digital arc provided via netgalley.

i wanted to love this book! i liked the premise and the cover and i was so reading to discover this gem. unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. the story felt a little jarring to read and i thought it was poorly thought out in terms of the plot line being all over the place. i did not enjoy it all that much and ended up skimming a lot of it in the end.

First, I loved this cover, it's so pretty. I think this was just not the book for me, I did enjoy it but I don't know how to feel about it. I liked the friendships and the relationships, but I didn't attach to any of the characters.

I was excited to start this story. The cover is stunning and I was surprised to find that it wasn't a fantasy novel but a sci-fi story. Putting that aside, I dived straight in and it was a deep dive. The story begins with action and it felt a little as if I'd missed something like I'd started in the middle of the story. There were quite a lot of characters and then chapter 2 began with a different point of view. This made it difficult as a reader to connect with the characters. There was a whole other language and world to get to grips with in the opening chapter and I do think a chapter or two before this might have helped so the reader could be acquainted with the backstory a little.

The world building is excellent and there were plenty of surprises along the way. The downside for me has to be the number of characters and different points of view which made it difficult to form a connection and I couldn't get to grips with who the characters were as there were so many mentioned.

One thing I will say is that this book is different from other YA books out there and there were some really great plot points. The idea is unique and fresh, but the characters just didn't seem to come to life for me.

If you're a fan of stories with a large cast of characters and you love multiple points of view, this may very well be the book for you. Unfortunately for me, the lack of connection with the characters meant I didn't love the story as much as I wanted to.

This book was a DNF at page 209 for me, but I wanted to share my opinion so far with you. Why was this book a DNF? It was confusing from the start. The story just starts, but I feel like I miss a lot of information. I don't know whether this was intentional, but I think I would like this book better if there was like a prequel with more information. If there will be a prequel in the future I will defenitly give Idolesse another shot, because Kimberly knows how to write a good book, however this story just didn't work for me

What I did really like are:
- The cover
- The idea behind the plot
- The synopsis
- The genre (YA sci-fi)

What I didn't like:
- The pace
- the realistic converstations
- The many POV's
- Superficial

There were so many characters and there are so many POV's which don't really blend into each other.
In addition also knows a slow pace and has realistic conversations, making it even slower in my eyes. The story remains superficial throughout the first part.
I really liked the idea behind the plot, but because of the many POV's, slow pace and realistic conversations it just didn't work out for me.

I wish I enjoyed this book. But I couldn't keep track of who was narrating the story at all times. Also, about 20% into the story I just lost interest.

I wanted to love it. The description had me hooked more than the story itself.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

I'm not going to lie, I requested this book for the cover... It's just stunning.

What I didn't expect was to get a story I absolutely fell in love with!!
This has everything that I adore in a book:
- Straight into the action
- Multi POV
- Mystery/Thriller while still being a fantasy novel.
- Characters I not only like, but really enjoy being part of their story.

There's nothing I could say that would do this book justice, so please just go buy it. I'm off to order a hardback right now, this cover belongs on a shelf.

TLDR; There are so many characters that it got overwhelming to try and understand the book.

I really did try to give this story a fair shot. Firstly, for whatever reason, I assumed this was a fantasy. I’m not completely sure where I got that idea from, but this is very much a sci fi book. Secondly, there are so many mentioned-by-name characters within this 4 POV book that by 50% I had completely give up on trying to figure out what was what and who was who.

I genuinely want to know how this story ends, I want to know what happens to (?? One of the MC, the human one. That’s how many names there are, I literally don’t know the human MC name because there’s about 8 others). But because of the characters being referred to by name, without being fleshed out enough to be interesting, I’d rather pull my hair out than keep trying to keep up.

My last little mention and somewhat “grief” with this book is that despite it having exciting events nothing uh...actually felt exciting. It’s written almost in a contemporary style, which made this a bit strange of an experience.

