I read the first two chapters and never got into the story. I wanted to like this since I adored Sky in the Deep, but this wasn't similar to it at all. I am not big on fantasy and my mind couldn't wrap around the magical beings shape shifting into lions with wings. At that point my brain refused to process any more of the story.

3.5 stars

This was not as good as I expected, but I liked it all the same. There were some things that striked me as odd, though. First of all, the romance was completely unnecessary. It would have been a way better book if the whole love triangle situation was scrapped, because it was pretty obvious who the protagonist was choosing.

Speaking of the main character, I didn't like Rowan one bit. She made rash decisions and did not think even once and reflect on what was going to happen. I just didn't like the way she talked to any of her friends or family. And she spent too much time dwelling over her love interests even though she kept telling herself to not.

The plot was amazing. I loved the shapeshifting aspect and how the worldbuilding was done. There wasn't a lot of it, but it definitely could have been developed if it was a series. Anyway, I liked only two characters out of all them, and of course one of them had to die. I'm here shocked as heck and almost crying but everyonr around that character does what? Just screams 'No!' a couple of times and goes back to doing whatever they were doing. This didn't happen only once by the way.

There were so many places this book could have done better, but overall, it was a fast paced book that I breezed through and had a lot of fun reading.

*Review will be posted on my blog on 7/26/21
Likes:
*World Building ~ I found this kingdom of winged-lion shapeshifters quite unique. The Leonodai and humans are enemies but now the shapeshifters need their help but there is no help to be found. A group of warriors venture to the human side to find the cure for an illness affecting the young Leonodai.

*Characters ~ this is Rowan’s story. We have 3 POV’s between Rowan, Callen and Shirene but it really was mostly told through Rowan. I liked Rowan, she was a warrior in training and ready to do what it took to get the cure to save her people.

*Pace ~ This is a standalone novel and I think it moved along fairly quickly. We get right into the situation and then into the thick of things when the warriors need to get the cure. This was a quick read especially during the action parts.

Random Notes:
*Romance ~ I wasn’t into the romance triangle that Rowan was struggling through while there was an important mission taking place. Maybe if it was a duology or trilogy and we got to see more of Callen and Rowan’s history then I would have felt invested in it. In this standalone she has to make a choice so fast and I just didn’t care for it.

*I think this had the potential to be much more epic than it was if the story was continued. Everything seemed rushed, especially the ending and I wanted more world building.
I thought Shirene, Rowan’s sister, would have a bigger role in the story since she is introduced before Rowan and with a big task it seems but she fades off as Rowan takes the spotlight.

Final Thoughts:
Sometimes I wonder if I’m just not used to reading many standalone fantasy anymore since they always come packaged in a series. For a standalone, I thought this was okay. I didn’t care for the romance storyline and I wished some things weren’t rushed but for a light young adult fantasy, I think the world building is unique and that kept me interested in the story.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will release August 17, 2021.

The history of the Leonodai is built on the names of lost warriors. I don’t want the next chapter to be built on the names of lost children.

I think The Endless Skies might end up being one of my favorite books I read this year, just on principle. What is that principle, you may ask? Nothing other than sharing a great deal in common with Balto, one of my favorite movies of all time. Not to worry—that’s not going to influence my review. There’s plenty in this book to love on its own merits.

The story follows Shirene, her sister Rowan, and Rowan’s best friend Callen, who are all Leonodai—winged lion shapeshifters—who are warriors serving their magically floating city, the Heliana. When the city’s children begin falling ill with a disease that kills within an extremely short period of time, teams of warriors are sent to the humans’ land to retrieve the cure before time runs out and the city falls—literally.

Remember when I said in my last review (for The Afterward) that I wanted more gentle fantasy, with personal stakes? I mean, that’s still true, but this book is very much the opposite of that. It’s a race against time, paced like a thriller—the chapters seem to get shorter the farther into the book you are—and while the character I would consider to be the main protagonist of three, Rowan, does have an emotional arc centered around her desire to be treated as a warrior, I didn’t feel very connected to the characters. But on the other hand… who really needs personal stakes when there is the threat of a city falling out of the sky, an entire generation of children falling deathIy ill, and unknown history twisting the knife? That’s enough to compel me onward.

Briefly, on a related note: The length? Overall, I like it. Some may say it’s too short to adequately expand on all elements of the story—and they would be right; I’d say characterization and emotion suffer here a bit—but in the end, I didn’t mind that too much because the plot gripped me so well. I feel like this book is proof that epic fantasy doesn’t need to be epically long. If this book helped start a trend of shorter YA fantasy, I wouldn’t be sad.

