I thought I had reviewed this book and discovered that I didn't. my bad :(
Pennyblade is a grimdark fantasy, very grim and dark. There's violence, lot's of swearing and sex.
But there's also Kyra, a character I loved and grew on me.
I had fun as the grim part was so over the top that I couldn't help laughing and having fun.
I want to read other books by this author.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I picked this book up on its comparisons to Joe Abercrombie but found it was not for me, so have not provided a review online as I did not finish. Thanks for the opportunity to try it though.

With its grubby world, expletive-heavy dialogue and sex chat, comparisons with Game of Thrones are inevitable, but this startling and hugely entertaining fantasy novel delivers so much more. Its dedication to lgbt representation is fantastic, and makes the book feel thoroughly contemporary despite its high-fantasy setting, I also really enjoyed the split timeline, as our main character goes through the absolute wringer, both physically and emotionally. At times bruising, always brilliantly paced, this is the kind of fantasy I can’t get enough of, and I’m so excited to see what JL Worrad comes up with next.

Pennyblade is a book that shouldn’t be my type of read and I think I am going to have to rethink my options, see I don’t usually read books like this a lot, but now I think I’ve been prejudgemental and I’m going to have to back to the thinking board. I found I loved and disliked Kyra in equal measure and I think that’s what I loved, I don’t think I’ve felt so emotional about a character in quite some time, but the times I disliked her I still wanted and needed to know more. This book isn’t for everyone, it’s quite often crude, violent and quite a bit of graphic sex, but if you like grim dark, this is definitely the book for you. I loved the world building , the characters are (the commach particularly) so well done, I liked the fact they are meant to be so civilised but are ultimately as animalistic as the humans they look down on. I enjoyed the end, that twist was fantastic but I did think at points the end, or rather a small section of it did need some work. Overall, if you know what to expect from this book (dark themes and strong sex scenes) then you will enjoy this and I highly recommend it to the intended audience

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Unfortunately Pennyblade is not working out for me and at this point I will have to put it down which means I will not at the present time be providing a review. I'm so sorry but I feel unfair writing a review for a book that I haven't finished. I intend to give this another go just to make sure it isn't related to 'mood' and at that point will write a review if I can get back into the story.
My thanks for the review copy.

Unfortunately, I'd going to DNF the book at 16%
I'm usually okay/I think I do fine with vulgar (not always or too much though) books, but this one is not doing it for me. It's making me feel pretty uncomfortable for some reason.
The characters, especially the main character is so unloveable, but not in a way that I want to know more about her. There was a plan in the first chapter for the main character to be taken advantage of, and even though there was a plan and the guy didn't have the time to rape the main character, I hated that.
I don't think I'm the right audience for that book.
+ I saw someone's TW - incest ? I don't feel like reading that.

3.5/5
🍃TW ~ Incest

🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ Elves elving with some powers, shiny abodes & interesting outfits
~ A world which combines magical elements & somewhat UK medieval vibes 💁
~ Many sexualities represented (although the MC did not convince me & am unsure they were done in the best light)

Sink into the medieval-vibe story of a spoiled, dim, impulsive & bratty elf (described as ‘sharp-tongued’ Kyra 😬) —who ends up separated from her twin & royal Cal’Adra family, by a series of events that unfold as we jump between past & present (annoying after a while). Kyra is obsessed with the racial purity of her species & doesn’t have much fondness for humans or ‘halfbreeds’ but finds herself ‘compelled’ by the Holy Pilgrim Church to go on a hunt for a demon monster terrorizing the countryside converting & occasionally k1lling? the ‘good’ bigoted racist people of the time (🥲🌝 what a tragedy). We follow her & a ragtag team as they investigate the sightings & as her memories inform us of how she left her isle of perfection and ended up with the scum. 💁

✨Eh, Give it a read.

