Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

The entire premise of the story is very interesting and is very promising. Everything about a group of people called Leonodai who can transform into creatures who can fly.

If you enjoy books with love triangles and a fast-paced mission with a lot of strategy and action, this book could be for you. Personally, I thought it felt really rushed and I didn’t feel very connected to the characters. Part of this could have been because the story was told from three perspectives.

I really enjoyed Rowan and Callen’s perspectives. They were really interesting to me and providing a good balance of romance/emotions and action scenes. However, the other perspective of the sentinel didn’t really click with me. I felt like her perspective did not contribute to the overall story and I just didn’t really care about her as a character.

Also, love triangles aren’t usually my favorite romantic element unless they are done in a unique way and sadly that wasn’t the case in my opinion.

I always feel really bad saying anything negative about a book I know someone worked really hard on. Overall I loved the concept and I think the writing style was very enjoyable, there just were some elements that didn’t quite work for me.

I found this to be an enjoyable read. It had a good mix of adventure, romance, and interesting characters.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor Teen for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an adventure filled stand-alone but I almost felt that it could have been 2 books. I did really loved the world building it was unique and the concept of Leodonai warriors was wonderful. I normally don’t care for love triangles but this book included one that wasn’t done horribly. It was drawn out and it never felt that it was there just to add drama and further the plot. The main plot was interesting and engaging. It kept me on my toes and I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen to the main characters. There were a few things that kept it from being 5 stars. I didn’t feel like there was enough time to bond with the sisters and feel for their relationship. The final few pages the author did the thing I hate most by (spoiler alert) killing off a character. I hate when this is added for almost final drama. The death felt more of a thrown in shock than to further anything. I also didn’t really care for was the multiple POV’s. Usually I really enjoy them but this time it felt a little muddled. I’m not sure if it was because the POV’s weren’t the characters in the love triangle but maybe that would have been better to have those 3 characters POV’s. Or it could have just been Rowans POV and her learning of the deception while interacting with the others. Over all I did enjoy this book but it wasn’t an all time favorite. I would recommend it to those who want to read a magical book about adventure and lion shapeshifting warriors.

I enjoyed The Endless Skies quite a bit. There’s action, adventure, a splash of romance and so much more. I thought the world building was awesome. It was unique and intriguing. This was my first book by this author and I definitely recommend it. I’d read more of this author’s work.

The novel follows Rowan, a shapeshifting warrior, as she attempts to save her homeland and her people by finding a cure for a deadly disease targeting children. Along the way, she also must deal with her feelings for 2 different warriors, her family, and an unexpected betrayal as she races against the clock.

This was an okay read for me, but it was really hard to get through. When I first started this book, I had thought the book was focused around Shirene, Rowan's sister, as I found myself being more interested in her chapters, so I was a bit disappointed when I realized we were supposed to follow Rowan instead. I think having only one point of view would have helped a lot with the confusion. However, the worldbuilding in Shirene's chapters really helped me understand the Leonodai society and in turn become invested in their survival, especially with the interactions between the other kingdoms and the deserter. When it focused on Rowan in the second half, the small interpersonal conflicts seemed to pale in comparison, making it hard to be invested beyond wanting them to find a cure.

As a result, when the warriors were sent out, the deaths did not really bother me at all. I was interested in the interactions with the humans, but otherwise I was waiting tor the book to go back to Shirene and the king and queen. The ending was okay, but I did feel like the last death was just done for effect, and didn't really do justice to the character. I think it would have been better if they died in battle. Overall I wanted to like the book, there were many good elements, but I just couldn't connect with the main character.

Thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for this eArc!

Sometimes standalone novels make me nervous because if they don't wrap up well, I feel like I'm just left hanging.

I didn't feel that way here - there's a plot twist I didn't expect ( but isn't that the point ).

I love vikingesque style novels, novels with ANIMALS and magic - and I'm a sucker for anyone named Rowan.