I am well aware that I’m in the minority when I say this, but I often feel like less is more when it comes to worldbuilding. I don’t need exceptionally detailed descriptions of settings, magical systems, or history. For the most part, I would say that The Endless Skies hit the sweet spot for me; it explained just enough that I wasn’t flailing as I tried to figure out how the world worked, but I wasn’t bogged down in it, either. I would have liked to know more about the magical people that populate this world and a bit more about the magic that the Leonodai use, and their culture. I think that could have been incorporated just a bit more without being overwhelming, since the author already did it so well! As a proponent of the need-to-know-with-a-few-hints school of worldbuilding, I’d say this certainly gets a passing grade!

But my absolute favorite element of this book were the secrets that ran through it. I don’t want to say too much here because I’d rather not ruin their reveal, but let’s just say that even though it barely scratches the surface, the stories, history, and truth of Leonodai life are not always as concrete as scholars would like. It’s something I’ve been interested in seeing in fantasy for a while. I love the way it plays into the epilogue, too!

I’d say that there are two twists in this book, and while I appreciated one of them—though it unfortunately didn’t garner quite the emotional reaction I’m sure the author hoped it would—I thought the other was completely unnecessary. Since it happens right at the end, it doesn’t have any impact on the plot, and doesn’t seem to have an emotional impact on the characters, either, which is… distressing? These two moments are really my least favorite part of the book, and since they’re both brief they feel like a blip in my experience; they’re the one area I would say did need to be expanded.

Despite its occasional pitfalls and a more tenuous emotional connection with the characters than I’d like ordinarily, I think I can honestly say I loved this. I was gripped by this book from page one and sat with my eyes glued to the screen until I had finished. This will definitely be on my shelf come August.

A perfect adventure story! I loved the descriptions of the Heliana and seeing a world where everyone looks out for one another. Highly recommend!

Honest Review given for an ARC copy via NetGalley

Overall this was a wonderful book. You follow three main characters in this story.

Rowan who has finished her training to be a Warrior of Heliana. She is brave but reckless at the same time.
Shirene, Rowan's sister and complete opposite. Shirene is the King's Voice. She is quiet and very much someone who follows the rules.
Callan who is Rowan's friend and fellow warrior.

I liked the worldbuilding in this book. It was interesting to learn of the floating city and the shifters that lived there. I didn't like the shifting between the three main characters. I am more of a one point of view reader. But if that doesn't bother you at all then you will like this book.

In this standalone fantasy novel, Rowan is a warrior with magic. But the journey she is sent on might change her forever. I enjoyed this book for the most part. I love a good triangle and this one was okay. With all standalones, sometimes there just isn't enough space to explain everything and I think this book may have suffered from this. There were also some issues with the multiple POVs that made it somewhat confusing to read. However, I loved Rowan. Any badass girl with magic is usually sure to make me connect and I definitely did in this case as well.

This book was... disappointing. When I first read the synopsis, I was intrigued by the world and premise, but the actual narrative is handled rather poorly. The author uses a lot of tired YA tropes that I've seen a million times, and doesn't really do anything to put her own spin on them. This was yet another unfortunate case of a YA fantasy novel having a fantastic setup with poor execution. I can perhaps blame the fact that I read way too much YA for this, and have seen pretty much everything at this point. That being said, this book really didn't do much for me, and could've used a lot more fleshing out before being published.

<i>The Endless Skies</i> follows the story of three characters, each citizens of a magical city known as Heliana. Unlike regular humans, the denizens of this city are winged-lion shapeshifters known as Leonodai. Rowan is only one day away from being sworn in as a warrior - something she has trained for her entire life - when a deadly illness strikes Heliana's children. Though there is a cure to this illness, it resides in the human lands where Leonodai are far from welcome. Because of this, small groups of warriors are sent on a mission to retrieve the cure, including Rowan's childhood best friend Callen. Meanwhile, Rowan's sister Shirene has been tasked with a very important duty as the "King's Voice," allowing her intimate access to Heliana's royal family. The sisters soon learn, however, that not everything is as it seems, and it will take a great act of courage and rebellion to set things right and save the city's children.

As I said before, the premise of this book is <i>really</i> cool. I loved the idea of a floating city full of winged-lion shapeshifters, and I also loved the initial setup of a mysterious illness and a potential war with humans. I was immediately turned off by the simplistic writing style, however, as well as how insanely generic the narrative was. The story follows Rowan, Callen, and Shirene, alternating between three points of view. This already felt a little sloppy, and I think the narrative would have been a lot stronger if the author had stuck to one character. Almost immediately, the reader is introduced to a very stereotypical love triangle, with Rowan being forced to choose between her childhood friend Callen and her new crush Ox. While I don't abjectly hate love triangles on principle, they need to be done interestingly for me to get invested. This was a very generic love triangle, and I didn't really care enough about any of these characters to be invested in who Rowan would end up with.