🌱THE MEH
~ She is described but somehow I have NO idea what she looks like beyond black hair
~ UNSPICY spicy scenes (I was like ??!?!? WTF are they trying to do?!)
~ Annoying bratty behaviour compounded by false bravado & more words than substance
~ The elvish obsessive ideal of race superiority was very klannish/hitlerish 💁 (& never tackled)

Idk… this book would have been better if the MC had just been a male elf on an adventure - the descriptions sure af fit that.

♡🌱 But that’s just me ;)

Special thanks to NetGalley and Titan books for this eARC for review

Let me start off by first saying that reading more adult fantasy is a top goal for me in 2022. I've been slowly making my way through different adult authors and still looking for my "favorite" fantasy-style reads.

This review is structured a bit differently than my other reviews, in that I'm only writing under two categories: what I liked, and what I didn't like.

*warning: sex - I mean lots of sex, possibly cringy, vulgarity* *also there are a lot of potential trigger warnings*

What I liked: This story is all about two races being at war. We have the Main (mainland) with humans, and the Isle with Commrach (elves) We follow a couple of other subclasses such as Pennyblades (mercenaries) like our protagonist, Kyra. We follow her experiences through different timelines throughout her life, giving us a glimpse of what has shaped her personality and view of the world around her. I loved the character study here. Please know Kyra is not necessarily a character that we are supposed to admire or cheer, but the grit and realistic portrayal of a person that has been shaped by her experiences and environments is clearly depicted here.

What I didn't like: I could not connect with the main character. I don't know if it's a case of a man writing a female character? Whatever the reason, this is a great book for some people, I was just not one of these people. By no means is this a bad book, it just carried themes throughout that left me cringing and at times very uncomfortable.
I also appreciate a plot, which in this, there really isn't one - again it seems to be more of a character study which just isn't what I tend to gravitate toward in a high fantasy novel.

This book was personal not for me and I ended up DNFing at 40%. I did not connect to the story and the writing style. The lack of definition or explanation for a number of areas left me lost and confused throughout. I wish there was more world building and better explanation of the cultural and social structures, because of this I was pulled out of the story. There were a number of conflicting points in the synapses that did not match with what was in the book. Overall, I found it very confusing, lacking in world building and writing style did not work for me.
Trigger warnings: rape, assault, gore, bullying
I received this advanced ebook, via Netgalley. This review is my own honest opinion.

This has got to be one of the weirdest books I’ve read in forever. On the surface it sounds really normal - elven woman leaves home and becomes a mercenary to survive - but then you really start to get into it and man, it’s strange. This is probably the first book I’ve ever read where elves (or commrach as they are called here) are something more unusual than long-lived, elegant humans with pointy ears and magic. The elves in this book are something other.
The dual timelines of the story focus on Kyra Cal'Adra, heir to the House of Cal'Adra. In one timeline it tells of her time on the Isle, how she fell in love, and how she came to the Mainland in a self-imposed exile in the first place. The second is her current escapades as a pennyblade on the human Mainland. Both timelines are interesting to follow and have a certain edge of darkness and violence to them. To be honest, that's the only vibe that makes sense for the story, since Kyra is a mercenary with an abundance of attitude and a sharp rapier.
I enjoyed the flashback portions where Kyra was in her home city of Corso - so much court politics! The commrach culture was strange and highly detailed, though to be honest, half the details focused on mating habits and rituals which reveal that the commrach are somewhat primal in that respect. It wasn't entirely gratuitous, as it does explain Kyra's resistance to any marriage, even though the purpose of all their people is to create an "ideal form". It's a lot to explain, so we'll leave it at that.The current timeline was somewhat bleaker, as Kyra does her fair share of inner-moping about and keeps getting in bad situations, like being captured by the church and forced into service.
Overall, an interesting read made memorable by its sheer strangeness. I can't say I loved it but I certainly appreciate the effort the author put into world building and fleshing out the commrach culture.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me this book.
Unfortunately, I DNF’ed this book early on. I found myself cringing quite a bit. I felt like this was definitely a book written by a man for a male audience. I don’t really have much to say other than it was definitely not for me.