I don't have any negative input for this novel - it's a perfect YA fantasy that's well written, well plotted, and well told. I wish I could continue in this world, but even still, I truly enjoyed it. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a 'pallet cleanser' fans of action-packed, a touch of romance fantasy world that doesn't feel completely out there.

Congrats on the release!

Going into this book I don’t know what I was expecting. But it definitely wasn’t the heart racing, action packed, page turner I read. This book is definitely going to be a good action read. It has a little bit of romance but it doesn’t take away from the pulse racing fantasy. I really really really hope you will give this book a read and open up a spot on your favorites! I know I had too

The synopsis was not wrong about this being for fans of Adrienne Young. This book was very reminiscent of Young’s Sky in the Deep. It had Viking-esque style to it, and maybe that’s why I didn’t enjoy either of these novels too much. If Vikings are your thing, I suggest giving this a read.

The Leonodia of Heliana must venture into the human lands in order to find a cure for a bird-carrying disease that is affecting children in this standalone fantasy novel.

First and foremost, thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for providing me with a copy for review. Please note that this in no way affects my opinion. Also note that my opinions are based on the ARC, and things may be subject to change for the final copy.

While I wouldn't say my experience reading this was horrible, I thought that there was a lot of wasted space and potential in this. Whatever potential this had was bogged down by romance drama and a character arc I could have done without. Here are all the reasons why this just didn't work for me.


Writing:

I found the writing to be rather awkward. Maybe it was because it wasn't profound enough for me or the sentence structure was too short to make the words flow naturally. I also found that the way information was dispensed wasn't very effective as it was just characters going on a tangent in order to explain something about the world.

Another thing that didn't work for me was one of the perspectives. You get three perspectives in this book, one of which I didn't like (and it was the main perspective too). When you don't enjoy the main vehicle in which the story is told, your enjoyment level goes down quite a bit.


Plot:

The Leonodia of Heliana must venture into the human lands in order to find a cure for a bird-carrying disease that is affecting children. While not the most elaborate setup ever, this in and of itself is not a bad plot. What ruined it for me was the fact that this book felt more like a romance than a fantasy. The introduction of a love triangle within the first 30 pages was not a good sign for me, and the drama continued from there.

What also brought the experience down for me was the sense of urgency on the part of the characters. I get that things need to move quickly not only because it is a standalone and for the sake of the plot, but it does not seem feasible to enact a plan the next day. There was a lot of doing before thinking in this, and it doesn't really make sense that things aren't planned out carefully.

To make a bit of a dismal experience even worse, we arrive at the ending. I am not going to go into detail about it because of spoilers, but I felt like it was a completely unnecessary way to end the story. There was really no closure for it either which was frustrating.


World-Building:

This story follows the Leonodai, the shape-shifting people of Heliana who live up in the sky. Their land is run by a king and his council of 9 sentinels. Including the Leonodai, there are four races that occupy the land (not including a race that was wiped out).

While the world-building makes sense considering the length of the book and there were interesting elements, I felt like the addition of other races was wasted potential. They could have been an interesting addition to the story but, sadly, they were underused as they barely had a role.


Characters:

As said previously, the story is told from three perspectives: Rowan, Callan, and Shirene. Some perspectives I could have done without while others should have been focused on more.

Even though her perspective is the main one, I could have done without Rowan as a character completely. I found that she really didn't have her priorities straight and a lot of the decisions she makes were impulsive and mostly selfish. I also thought that she jumped to conclusions a lot and judged people. Not exactly the qualities I want in a main character.

I didn't mind Callan's point of view but felt like he was reduced to a love interest and he didn't have much of an arc besides that. I also would have preferred to have more of Shireen's POV as she was the most interesting character and because she was barely focused on, I felt like her character wasn't fleshed out enough.


Concluding Thoughts:

There just wasn't enough substance in this to make it a successful standalone. Fantasy standalones are hard to write in the first place because you have to establish an entire world, no matter how small or big, in a single book. If this was a bigger book it may have been a different story, but because this is only 350 pages, you can see that the world and story suffer because of it.