In addition to the eyeroll-worthy romance, I also thought Shirene's potential was wasted in this book. Shirene is introduced as a fully established character from the beginning; she has a dedicated partner named Seth and an incredibly important position within her society. The novel even begins from her point of view, immediately making the reader think that this story will focus on her in some way. Instead, the real protagonist is Rowan, who we meet a chapter later and follow through most of the story. While the love triangle is bland and predictable, the plot of this book would have been a lot cleaner if the author had chosen to focus only on Rowan's story.

Shirene's role in the narrative doesn't really go anywhere as the story progresses. She learns that the Sentinels have been lied to about the source of their information and the conflict with the humans, but chooses to follow her duties anyways without dissent. She has no real character arc, and is unceremoniously killed at the end for no reason. The saddest thing about her death is I didn't even care as the reader, as I'd never been given a reason to emotionally connect to her. Because of this, I think the story would have been stronger if it had focused solely on Rowan and <i>her</i> discovery of the deception, as Rowan actively chooses to ignore her orders and do something about the information she has learned. Even the relationship between the sisters is under-developed, with just one scene where they interact. The author tries to establish background between the two, but it's so rushed and under-developed that it falls flat.

Speaking of under-developed, a lot of this plot fell flat to me. Everything feels rushed, as if the author was ticking off necessary plot points to get to the end. While the stakes of this mission are high, the reader is never given the time or reason to care about characters before they are killed, and the author does a lot of "telling" instead of "showing." Instead of showing us how much the characters care about one another, we are simply told that they do and expected to feel this unestablished bond. Not one of the losses in this book stuck with me, as none of the characters were established enough for me to care about them.

Similarly, plot points are introduced and resolved quickly, and there are many scenes that could have been cut to make room for more time spent on other plot points. For example, Rowan is betrayed by a Leonodai woman attempting to protect her half-Leonodai daughter from the humans, but we never see what happens to her or get any kind of resolution outside of a quick mention at the very end. This is time that could have been devoted to fleshing out the love triangle or following Shirene's story, but instead adds unnecessary conflict to a plot that already had a clear and established conflict to begin with. In addition, every character makes a huge deal about the prince, knowing that his death will result in the total collapse of their society. He dies near the very end, however, and the Leonodai magic remains. This is never explained, and the book ends far too abruptly for loose ends like this to be tied up.

If I were to rewrite this book, I would focus solely on Rowan's story and relegate Shirene to the sidelines. Shirene would exist as a narrative foil to Rowan; disciplined and unwilling to bend rules to do what is right. Rowan would perhaps be jealous of her sister's apparent perfection, and be outraged to learn that the Sentinels (including Shirene) have been lying to everyone about a multitude of things. I would have cut out the love triangle entirely and had Rowan grappling with her new-found feelings for her childhood friend, and had her slowly realize how important he was to her as she broke the rules to follow him on his mission.

Here, I would have made sure readers had a chance to get to know each of the characters on the mission through quiet scenes spent with them before immediately killing anyone off, adding more weight to their eventual deaths. The rest of the narrative could remain unchanged, but I would spend a lot more time establishing this world and these characters soo that the reader would be invested in the very high stakes of the mission. I would likely also have cut the other shape-shifting societies out of the narrative entirely, as they really don't serve a purpose outside of adding unnecessary world-building to a standalone novel. If this had been a planned series, it would make absolute sense to introduce the horse people, bear people, and merfolk, but as it stands they are given almost nothing to do within the confines of this Leonodai-focused narrative.

As always, I really hate tearing apart a piece of art that someone has poured their blood, sweat, and tears into, but there were honestly just too many problems with this book for me to be invested. While the premise is really interesting, the writing and characters are just painfully bland, and it feels as if the narrative has no real structure. The plot meanders along, resolving quickly and without really earning the "happy ending." Characters are introduced and killed off with little warning, never giving the reader enough time to care about any of them. The hardest part about reading this book is that I really <i>wanted</i> to like it, but I've read so much fantasy at this point that I've seen every single aspect of this book done better elsewhere.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'd recommend this book to anyone, as there is SO MUCH good fantasy out there that this book would honestly just be a waste of reading time and shelf space. I wish the author the best of luck in the future, and hope she continues to hone her skills and improve with every work she writes. I might not have enjoyed this book, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy her next work! Until then, I will be very happy to leave this particular work of fantasy far behind me.

**A big thank you NetGalley and Tor Teen for providing a ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Overall this was not a bad read, I was able to finish it within one sitting and I did really enjoy it. The cover and synopsis really draw you in, giving you some high expectations of how the book is going to be. Endless Skies has a unique magic system and focuses a lot on details that really help bring the world to life.

This book is a fantastic standalone with strong female warrior leads and a love triangle that I wasn't too much invested in but it was okay. The 3 pov's could have easily been 2 as I feel like one was more an info dump that could have been just a fly on a wall in 3rd person this and the ending is what made this book more of a 3.5 than a 4 for me.

