DNF at 10%

Unfortunately, the writing style of this book didn't work for me, and I found myself slogging through, even just the first 10%, of this very long book. Because of this, I didn't really care about the story or the characters, so I don't see a point in pushing myself to finish it.

Thank you to Netgalley & the author for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Y'all so much goes on in this book. I have zero idea how to summarize, so if you like rebellions, magic, scientific inventions and epic world building, this is the book for you. If you're looking for a queer Adult epic fantasy, look no further.

I savored this book. Reading this behemoth over the course of the month was the best decision I ever made. Things are slow moving at first, but I loved meeting all of the characters and seeing them develop through the book. Look I loved everyone, but I especially loved Captain Subira's story. I loved seeing her take back her agency and become the dangerous yet incredible leader she is again.

I am so curious about how everything is going to fall into place. Not only are there several characters followed, but we also have gods and goddesses to watch out for. There are so many pieces of the puzzle here and I am loving what I saw so far and I can't wait to see more!

Statements taken from the author's review:
Representation: LGBTQIA+ (5 lesbians, 4 gay men, 5 bisexuals, 1 nonbinary person, 1 trans man, 1 demisexual man); PTSD/C-PTSD, cerebral palsy, schizoaffective disorder, eating disorder, autism (identity first), main characters of different skin colors and cultural backgrounds (see www.leafalls.com for more details)

Content Warnings: Ableism (external + internalized), birth complications/reference to miscarriage, body horror, cheating, child marriage/pedophilia (non-graphic), domestic abuse, drugs/addiction, eating disorder, homophobia (external + internalized), mental illness/depression, psychological horror, racism/xenophobia, religious trauma, sexual assault/harrassment (non-graphic), sexual situations, reference to suicide, transphobia (external + internalized), graphic violence/death/blood/gore.

A lush, extravagant new paranormal romance. Goddess of Limbo creates a world where death wants nothing but love but that is the only thing death cannot have.

This was a book I desperately wanted to love but unfortunately, I didn't. I struggled to get into it and I ended up not being able to finish it. I DNF'ed around 46%, it had a lot of interesting aspects but it wasn't working for me. I still think the concept is fascinating and hope to try it again someday but right now, I didn't like it all.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book has everything you want from an epic fantasy It has gods, goddesses, humans, elves, orcs, fae, and demons. Adventure, it’s own mythology, magic, romance, and a little bit of spice.

At first I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. This book is almost 700 pages and the first 10 or so chapters are told from different character points of view. The characters are so well written and developed that by the time you’re 1/2 way through the book you could open to the middle of a chapter and tell which characters point of view it’s written from.

This book is going to have a sequel, so the story lines are not finished at the end, but the author avoids ending it on a cliffhanger. If there wasn’t another book, this story would still feel satisfying while still leaving you wanting more.

Trigger warnings: torture, domestic violence, rape (not graphic), prejudice, homophobia, violence

🗡️Arc Review🗡️

My rating: 1 star
Do I like it: No.
Do I recommend it: Nope.

Goddess of limbo is a high fantasy book promoted as Priory of the orange tree meets game of thrones or game of thrones with a feminist angle.

What I found was a bunch of characters with no motive, an underdeveloped world and a book that requires 2 more rounds of editing.

Let's start with the characters, there's a bunch of them. And some of them don't even play an important part in the first book and are there for no reason at all.
I didn't find the characters to be engaging, motivating or even interesting. The only character I even found somewhat interesting was Captain Subira Se'anza, a protagonist but she also had no impact on the book , all her actions led to nothing in the book.
Also the fact that none of the characters have proper backstories that are explored is highly annoying and an hinderence in being attached to them.

The world building here is existant but not explained. I still don't know why there's a war going on or why people are fighting each other or why races like elves or orcs are hated. There's one or two paragraphs of infodumping and then straight up nothing.

Writing style, whoo! Let's talk about that, the author writes female side characters like men write their women. There's so many description of breasts and 'voluptious asses' that I was about to throw my phone away.

Overall, I believe that this book requires more development, editing and scene cuts to even be a tolerable one. 1 star for the amazing Captain Subira Se'anza and nothing else.

This was an interesting read, I struggled to start with but eventually I picked up pace and enjoyed it, looking forward to the next book.