I would still say give this a shot if you are looking for a story that isn't overly complicated. If you are looking for something similar, I would recommend Under the Aegis, which is a fantasy webcomic that follows a group of people of different races (including one who flies and lives in the skies), who have to save the world.

Overall though, I would give this a 2.5-star rating.

My review will be available on my blog closer to the release date.

What a unique, fun adventure! Endless Skies is about people who can transform into flying lions, but when their children get sick with a human disease, a select group of warriors must brave the land of humans to find a cure.

The world building of the fantasy land was lush and vivid. I loved reading about an uncommon fantasy creature instead of the usual ones we see. The ease that the world and everything was executed made this a fast and fun read.

I do wish the human world had been described a little more. I think my biggest problem with that aspect was the modernization of it. I thought this was going to be a high fantasy novel, but the human world is more like ours, so it felt a little jarring when I read about planes and trains and such.

I liked the characters and seeing their relationships develop. Though the romance trope here isn’t my favorite, it was nice.

I think the ending is setting up for a sequel, but I think it would be better as a standalone. Nonetheless, this was a good book and I think fantasy lovers will enjoy it!

(I’ll say one more thing about the cover. It doesn’t really match the feel of the book. I think some art of winged lions maybe even flying over a fantastical city would be better and cooler.)

Thank you to Tor Teen and NetGalley for an e-arc to review!

You remember in the recent Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe movie they’re launching into the final battle against the White Witch, and the Gryphon does this epic screech and backflips/soars down onto the battlefield in a pretty fantastic piece of camera work and CGI?

That’s this book.

When a deadly disease strikes the Leonodai’s children, the shapeshifter lion warriors embark into enemy territory on a quest for a healing flower to save their young prince.

Skies is a refreshingly unique quest to find a magical flower guarded by the humans, the Leonodai’s mortal enemies. We get a delightful amount of insight into the shapeshifter’s world through the POV of the older sister, Shirene. There are delightful misconceptions from both the humans and the Leonodai races that make for tense interactions. The twists pleasantly took me by surprise, and Rowan and Callen’s relationship is sweet and refreshing. The final battle was, in a word, awesome.

The first couple of chapters were harder to get into—there was quite a bit of info-dumping, the characters seemed pretty generic, and the love-triangle was unnecessary. But as the story goes on, Price really does flesh out each character, and once we catch up with the world-building, the story is a thrilling adventure.

And can we talk about how striking that cover is?

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the ARC!

3.5 stars

-Ande

The Endless Skies is a standalone YA fantasy with an interesting premise. The main characters, all Leonodai, a race of shifters who can transform into winged lions, are desperate to find the cure for a deadly disease that’s claiming the lives of their people, especially the children. The only place where they know of a cure is with their enemies, the humans.

The world-building was also interesting, and the magic system was unique, which I appreciated. I love the idea of the floating city and the shapeshifters who inhabit it. The imagery was also strong and painted a vivid picture. However, it felt a bit like an info dump at the beginning with a lot of explanation and detail given at once. You learn so much about the setting, the history of the world, the magic system, the politics, relationships with others, and more. This made the beginning of the story feel much slower-paced than the rest of the book. However, once the story picked up, it was more interesting and had better pacing.

The story is told from three different points of view. Rowan is a warrior. Shirene is Rowan’s sister, and she sits on the council and acts as the King’s Voice, and Callen is Rowan’s best friend, who also has a crush on her. This provides a variety of perspectives on the story. However, some of the characters felt a bit one-dimensional to me. Rowan is a fierce and brave warrior, and I enjoyed her story. I wish the book remained focused on her because her journey was the most compelling. Callen and Shirene were interesting enough, but their perspectives took away from the real story, which was Rowan’s. I also didn’t love the love triangle and felt it was an unnecessary addition to the story. It didn’t enhance the character development or plot in any way, and it felt forced.

The story has a ton of action and some thought-provoking messages, which I did enjoy. It examines how far people are willing to go to help others. It also has interesting messages about duty, self-sacrifice, and staying true to one’s morals and beliefs. There’s also an unexpected plot twist that surprised me. I’m still not sure how I feel about it, but it was definitely surprising.