Reminds me of Wraeththu mixed with some Sal the Cacophony. I recommend the hell out of Sal, Wraeththu not so much. But if you've read those two, you've got a good idea of what's going on. With the politics of the Jackals.
If you haven't read those stories, don't stress. The main character is an elven woman who is born lesbian because she is half of a set of twins, and all female elf twins are lesbians. And this is a real thing, shut up.
Elven politics is wrapped around towers, as in actual buildings. You can gain power and prestige by moving to a better tower, as in pack up your stuff and move. But what about the family in that tower? This is where politics comes in. The families have some Game of Thrones style politics going on, including murdering a family member and blaming a neighboring family to start a street war.
Thanks to her own decisions and the politics of her grandmother, Kyra finds herself exiled to the lands of humans, where homosexuality is outlawed by a church that doesn't like elves in the first place. Needing money, she becomes a "pennyblade", a sword for hire, where she is really really bad at life. She struggles to get laid, can't get paid, doesn't get not-stabbed, its just a bad time to be Kyra.
Chapters alternate between present day (being blackmailed by the Church to accomplish a job) and her past (in the Elven city, politics, background, etc.).
Some serious topics come up for discussion, especially sexism and homophobia. Characters bring them up and discuss them like real people, not some afterschool special lazy writing.
The ending isn't awful, but not as strong as the beginning and middle. The fantasy equivalent of a Scooby Doo villain being unmasked, and then some people get stabbed.
Overall, funny, irreverent, thoughtful, and fun.
**I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

HIGHLIGHTS
~marriage-necklaces are awful
~twins are always gay, it’s a rule
~elite guard of post-menopausal women!
~never underestimate a nun
~masks, masks, masks

Pennyblade is a book that really shouldn’t have worked for me – because I do not read grimdark, and Pennyblade is, I think, grimdark.

But not very grimdark, in my opinion. Pennyblade is more crude than outright grim – I think it takes more than mud and shit and cursing to make a story grimdark, and the all-pervading sense of hopelessness and misery and people-are-awful,-always that is grimdark’s signature? Isn’t quite here. Pennyblade is sort of…sneaky-snarky-hopeful-maybe, under the mud and the blood. The ending, especially, left me grinning, and I don’t think grimdark really does that.

I don’t remember what convinced me to request a by-all-appearances-grimdark novel about a sapphic elf, but…probably it was the sapphic elf? Regardless, I’m so glad that I did, because Pennyblade is surprisingly awesome.

Pennyblade is narrated by Kyra Cal’Adra, a commrach (elf) who has fled the Isle of her people and now lives among humans on the mainland. The chapters alternate between two timelines; the events leading up to Kyra’s self-exile, and the mess she finds herself embroiled in while working as a ‘pennyblade’ – aka a sellsword or mercenary. The two storylines entwine in some very unexpected, clever ways, and although I was originally more interested in the earlier timeline set on the Isle, I ended up extremely invested in the ‘present’ timeline as well.

Whenever Kyran set out to acomplish something in life, life would step back and demur.

Reading about Kyra’s life on the Isle, it’s not at all clear why or how she left; the Cal’Adra’s are highbloods, nobility, and Kyra lives a very privileged life because of it. But those privileges come at a high price; namely, a complete lack of control over her own life. This isn’t because she’s a woman, but because she’s a highblood – one of those bloodlines that are being carefully cultivated by the unquestionable Explainers, with the goal being the Final Perfection – the ideal, perfected commrach.

‘You know, for all my people’s faults, not one commrach has starved or been without a roof in sixteen thousand years. And the emphasis there is sixteen thousand years. You creatures are lucky to make anything last a hundred.’

Basically? Elves are eugenicists. Hardcore eugenicists. And obviously eugenicists are terrible, but it’s the total subversion of the Wise-Beautiful-Elevated Elves trope that delights me so freaking much! The commrach fit the trope in many ways – they’re faster and more graceful than humans, they have limited forms of magic, and their society doesn’t use money, has no homeless people, and are fully accepting of all flavours of queerness (Kyra herself is a lesbian, her brother Kyran is gay, and we meet or hear about bisexual, trans, nonbinary, and asexual characters). At first, they look so much better than humans (who are living in the squalor, violence and homophobia typical of Fantasy’s take on the Medieval period) that no comparison is possible…but bit by bit, that layer of gilding flakes away, revealing something much uglier underneath.

