I really enjoyed this book and I really want to read more books from this author in the future. I really loved the book cover as well.

Benyu Born of Ash is the exciting first installment in the Ischyró Chronicles!

"I boil things and I dream of Death and I do not belong."

Roan is a Neurodivergent Elemental, an oddity in her village. After her village is glamoured by Woodlanders, Roan is the only one that can save it. So she recklessly enters a blood bargain with a Woodland General. As she learns more about the Woodlanders and herself, Roan learns that nothing is as it seems.

All in all, I really enjoyed this! The cast of characters in Benyu Born of Ash are a really engaging group of morally grey / secretive individuals. I loved Roan as a protagonist - she's a little reckless, but her desire to save the people she cares about really made her an awesome character. The other major players Galin and Talc (yes I'm just listing the characters in the preorder incentive at this point) were really interesting, too! Although I'm kind of the president of Talc's hate club right now - I'm interested to see what he's up to. Galin is an interesting male lead because I wasn't sure if I should be rooting for Roan to trust him or not. All in all, the character arcs really shine in this! I can't wait to see the interplay between these three reach new heights as the series progresses. Also the side characters are fantastic! Galin's circle of friends/allies stole the show along with Roan's brother Leif. As a big fan of ensemble casts, the side characters were among my favorite characters and I'm really looking forward to seeing them in the next installment!

I really think Benyu Born of Ash is incredible and can't wait to see where the plot goes next and how the cast of characters will deal with the new developments and twists!

Special Thanks to NetGalley and Acorn Publishing, Inc. for the eARC!

"Today, I will be nothing if not fierce, unwavering flame. I am the benyu, born of the veiny red clay and white ash of the Roan."

This book was everything I wanted and more than I ever expected. Political intrigue, magic, hidden truths, fantasy, romance, and morally gray characters - just a few of the tropes that made this book a page-turner. The thought and imagination that the author put into the world building and character development was not lost on this reader. For the first time in a very long time I actually had FUN reading and theorizing how the story would unfold.

Roan, the main character, is a neurodivergent who struggles with her magic and how she handles relationships with those around her. At first, I thought she was rude and I didn't understand her actions but as the story progressed and I learned more about her character and her thought process behind her actions ... well I don't want to give away too much but her development as a character was just what I was hoping for. I look forward to her stepping into her full power and becoming the truly strong character I know she can be.

The story as a whole flowed effortlessly. It was incredibly easy to follow - but the twists and turns will keep you guessing everything until the end. The world building, character building, and story progression were balanced perfectly and the ending will have you satisfied but definitely wanting more.

I haven't turned pages or formulated wild theories like this in a very long time! Do yourself a favor and clear some time in your schedule when you decide to crack this one open....it is impossible to put down!

In Benyu Born of Ash you'll follow Neurodivergent Elemental, Roan, as she discovers that life as she knows it isn't what it seems. This reading experience is akin to pulling on a lose thread absentmindedly,once the unraveling of this story begins there's no stopping it! You'll meet roguish generals and sinister priests.You'll travel through otherworldly locations and be immersed in a web of intricately spun lore. At times you'll feel swept away on a grand adventure and yet you'll always feel grounded by the familiar human emotion that drives this story.

Feavel serves up a feast for the senses with her debut fantasy novel. Her rich world building, political intrigue,and breakneck pacing make this a supremely good time while the flawed and intensely human characters make this story so much more. It isn't just the plot that your unravel here,each character is a puzzle and you will go on a journey with each as you come to understand their motivations, strengths,and weaknesses.

Benyu will keep you guessing until it's final pages and then leave you longing for more!

Fast paced, angsty, eventful. This book was such a ride! Everyone is morally-grey, there is no single character that is totally good or bad. Galin is a sweetheart, but am I intrigued by Talc, who (seems) to be the bad guy? Yes. Roan was reckless to the center of her bones, but girl is in for a long journey. I love the characters and the plot, but I hope in the next book we will get clearer explanation about the world and the magic system to understand what is going on better. But overall, it was a nice read! Looking forward the next book!