I really, really wanted to love this book but I couldn’t. I thought about DNF-ing this many times but I never do that so I just started skipping pages. Then I started skipping chapters. Truth to be told before I started skipping I REALLY DID TRY. I stuck with this book for more than two weeks and it’s a long time for me. I couldn’t get myself to read it and honestly, I wouldn’t ‘finish’ it if I wasn’t stuck at home due to Covid.

To start with the good parts, the writing was good. It had LGBTQ+ representation. It had a very different and unique magic system as well as a very different world. The author obviously worked hard on the world-building but she just badly distributed it. Sadly. I was honestly drawn to how unique this book was, till I wasn’t.

This book was full of info dump, which is something I’m usually okay with as long as the book picks up after that. This book didn’t and I did not understand anything. Literally. I have no idea what happened in this book. The info dump was a lot but not explanatory. The author just smacks you in the face with different words and countries and kinds but never give any explanation what-so-ever. It makes it hard to connect to a book. I felt like I was in high school math class all over again.

Another reason why I couldn’t connect with this book nor the characters was that there were way too many POVs. Like a lot. I’m still honestly not sure who is who. The POVs were short too, so you just jump from character to character.

The ‘Goddess of the Limbo’ comes into play after like %50-60 mark of the book so that’s where the actual plot started. Till that there were just sub-stories and useless complicated information. I honestly like a book more when it gets to action faster than this.

Long story short, it was just not for me. If it was edited and maybe became shorter than 670 pages, I would’ve recommended it to a lot of people but still. I’d say anyone should give this a try and see it for themselves.

Goddess of Limbo was an ambitious beginning to a fantasy series, with a great deal of intriguing worldbuilding and a diverse character cast. Unfortunately, I DNF’d this book around 30%. While the ideas and concepts presented had a lot of potential, the execution fell short. An overwhelming number of characters, viewpoints, time skips, and stylistic changes between sections made this novel confusing to the point of being difficult to follow, even accounting for the fact that most fantasy novels require a considerable amount of setup. While this novel wasn’t for me, I can certainly see others enjoying it, particularly those who delight in extra large character casts and imagery-laden, intricate prose.

I received and Advanced Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

First, I must give credit to the author for including a list of Representation and Trigger Warnings on their website. I believe this is something that we should start including on all descriptions of ARCs. I know I personally have forced myself through some novels I originally would have as DNF based on content solely to ensure my NetGalley feedback ratio was not affected. Being able to look up what aspects the novel contained before requesting helped me gain a greater appreciation for this book.

"Goddess of Limbo" is the first novel in author Lea Falls' the Forgotten Splinters Chronicles, a dark sci-fi fantasy series. I normally am not one to usually begin Fantasy chronicles, mainly because of the emotional commitment it takes waiting for the remaining books, but "Forgotten Splinters" is one Chronicle I will gladly wait however long to finish.

A few things that primarily made this novel what it was: Falls' ability to create a detailed, and vibrantly describe world and write in the POV for multiple characters. Not trying to merchandize the series; but I could already see Table-Top RPGs of the world of Elfendum selling out as the fandom increases. I also would gladly pay money to be in any campaign with Lea Falls as the DM.

“I think any soul can splinter.” (Prologue)

Goddess of Limbo is an intricate and beautiful story that delves the dark subject matter of trauma, but leaves you with an inspiring and positive message of hope. Trauma and pain can splinter any soul, but even splintered souls can heal. Even half-broken souls can find pieces of perfection in a broken world: humor, stories, and love.

The author’s dedication says it all: “For anyone who has stared at their splintered selves and wondered if they could ever be whole again. You are not just whole. You are divine.”

This is a tale of trauma (see warnings below), healing, and finding pieces of perfection in a broken world. A mad reaper named Balthos usurped the world’s creators, declared himself a god, and turned a once peaceful world into a half-broken world riddled with conflict. The only other reaper, Alames, was heartbroken by the horrific actions of her lover, Balthos. This splintered her soul and sent her to limbo. The world is now full of souls that miss their one prewritten path to heaven and end up splintered souls in limbo without a reaper to help them find their way to heaven.

This book’s style is elegant and beautiful. The main characters are the centerpiece of this work. The story is told in first person narrative, rotating among a collection of protagonists. Each has their own unique voice and thought patterns. As a result, you really relate strongly to each character from the very beginning. Each protagonist has their own blindspots and strengths. All of them are imperfect, morally gray, and a little broken at times. But, the antagonists are clearly distinguishable as far darker than shades of (morally) grey.