I went into this book not expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised to find myself fully emerged in this story. I grew attached to a few characters and really enjoyed the way the author let us get to know them on a deeper level. The character development was there as well as the adventure. Really enjoyed this one.

I both loved and was frustrated reading this book. I absolutely loved that this book was so different and new compared to other YA fantasy/sci-fi books, but I think some of it fell short for me.

Isoldesse had an extremely interesting plot and such a unique idea behind the whole story in general, but I just felt like there was something...off with the characters. It was really hard to grasp their personalities and I felt like the conversations and attitudes the characters had were really a lot younger than they were written for - felt like 13-14 year olds instead of college age. This really brought the story down for me, and was disappointing.

Thank you NetGalley and author for providing the ARC of this book.

1 star for the gorgeous cover + 1 star for the interesting world building + 1 star for the promising plot = 3 stars read.

I requested the book from Netgalley because the plot sounded interesting and I am a big science fiction fan. I want to start out the review by saying that the book had promise, but it was just not for me.

The first issue was the amount of characters introduced in the book. That combined with the many different point-of-views made the plot very jarring and hard to follow.

Another issue for me was small details in the story that took me out of being immersed in the world the author had created. One example is the aevo compendium. You learn about the aevo compendium early on in the story and the biggest issue for me is that this study of humanity's evolution takes place just in the states.

So to sum it up. The many characters, constant jumping between point-of-views and small details in the story that ruined immersion kept me from getting into the book.

If you are a fan of science fiction, interesting world building, a diverse cast of characters and enjoy multiple point-of-views, then this could be a book for you.

*Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

It took me a little bit to get into this book and the story, but after the first couple of chapters it was hard to put down. I enjoy reading fantasy book and this one definitely met my want for a good book!

Book Review for Isoldesse by Kimberly Grymes
Full review for this title can be found at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

Kenna’s life and the lives of her friends change forever when a necklace containing a arc-stone.
This was a bit of an interesting read. The writing style was really good if a bit technical in places. Strangely, it felt like a mesh of genres - contemporary, sci fi, and fantasy which made it a little jarring in places. I would’ve preferred only 2 perspectives as it was hard to sometimes remember who was who and what with 4.
This is the start of a duology and has been set-up well - I expect further character and plot development in future books. Not a bad read if a bit young for me personally.

What an interesting story. Keena and Meegan are such an interesting set of characters. Their development over the pages was very well done. I really enjoyed reading this one. I am scheduled to be a part of a blog tour for this novel with TBR and Beyond Book Tours. The man with orange eyes. Knights with swords. I loved it all. I strongly recommend this one to lovers of YA.

I have so many thoughts about this book. The first is that I enjoyed it and that's also the most important. It accounts for most of my rating. I read books, first and foremost, for enjoyment. I couldn't put this down and I'm not usually into Sci-Fi.

The problems with this book are many, though; and if you are a particular type of reader, you won't enjoy the way it is laid out, the way information is parcelled out or the many, many viewpoints.

Mostly, I just don't care. While it was distracting to have so many viewpoints and difficult to keep all the new information about this world in my head, it was probably one of the better choices for this novel. That being said, I received an ARC via NetGalley and it was definitely uncorrected. There were many tense issues I hope will be ironed out in the final copy due in March.

The prologue plunges the reader into a well-developed new world. It was definitely well thought out and complicated. The prologue doesn't really seem to give any unique new information though and I kind of wish it had been left out or replaced with a look at the past when Isoldesse was around. Starting with Kenna's point of view would have plunged us into the new world the same way and we learn almost all the same information along the way anyway.

The characters are hard to really get into; it's where I would naturally point my review, but the problem is the information. The book alternately trickles information out and withholds it so you get hooked or dumps it. There is no in-between. While I understand why certain pieces of information were kept back, one in particular that is "revealed" at the end of the book so as to be a cliffhanger for the next book - It didn't work. I guessed it halfway through and I want to read book two for entirely different reasons. It wasn't that hard to figure out and the sneaky information that wasn't spelled out, I'm pretty sure I guessed that too. The things I wanted to know were the things that were kind of left out entirely. The series is called "Aevo Compendium" and the book revolves around this, but I barely understand what that means as it barely starts at the end of the book.