3,5
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC for me to give a review.
I quite enjoyed this book. The characters and the banter between the main characters are really enjoyable. I feel that we could have gone deeper with the magic systems and I feel I didn't grasp everything there's to the story but it was fun. I don't fully understand why Roan just accepts the marriage and fights everything else whilst it doesn't make much sense for her to be forced into the marriage. It's slow in the beginning but the stakes just keep rising and rising and I can't wait to read more of the story to see how everything resolves.

The writing is absolutely superb in this one. Katie beautifully crafted a magical world for us and the characters are intertwined in a way that leaves you needing to know more. We are met with an enemies to lovers slow burn, but things are not as they seem in this one and I have a feeling Katie had surprises for me in book 2 with her mysterious, morally grey side character. Do we have a future love triangle!?! Katie gave us the beginnings to what I am sure is to be an amazing romantasy series!

I was so excited to read this story by Katie Faevel since I'm a fan of hers on Instagram. I'd seen glowing reviews of her work and the artwork and cover art really made me eager to dive into her world. I signed up to be an advanced reader as soon as this story was released. I got an ARC both from Netgalley and Katie, directly, and as soon as I started reading I knew this book was something special.

Roan is a fantastic protagonist. I love that she's neurodivergent, and I feel like her struggles to read are genuinely portrayed with understanding and tact. She's resilient and determined and I found my feelings towards characters and situations often mirrored hers. She made me feel what she was feeling and think what she was thinking, so that I experienced the joys, embarrassment, shock and triumphs along with her.

From the start I loved Galin, but along the way I had my doubts, as Roan did. If you like steamy reads, we start to see a bit at the end, but I'm hoping for more in book 2 and beyond! And of course we have a great villain in Talc. That scene! Wow! Probably one of my favorites, and the most shocking, of the book.

This incredible story is just the beginning of a magical and richly creative world. As I got to the last few chapters I kept hoping for more. The last half hour of reading really blew me away. There was a lot that I didn't see coming and now that we understand the line "not everything is as it seems" I can't wait to see what happens next to all these characters. We've only scratched the surface of Katie's unique and imaginative world with Benyu.

Definitely recommend for fantasy fans!

For all my fantasy readers or people who want to dive into fantasy, this one is a must read! I am going to say that I’ve been anticipating this book since the day I started following the author on bookstagram and when I got the eARC for Benyu, I was SO excited. So, thank you katiefeavel for having me become one of your early readers!

I must say that I was completely blown away by this story. The writing is AMAZING and there’s a lot that goes into world building and politics so I feel that Katie did such a good job making sure everything flowed well and was easy to follow. There were no crazy info dumps (because I seriously hate that with a passion).

You have the main character Roan, who is a neurodivergent, and you first see how she struggles with her magic when she was younger, and how it has affected her relationships with family and the other people around her. It made me feel sad for her and you start to understand some of her actions whenever something bad happens BUT I don’t want to go too far into that because you just have to read it! The character development on Roan throughout this story is *chefs kiss*. I just know shes going to be such a badass in the second book.

“Not everything is as it seems” is repeated a lot throughout the book and it’s for a reason. I was pleasantly surprised with all the plot twists in this story and tbh I didn’t expect a lot of them. 😅

Galin is another main character in this book that I still don’t have thoughts on yet. From the beginning I didn’t trust him (or maybe just didn’t really like??) and I’m not so sure if I still trust him. There were a few hidden truths that were revealed towards the end of this book so I guess I’ll wait until the 2nd book to really see how I feel about him.

Lastly Talc…I definitely wanted more of him and I think the author purposely didn’t give him a lot of screen time for a reason and now I’m craving more. I have so many thoughts!

Overall, this is a series I’m committed to. I cannot wait for pub day so I can get a physical copy!

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC but a huge thank you to Katie for sending me an e-copy as well!