*****Spoiler warning*****:


The ending really threw me as I felt that the death of one of the main pov's was unnecessary to the plot, it really did just feel like an info dump pov that wasn't needed anymore so was killed off. I really enjoyed this pov as its the one you start with at the beginning and really drew me into the story. This pov hinted at so much more that I would have loved of seen in this story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I really enjoyed the concepts and the world building. It was simple enough to follow, but unique enough to be interesting. The stakes also felt high. A deadly sickness that only targets only children really set the tone of urgency and desperation. I truly believed the races future depended on our cast of main characters.
At some points I found the 3 point of views a little unnecessary. A few chapters we're only a few pages long before flicking back to another character. I can't help but feel as though Rowan and Shirene's point of views would have been enough. That being said, every main character enticed me and had thorough character development.
I found the love triangle lackluster. I liked both of the men well enough that at the end, I didn't care who she ended up with. The romance also felt rather forced at the beginning, most likely because she already had established relationships with both boys and people were expressing their love before we really knew much about this.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 4 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

#TheEndlessSkies #NetGalley
Well written young adult novel with strong female characters. It will appeal to a wide range of readers even ones who don't read fantasy.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Typically fantasy isn’t the type of book that I will tend to read but wow am I glad I read this! It’s action packed with twists and turns. Hope is such a central theme in this book, and after the year we’ve had I think this is the perfect book to pick up and read.

The Endless Skies gave me Sky in the Deep vibes with this female strong warrior team of characters. The world building was spectacular and Shannon Price has a way about her with her characters and letting them develop naturally. It was an easy world to become lost and alone in, with all the feelings of a mythological saga. The biggest upset is that its a stand alone where it felt like there was so much more room to grow.

This book wasn’t bad in any way, but it definitely wasn’t my favorite.
A fantasy standalone with three POV’s did not work well for this book. It was overwhelming taking in all the information, but somehow boring at the same time.
There wasn’t much character development, which is a huge no for me. If I’m not invested in the characters, I struggle with finishing. While the plot was enough to push me to finish, it was very difficult.
The premise of The Endless Skies is intriguing, but in the end it could’ve been written better.

I was kindly provided an ARC of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The cover is very attracting, and I enjoyed the book, but I didn't love it. The pacing is perfect.
I do believe that the story had a lot of potential but given that it is a standalone, it lacked some development that would have been a good to the story.
I actually think that having 3 pov in a short standalone is not beneficial. And except from Rowan's, they are useless and maybe prevent some characters' development and didn't help me to get evolved in the book. Because Rowan is a good character with her heart at the right place, she is strong,
I wanted to know so much more about the world and how it functions. The magic system is interesting, but I'm not quite sure whether I understood everything about it and I kind of feel like it was not necessary to the adventure.
I almost felt like I was reading a prequel or a spin-off. However, the adventure was fun, not groundbreaking because too classic but fun !

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

After getting halfway through this book, I did decide to stop. I could not go any further and lost interest. The writing style and details were great. But I thought the plot and storyline were confusing. Perhaps later on will give this book another shot. But as of right now; it is a no.

I was really excited to read this ARC from Netgalley. The cover and the summary really left me with high hopes.

Rowan is a warrior-elect unlike the others. Her sense of loyalty goes beyond doing what it told and she finds herself caught up in a series of challenges.

The book is done in a 3 character perspective but it could have benefited from just being Roman's story. Sticking to just her may have helped with her character development.

The romance wasn't necessary and some of the death scenes did nothing to enhance the plot. I enjoyed the book overall and give it 3.5 stars

This book reads like a fun adventure. It is told from three perspectives, which is interesting because one of them is definitely the main character compared to the other two. Rowan, a Leonodai warrior-elect, is loyal to her people above all else. She will do anything, including risking dishonor, to save her city. She is not afraid to question authority if the authority figures are falling short, which I appreciated.

One thing that is difficult with a stand-alone fantasy is to balance the character development with the world-building and plot. So much of the story has to be focused on what is happening, where it’s happening, and why it’s happening that there isn’t as much time to cover how the events are causing the characters to change. I felt like Rowan’s biggest arc was realizing which of her love interests she was actually in love with. Other than that, she did not really change or grow.

I enjoyed the plot because the world-building established the high stakes of the conflict early on. You could feel how desperately Rowan and the other Leonodai need to succeed. It was exciting to see if they would make it back to Heliana in time. My least favorite part of this book was an event that occurred in just the last few pages. I didn’t understand how it added anything to the story, especially since there’s no sequel.

Overall, I enjoyed the world-building, but wish the characters were more developed. It felt like this had the potential to be a book I really loved, but just didn’t get quite there. People who like reading fun adventures about warriors with unique abilities would enjoy this!