Overall, this was an ok read for me. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. I did like the sense of adventure, the quest-like action, and the messages and think that readers who like YA fantasy with unique worlds and a love triangle might enjoy this read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Tor Teen for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Will post review and links closer to pub. date.

The Endless Skies by Shannon Price was an entertaining read. I loved the imagery, the unique setting, and the main character, Rowan, was extremely likable. I won't bother with the summary, since it's posted on the book page and in numerous other reviews, but after reading this, I will definitely check out other books by Shannon Price.

Action packed full of twists and turns with lots of detail, great characters. and a love triangle what's not to love.

From the lens of overall enjoyment, this book was a huge win for me. I have been in a reading slump and the fast-paced, high-action plot of this book was just what I wanted/needed to read. From a more critical lens, there were a few issues that I had with the world-building and character development.

I really loved the unique world of this story and the historical background that is woven in throughout giving insight into the different cultures of the various people groups. The premise of shapeshifting warriors and a floating island is so intriguing and I enjoyed both of those aspects. There were a few elements of the magic system that just didn't fully make sense to me and, unfortunately, those aspects ended up being a pretty big part of the plot. I was still able to enjoy the story, however I wished that some of those pieces were fleshed out a bit more thoroughly.

The pacing of this book is fairly quick which was excellent. Price did a great job at making me want to keep turning the pages. I loved how much action there was sprinkled throughout the entire book. A lot of quest-style books have middle sections that drag out as characters are traveling from one place to another and I did not feel that in the slightest with this book.

However, at some points, I felt like things were moving too quickly, particularly when it came to character relationships. This was the element that fell flat for me. I did not feel like I had enough time to get invested in the characters or the various relationships between them. The romance did not do a ton for me and was definitely not what kept me interested and wanting to read more. I also really wanted to get more of the sister relationship between Rowan and Shirene. The interactions that we did see between the two of them were pieces that I really loved and would have been pleased to see more of.

Overall, The Endless Skies was a really fun read for me but it's not a new favorite. If you are looking for a fast-paced, unique fantasy read, this one might be worth a shot for you!

I’m not going to lie, this one was a struggle for me to get through.

From the beginning I had a hard time connecting with the characters and this could be because there were multiple point-of-views. Usually I would be okay with them but for this standalone it felt too much and it made the characters lack development. Since this was the case for me, the plot twists had me feeling no sort of way when I should have been shocked.

The plot is easy to understand but I found myself not loving it as much as I had hoped. It’s cool to see shape shifters though which is one reason I requested this title in the first place. The world building is good but I do wish there was more information given about the surrounding kingdoms.

I think my biggest gripe is the love triangle that was pushed from the beginning. You already don’t know much about the characters and then this comes up. By the end its resolved but I also knew who Rowan would pick in the end. I am usually down for love triangles but this just had me wanting none of it.

Overall, this was okay. I’m just not the right reader for this particular book but I am sure others will enjoy this book.

I love the world building in the book. It’s descriptive and the author put a lot of time and effort into it. The multiple point of views are a bit confusing with them all being shared. It’s hard to keep track sometimes of what’s going on. Overall, it was a good book.

Rowans is such a great character! I love a good female warrior story, especially one that gives off Valkyrie vibes. The only downside I could see was the forced love triangle. It wasn't anywhere close to being as important or interesting as dealing with the disease, and there was no real suspense when Rowan's choice was fairly clear from the beginning.

Magical warriors from Heliana are on a mission to find a particular plant to cure their Prince and to save their land. The description of the illness impacting children has echoes of the COVID-19 pandemic. The story is told from 3 perspectives- Rowan, Callen, & Shirene. Adventurous read with lots of action and emotion.
Thanks to NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this one! If you're into badass female characters who visibly grow as a character, then The Endless Skies is for you! I got strong Valkyrie vibes through out and absolutely loved the backdrop of the setting