I really had fun with this book. My main complaint would be that since this is the first book in what seems to be a series, it would have been nice to have a sort of glossary at the back. I figured it out as I continued reading but at first, I was incredibly confused. Another sort of complaint is that the main character's name is Roan and the sort of bird/land that the MC is from is called the Roan as well. Would have been nice to have some sort of distinction, maybe Roan with a lowercase r or maybe in italics. My last complaint, although this passed eventually is that in the first maybe quarter of the book, Roan, our main character, keeps fainting. It is a bit unnerving and it made me slightly annoyed that at the end of each chapter was her fainting and blacking out. While I understand the circumstances, it felt very choppy to some extent.
With my complaints out of the way, here are some things I liked: Roan was very interesting and is a neurodivergent character. I found it interesting the way she was portrayed which is maybe why she rubbed me in the wrong way sometimes. She would constantly go between hating Galin's whole existence to saying "I am his, he is mine" which was a tad annoying but I got through it.
I think the romance between Galin and Roan was good, again, I was confused with the magic system and all that stuff, especially the glamour thing that Galin used. Hopefully, that is explained in the next books.
Overall, good book. My rating is a 4.75
**Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review**

I went into this with the highest of expectations, and let me tell you I was not disappointed. The story and plot pulled me in and didn’t let me go. The magic system in this is one of my favorites that I have read recently, and the world building? Phenomenal.

I fell in love with Roan and her story the moment she appeared on page which was the very first second, you start off with her and her not being able to control her abilities and I’m just a sucker for that. Her character growth in this is amazing and I can’t wait to see where her character goes from here.

Galin is one of the other main characters and her LI , something about him I just didn’t trust throughout this book. I don’t know I’m just skeptical of good guys who come out of nowhere and try to be the answer to everything. That being said his character was fun to get to know and after everything being revealed I do love his potential and growth.

Talc was very intriguing and that ending left me thinking what else could he do? I chose hide quote for a reason because he’s my favorite character and he’s not even here that much, what can I say I’m a sucker for males with mysterious motives who has a amazing unique nickname for the MC.

𝑊ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑝𝑠 𝑖 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛

Let me also just say the ending left me thinking about it for awhile, this book has left us mark and I can’t wait for book 2.

I received an eARC through netgalley for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity!

Overall, great introduction to the series. I adored the world building from the get go. The magic systems and politics are well explained. I was easily pulled in.

As for the characters, the main character is neurodivergent. I felt this was handled with great care, and made for an intriguing main character. Roan experiences so many things in this book. My heart broke for her, but I'm so excited to see where her powers develop from here.

Galin is the general that changes Roan's word for better or for worse throughout the story. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to feel about him, and their relationship towards the end. Something still feels off to me about them, but we'll see how they develop in book 2.

Talc... Let me just say Talc was not in this book nearly enough. There is so much intrigue to his character. He is painted as the villain. He does terrible things, but so does everyone else in this book. They all walk the morally gray path, and that's part of the intrigue of this book. His connection to Roan is something I hope is better explored in the next book, because there's more of a story to tell there.

I'm excited to see where the story goes from here on out, because I feel we were just getting started!

Not everything is at it seems...

Overall rating:

5/5

I loved the story and the characters. There definitely were times the pace slowed down, but that's probably due to it being the first of the series. The author paid a lot of attention to the world building. I believe that will help future books in the series.

The relationship between Galin and Roan didn't pull me in enough for me to cheer for them, but I do think it'll be explored better in book 2. I'm dying to know about why Talc, despite of everything is a calming presence for Roan. Both dynamics are intriguing. I can't wait to see more!

For now, this is a great beginning for an intriguing world I can't get enough of fast enough! I definitely recommend and will be buying a copy for myself.

I went into this story not knowing much about what I was in for which I think is the best way to experience reading it.

This book kept me guessing. There were so many times when I thought I knew what was happening but the author would surpass my expectations.

'Not everything is as it seems' was mentioned several times in the story and what a statement it is. I got to the point where I didn't know who to believe, what to believe or who to trust. This goes to show how well developed the story and characters were. I felt the revelations the same way the characters did and this made me feel some intense emotions and really got my heart pounding.

The world building is fantastic and the little details helped immerse me in the narrative which only added to the enjoyment of reading this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for providing an eARC for an honest review.

I'm utterly hooked and I cannot wait to read more in this world.