations wasn`t meet sadly.

A nice introduction to what looks like it will be an interesting series , it felt slow at times, but I felt was due to scene setting, world and character building required, it began picking up towards the end and my interest really picked up too. Will be interested to read following books to see where the story takes us to

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Belvedor and the Four Corners published over 5 years ago but it has stood the test of time! I recently received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and this is it. Book 1 of 4, this one sets up a vivid story of fantasy and intrigue. Even during a pandemic I felt like I didn't have enough time to sit down and take in this book. I wanted to forget everything else and wrap my brain around the story being laid out before my eyes. Intrigue, romance, I've seen others explain it as a mix of Harry Potter, Divergent and The Hunger Games - and that's how it felt! I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of this series and see how it all plays out.

Thank you NetGallery and the author for this copy in return for an honest review.


I found the world building of this book very interesting and the action scenes very intriguing. I thought Arianna and Lessa's friendship was well written but overall this book was just not for me. It is a nice introduction to this series and I would recommend this to Hunger Games fans.

ARC from NetGalley

2.5 stars

This was a bit of a slog. We follow Ariana for far too long in the Jar. The mystery of the tunnels also takes far too long, although it is at least a bit less bleak and more interesting in terms of a setting. This was a really long way to open a series, and I wonder if the author stretched everything out a bit to make it a 4-book series, 4 corners, yada yada. It wasn't a bad book, but it unfortunately wasn't gripping or terribly interesting.

The book is really quite bleak. Not a lot of things happen that are positive. There isn't any romance to sort of pull at the heart strings. There isn't anything really driving the story forward aside from the escape, and that gets tedious after a time. Ariana is such an idiot so many times in the beginning of the book. She is in a life or death situation, threatened with the pit if she misbehaves. We know that the general kills people constantly just for shits and giggles, and yet she deliberately disobeys her master several times just for a fucking flight of fancy essentially. It makes no sense, and it was frustrating to read.

We don't really gain a lot of knowledge as we trudge through the story. We learn essentially nothing about magic. We learn about the king from that laughable story that they were so surprised to learn that he had written himself (or so they suspected." I mean... duh? Who else would write such a contrived story of their having been wronged. It was so very obvious that it irritated me as I read it. There was little to 0 character growth. Essentially, too little happened in too many words, I didn't care if most of the characters lived or died, and I don't want to read the next one.

Words cannot express the level of mastery in articulation and writing skills Ashleigh Bello has. I was at the edge of my seat until the very end. I was so scared for all of them, A. B. tells the story so well that you can feel the fear, the excitement, all the experiences of the characters.

An amazing book. I hope to read the next one

This book has a lot of potential! I found that the world was unique and interesting, it had some suspenseful action scenes, and the friendship between Arianna and Lessa was sweet. Unfortunately, though, this was not a book for me. Some points of the storyline were a little awkward like how four slaves from different districts just happened to meet as they escaped. There was also a lot of dialogue. I know that some people really enjoy this, but I prefer a balance between dialogue and colourful prose.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This story was ok. I was curious how it ended, but I had so many questions that weren't answered. I don't know if those answers come in subsequent books, like who were the lead characters parents, but the whole issue of how these kids up as slaves needed to be better explained.

I am not invested enough to read more.

Thank you Netgalley for a the e-ARC