This book was so good! I absolutely loved it and flew through it in one afternoon. The main characters were very interesting and I loved the storyline of this book. I will be recommending it to everyone.

I loved it! Great world building and excellent pacing. The story did not have too much going on so it was easy to follow along with what was happening. There were some great twists. I couldn’t put this book down! Although this is a stand alone novel, the author left it to where she could definitely add more to the series if she wanted to. I hope she does. I want Isla’s story!

Thank you to Net Galley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
#NetGalley # TheEndlessSkies

I am not sure about this book. It is original with a brand new world and interesting creatures, but the premise is not something new. The writing is good, even though in the beginning I got a bit confused about the characters and their connections but you just have to be patient. Unfortunately, there is a love triangle and this is my least favorite trope, so the moment I realised it's there, I was a bit sceptical about the rest of the story. The love story is not the main thing but it is important.
I just think that I was biased and I didn't enjoy the book as much.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

The Endless Skies follows three characters: Shirene, a sentinel/protector of the king, her sister Rowan, who's training to be a warrior, and Callen, a warrior. They are all Leonodai, which is a race of warriors that can shift between a magical flying lion form and their human form. When a disaster strikes the Leonodai children, Rowan and Callen set off on a journey to save the city and their people.

Though there's three characters, the only perspective that really matters is Rowan's. The other two are side characters in comparison to her and their chapters didn't do much but advance Rowan's storyline – which isn't inherently bad, it just felt like there was little point in including them. My biggest criticism of this book is that I really didn't care much about the characters. I had no emotional attachment to them. The ending plot twist (not sure I would call it that) barely phased me and the novel just ends so abruptly. If you're going to do a plot twist, don't save it for the last paragraph of the last chapter and then do an epilogue as if nothing happened.

The actual writing/prose is decent, that's why I gave it two stars instead of one. Sometimes the dialogue felt weirdly formal and out of place, which kind of took me out of the immersion. The story had potential as well. I thought it was interesting, even though I'm not really a fan of the whole humanized lion thing. Nothing wrong with it, just not my thing. The first half is better than the second half in my opinion; after I made it about 70% of the way through, I skimmed the rest of the chapters.

thank you to tor and netgallery for the arc!

this was definitely very entertaining and immersive! it was very fast-paced, but i found i enjoyed it. the characters were (mostly) likeable. the love triangle was... less so.

the world-building was so rich and i almost wish we got a better look into it. hopefully there will be a sequel, or even more books written in this universe. i’ll be waiting hopefully to see!

without spoiling, i felt that a certain event that occurred at the end was unnecessary. it did nothing to further the plot or character development, and was purely for shock-factor.

another thing i did definitely have a problem with was the diversity amongst the characters. or... lack of. because there was none, and that was extremely disappointing.

This was fun! I always love a good standalone, so I am surprised that I think this could have done even better as a series.

I was enjoying myself so much that I just wanted more in general, but the story also has a lot of room for expansion. So another book could do wonders in terms of world-building, character development, and pacing.

The only problems I had were due to a misleading synopsis, causing my pre-reading expectations to not align with the actual story. “Men” in the synopsis refers to the human race, not males (I thought this was a feminist story - it's not). Also, there's a love triangle, which I found to be very unnecessary and underwhelming.

But overall, this is a fun, quick adventure story with a unique world and magic system any fans of the YA fantasy genre will for sure enjoy.