At first, each of the protagonists’ stories seem unrelated and the story itself feels splintered. Then, the fates and stories of the main characters are weaved together like threads in a great tapestry. Neither character nor plot development is rushed. It takes awhile before the reader can begin to see how the different characters’ stories fit together or where the plot is headed. However, it is well worth sticking it out and the characters are compelling enough to keep your interest until the plot becomes clear. It does all tie together eventually.

There is great world-building without any tedious bulk information dumps. This includes a handy glossary to help you keep the vocabulary and names straight.

The central love story that emerges is a heartwarming romance between LGBTQ+ main characters, which you rarely see in literature. Despite the dark subject matter of this book, the ending is hopeful, uplifting, and somewhat happy. This long book ends at a natural stopping point where many things are resolved for now, but the primary antagonist is not defeated for good. The ending provides a clear setup of material to be explored in the next book of this series.

The author provides clear content warnings and a list of trigger warnings by chapter in the back of the book. Since this book deals with the heavy and emotional topics of loss and trauma, there are quite a few warnings. This book is also quite long. I would not recommend this book if you’re looking for something quick or lighthearted.

CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS: Graphic descriptions of violence/death/gore; non-graphic mentions of sexual assault, suicide, and child marriage; Homophobia, transphobia, racism, xenophobia, miscarriage/stillbirth, domestic abuse, drugs, eating disorders, PTSD, mental illness, and sexual harassment.

Such interesting character and a richly imagine world. It’s very different to any fantasy I have read recently, in a good way!

Goddess of limbo beleaguered Falls.
The forgotten splinters Chronicles book 1.
Free will is a relic of the past. Souls have a prewritten path to heaven. If they miss it, they are doomed to roam the lost realm of limbo as splinters of their former selves or worse—as demons.
Their only hope is the reaper Alames, whose own soul shattered when her celestial lover, Balthos, usurped their creators to make them gods. In her absence, he builds a pantheon of monsters and tricks the mortals, whom he blames for his grief, into worshiping him. But when a new generation defies Balthos’s law, Alames’s splinters appear among them.
Brilliant physicist Ally longs for progress and innovation, but the Council controlling her nation strips the “Mad Princess” of power. Pregnant and uncertain, the unrivaled Captain Se’azana abandons her career for the false promises of love. The starving serf Richard makes a deal with a Fae demon to save his son. And teenage rebel Vana trades her guitar for a blade when faced with ruthless nobility.
When worlds tear and hearts break, will they defy the gods’ narrative to create a brighter future or will they obey the lies preached and doom their souls forever?
A good read with good characters. I did find this slow but readable. Likeable characters like Alamas and Balthos. Wasn't sure about Zazil Pier or Calliquium. 3*.

I really enjoyed the writing and plot- it was very complex which made it even more compelling for me. However, I found that this isn't an easy read if you're picking it up as your first sff novel. It's quite a lot of information, and I just felt like the world was slightly underdeveloped.

The characters were interesting, but they didn't have any qualities that particularly caught me eye. Overall, would recommend to veteran sci-fi readers!

I wasn't able to finish this book. It felt too long and too ambitious, and I think I was just too stupid to deal with it right now, so I will probably just wait until the sequel comes out and then see if the series is worth it. I hope that people enjoy this one, and I wish all the best to the author. The book was just too complicated and long for me to read in my current headspace. The idea is very interesting, though, and thank you to NetGalley for the eARC.

To start off, this was an incredible read. There are so many things that I loved about it that I am not really sure where to start – especially with the size of the novel itself. I read this one on my Kindle and so I couldn’t quite fathom the length of this book until I was adding it to my Goodreads lists and saw the page count (an amazing 670 pages). I tend to be more wary of longer books now, worried that my attention will drift, and that I am more likely to lose interest. However, after reading the description for the book I had a feeling this novel would be for me, and I was right. Having read Goddess of Limbo I am reminded of why I used to love books of this nature so much. I loved being able to spend as much time as possible in the world that Lea Falls has created and getting to know the characters that exist within it.

The world building in Goddess of Limbo is so detailed, and beautifully crafted. I can tell that Falls spent a lot of time researching as well as mapping out the world’s law. It was definitely worth persevering with. It is difficult to explain the way that a fictional world works without info dumping, and Falls does a wonderful job of integrating the facts of the world without just explaining the history in bulk. In saying that, the history covered early on in the novel, I did find it a little difficult to follow at first, but the further I read, the more I understood. I didn’t feel that this took away from the novel itself. I can sometimes find it difficult to situate myself in a fantasy world as I connect more with characters to start off. With the rapidly changing narrative points of view early on it took a bit more time.