HOWEVER:
I really did enjoy reading and learning what I did learn. I want to know more. I want to know if my suspicions about Kenna are correct. I loved that this book centred around female friendships.
I sincerely hope the next book focuses more on the Anumens and less on the Sendarians. I want the full information packet on Isoldesse, because I feel like we only got like 75% at best and probably (hopefully) less.

This book wasn't that long and if it is only a duology, I have seriously high expectations of the second book, but I can't wait to read it!

That cover had me right from the start. It’s truly gorgeous. I was a little disappointed the story wouldn’t be about all 4 girls, but the summary is clear about what to expect. The intrigue of what was happening to Kenna is what kept me reading. It was interesting and I found I could not stop turning the page. I was all for the weird dreams, the necklace and sci fi aspects.

Issues
For me the two main characters felt flat. They were so underwhelming and seemed to avoid everything tossed their way, except for at the end. I didn’t notice much character development but maybe that will come in the next book. Hopefully we find out more about them to help piece together the story. (Although the villains were well written, I prefer to know less about them and be in the dark, and left piecing it together like the main characters. But that’s just me.)

Overall

Any issues I had did little to dampen my curiosity. The author has a talent for writing elements that keep you sucked in. I look forward to the next book to see how it all comes together.

I really enjoyed the otherworldly/alien aspect of the story. It’s not a very common theme, and I found myself intrigued. There were times I felt like the names and places and who was on whose side was all too much.. a little bit confusing. About halfway through is when names and places and who belonged to who started to click for me.

The characters are likeable or dislikeable (depending if they were bad or good). I was able to connect with the main character Kenna fairly well. I found her story very interesting.

It took me a little bit to get to the halfway point but once I did I pretty much flew through the rest. All in all a good story and would recommend this book.

I thought that the book was interesting overall. It toed the line between science fiction and fantasy which I wasn't really expecting but I thought the genre-blending was generally done well. I appreciated how the characters were all so intertwined with one another in so many ways which made the book really fun to read. I also liked how the different perspectives allowed us to see into the minds of characters on all sides of the conflict. Even some of the more "villainous" (though I'm still not sure which side I stand on) characters were relatable and had motives that were honestly really understandable. Sometimes it could be difficult to really tell who was narrating despite the chapter saying so because the characters seemed to all share the same voice. I also thought Liam and Nick were boring characters and didn't really care for their part in the story. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next in the series and learning more about Meegan's history and the exciting revelation at the end about Kenna (though I am still a bit confused about the logistics of that with Darci and whatnot) but overall the book was interesting and kept me engaged from pretty early on in the story.

Things I loved
- The cover
- The story/premise
- The ease of knowing who’s POV we were hearing from
- Pace
Things that could be improved
- Glossary of terms at the front
- The writing felt a little clumpy at times. Too much dialogue.
- I felt I was reading a teen book rather than YA .
- Confusing from the get go. Not sure if it’s intentional but I felt I needed more description at the beginning of the characters were being introduced to. I felt I knew nothing about them, I wasn’t drawn to them and we jumped straight in. I want to know who they are, what’s their motivations?

Great story but just not written to its full potential.
As it stands I’d rate it a 2.5 but could definitely be a 3/4 with some tweaking.

Isoldesse is a light science fiction read. The cover of the book is stunning, depicting four of the main characters. However, there were so many characters by the end that it honestly left me confused. So much happens in this story. Kenna, a young college aged Earthen, is given an Arcstone that is just the beginning of changing her life. Not to mention all the other storylines that flip her world and her friends, completely upside down. I would recommend this to fans of an interesting scifi for young adults, however I must reiterate that by the end of this book I felt that too many different things were going on and it was hard for me to focus.