This novel has a wonderful collection of diverse characters. Each character felt so real to me, as while they all had their own positive traits and achievements, they all had their own flaws which made them tangible within the words that created them. I loved the relationships within the novel, they were beautifully messy at times, and some managed to break my heart – romantic and friendships alike. Each PoV character had a beautifully distinct voice, which I loved, making the change of narration at each chapter something to anticipate each time. With ten PoV characters I first thought it might be difficult to keep track of each story line, but the stories intersected beautifully so to draw the focus to the main plot. I’m not sure I could choose a favourite character, I love them all too much – though Robert, Subria, Zazil, and Martín stole my heart completely.

There is something beautiful about the way that Falls writes. She drew me in, slowly at first, but then managed to hook me when I least expected it, and after that I couldn’t put the book down (quite literally – I was reading on my breaks at work, and even after my 1am work shift finish). The various story threads all joined for the epic final battle in the most marvellous way. I was exclaiming and audibly gasping throughout the last few chapters, not quite able to contain my stress for the characters. I have to say Falls can definitely craft a big revelation. There’s a certain chapter (that I won’t reveal – for spoilers) that had me close the cover on my Kindle and have to take a few deep breaths. I got it partially right because I saw the clues, which I am happy about, but just interpreted them sort of incorrectly – which made the reveal that much more surprising. I cannot wait to do a reread so I can find all the clues again, and possibly more.

I am so happy that I came across this novel when I did. Not only is it a carefully crafted epic fantasy, but it is an epic fantasy with a diverse cast of characters. The representation in this novel is what I think all fantasy should have. I think for me, this is part of the reason I could get so into this book – I saw myself in more than just the one character. The first time I read they/them pronouns being used I think I may have cried a little from happiness, the queer relationships and characters brought a wide smile to my face, and I really just want to thank Lea Falls for that. I am really looking forward to any sequels that are written and will devour them just as I have Goddess of Limbo.

I highly recommend this to lovers of long, epic dark fantasy; and to those who want to read about wonderfully real characters in a detailed and creative world. This is a story of underdogs fighting for what they believe is right in a world that doesn’t always work in their favour. It is a story of love, loss, and hope, and of a fight worth fighting – whatever you are fighting for.

Please Note: There are a lot of trigger warnings and content warnings for this novel which I think would be useful to read through if you are wanting to read this book. You can find the full list on Lea Falls’ website - https://www.leafalls.com/representation-tw

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for sending me this free eARC (eAdvanced Reader Copy), I am leaving this review voluntarily. This title will be published 14th October 2021.

In a fantasy world where at one's death it is known whether your soul has ascended or splintered, a huge cast of characters from different backgrounds is trying to do their best. We have a physicist queen who suffers from hallucinations, a teen peasant attempting to start a revolution, a bunch of orc college students who are trying to get their families to accept them, and a few more.

I struggled through this book; that summarizes my feelings about this pretty well. While there were some interesting ideas in here, the execution just was not there for me. I'll start with the things I appreciated. There were a ton of queer characters (trans, nonbinary, gay, lesbian, polyamorous) that were well integrated into this fantasy world; it's not a queernorm world, but people have been openly queer for a couple of generations. There were also a few different Tolkein style fantasy races of our characters, which I think is frankly underutilized in everything but DnD nowadays. I really liked Ally as a character, she's sort of a Cassandra character.

Onto what I wasn't a fan of. The word I'd use to describe this book would be "underdeveloped". We have so much going on; there are three time periods we go into, a GRRM level amount of characters to follow (including Robert, Reginald, and Richard, which, why in the world would you pick so many similar names of important characters. I could not keep them straight for so long), and a good amount of settings that we are in including a magical one a the end. There really wasn't a central plot to this, which is why my synopsis was so vague, so I'm assuming the author intended for this to be a character-focused narrative. Truly, there wasn't enough worldbuilding to truly understand their surroundings anyway. However, to get attached to characters, you need to understand their backgrounds, basic desires, personality traits, and motivations. Other than wanting to be with their significant others, few characters had those motivations (with the great exception of Vana, the teen revolutionary who is very much a YA protagonist hothead). What were the goals of these characters? And therefore, what was the point? If we're not going to ask big philosophical questions about the world and politics, we need to have that small-scale goal. A good way to do this might have been to fix the timeline situation. With no flashbacks, we are given an ancient times chapter, then several "ten years ago" chapters, and then the rest in the "now". The second section felt pointless to me. Show me these characters, reflect on what they've been through with their current actions and situations, and give them some drive. If you're not sure what their drive is, maybe don't make them a perspective character if you can help it.

Rest assured, I believe there is an audience for this book. I'm not really sure who that is, and it, unfortunately, does not include me. If you love found family, I think this series might be something to check out. This is a debut novel, so I think with some more experience the author may be able to find her footing in future works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zauberfalls Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC!

Content Warning: Check the link here at the author's website for a detailed list of triggers.


Balthos and Alames were once a celestial couple, spending their days loving one another and, in Alames's case, reaping souls. But when Balthos -- in an effort to create his twisted idea of a perfect world -- usurps their creators in order to make himself and Alames gods, it causes her soul to shatter into tons of lost splinters. In the new generation, who unwittingly worship Balthos and the monsters he's created, Alames finds hope: there's Alexandra, the "Mad Princess," who wants nothing but the best for her people; Captain Subira Se'azana, an elfish military leader who is thrust into an uncertain future; the insurgent half-elf, half-human Vana; and many others, all who offer both Alames and themselves another chance at life.

I don't read much fantasy. This year, it's come more onto my radar, and I've picked up a few books here and there which have given me a taste for exploring this genre more. When I saw Goddess of Limbo on Netgalley, I was both intrigued and intimidated: it is high fantasy, a sort of alluring mixture of Lord of the Rings combined with newer takes like Game of Thrones, complete with its own world, politics and species. Let me also clarify, though, that unlike many of the books that populate the mainstream of fantasy, it's full of amazing representation which only adds to its wonderful, creative spin!

It isn't easy to make every single point-of-view character interesting, but somehow, Falls does it. They're all fascinating, relatable even in their darkest moments, with distinct narrative voices. It's practically a form of magic in and of itself to be able to pull that off. This is a hefty book, clocking in around 670 pages, and man, is it worth every page. I definitely have my personal favorites -- Subira, Vana, and Sachihiro a few amongst many -- but it doesn't have that horrible feeling of reading a character's chapter with dread, or feeling bored until you're back in a certain story arc. Instead, all of the many subplots are not only original and compelling in their own right, but make perfect sense when put together with the novel as a whole.

The plot itself is difficult to define or describe in only a few sentences; it's part of something much bigger, much more overarching, that I expect will continue over several books. I'm not a big fan of series', to be perfectly honest, but I was so delighted when I realized that this was going to be one. Although, it's so hard to not have a conclusion for everything, and to be left on a semi-cliffhanger -- I want the next one, right now!

Falls's writing is concise, simple, but also embellished with wonderful descriptions which help to transport you to this fantasy realm. It doesn't matter if you're reading about an orc, human, elf or even a god; it's full of both the hardships we experience here in our own world and the ones unique to Falls's universe. I must also applaud her creativity, particularly when it comes to the religions, politics and forms of magic that she came up with. This has made me a true fantasy fan.

When a book can take you so effortlessly into its universe, when you anticipate picking it back up and find yourself enthusiastic for every chapter, you know it can't be anything but a five star read. I highly recommend this, and I urge you to look into it if you're interested -- this review and all the summaries in the world can't do it justice. Do yourself a favor, and pick this up when you get the chance!

I want to start out this review by saying that this is the kind of book that would tickle all my braincells. I LOVE LOVE LOVE when the Gods of a world come down and play the chess board of the world... HOWEVER, at the 30% mark I was still none the wiser of where this book was going, or what the central plot was going to be. I appreaciate the world building from the get go, but I think that we could have culled some of the beginning story lines. I appreciated getting character motivations, but it adds a level of bulk that is hard to come back from. I also loved all of the inclusion of diverse relationships, and ANY inclusion of orcs or orc-like characters I'm freaking here for.

I'm very picky about the fantasy books that I pick up as I often consider it an investment of my (already diminishing) brain cells to dedicate to world building. But when I say holy cow! This was a lot, but in a good way. Lee Falls has created such a unique magic system and I was enraptured from start to finish. Adding to that, the character development was fantastic. A little confusing and overwhelming at times, but it didn't take away from the reading experience. I also loved the diverse representation in this book - from characters across the LGBTQIAP spectrum, disability rep, mental health rep, this was a delight.