“That’s anger talking,” Kyran said.

“Common sense,” I replied.

Kyran snorted. “How often the former masquerades as the latter.”

There are two ways to read Pennyblade: either it’s extremely male-gaze-y and thus kinda gross, or Worrad is a genius. See, sex is a very big deal in this book; there’s a lot of it, and most eyebrow-raisingly, we learn that the commach essentially go into heat like cats. This involves a lot of seriously pornographic behaviour, and a fair bit that’s quite cringey; I found it hard to take how female commach make yowly noises (again, like cats in heat) during their ‘equinox’. Given that Kyra is a lesbian, and thus almost all of the sex scenes revolve around F/F sex – and given how crudely it’s all depicted – it’s very easy to accuse Worrad of writing Pennyblade as an excuse to play with a sexual fantasy, rather than writing it as a ‘proper’ novel (whatever ‘proper’ is supposed to mean).

But I would argue that what reads as a gross male gaze on a queer woman is actually a majorly important element of the book. The commach believe themselves to be the pinnacle of civilisation, but that stance is majorly undercut once you see them making yowly cat noises at each other. (The men make fewer stupid noises, but they’re easily as sex-drunk when heat hits.) The crude, animalistic behaviour we see the commach engage in – more, that they can’t stop themselves from engaging in – proves to the reader that they have a very obvious bestial aspect to them, and no amount of (often justified) contempt for humanity can make that untrue. The commach can call themselves the most sophisticated beings on the planet all they like, but the narrative makes it clear that they’re just as much animals as humans are.

And I think the proof of this is: the sex scenes that actually matter, that take place between two people who love each other – those scenes are all, without fail, fade-to-black. Worrad draws a respectful veil of privacy over characters who are, for lack of a better term, making love; it’s only the fucking, the animalistic sex that means nothing, that appears in detail on-page.

“Love enough to burn the world?” you said.

“Is there any other kind?”

So while I completely understand that this book is not going to be for everyone, I closed the final pages impressed with Worrad’s worldbuilding, and how he managed to tell us the commach are not what they say they are – without ever actually telling us, but by showing us instead. It reads like one of the best examples of show-don’t-tell that I’ve come across in a good while.

Pennyblade is crude, rude, violent, and contains a lot of appalling things, but I absolutely adored the worldbuilding. Awful as they are, the commach might be my favourite elves ever – specifically because they’re so fucked-up (and so not, at the same time, in other ways). I can’t say you’ll finish the book loving Kyra – she’s not really what you’d call likeable – but I ended up hugely invested in her story and rooting for her all the way.

I did think the ending was a little weak – the twist-reveal was amazing; the response to it was a bit too cliche – but all-in-all, as long as you know what you’re getting into re grimdark themes and very crude sex all over the place, I strongly recommend it!

Pennyblade comes out on the 29th of March, and you can preorder it now!

I DNFed at 70% when I got to a point where I felt like I was a peeping tom in a man's wet dream rather than reading a fantasy book with erotic or vulgar elements. The vulgarity was not the issue for me, and I've read and loved multiple books that would be considered vulgar.

The issue for me is that this was very clearly written by a man, there is a distinct lack of a female voice. That's not to say that men cannot write female characters, nor that they shouldn't try. What I am saying is that Worrad, is specifically bad at it. It also isn’t about femininity, I want to emphasise that. It’s the lack of a woman’s perspective of the world around her and her experiences. When discussing what women of their race are forced to undergo during marriage, the emphasis is on their limited sexual appetite afterward. While Kyra is indeed very driven by sexual impulses, I find it difficult to believe that a female writer would not have commented on the gender inequalities.

This is particular evident in a scene that occurred right before I stopped reading. The females of Kyra's race, the commrach, go into heat at a certain time of the year. During this period they become little better than desperate animals, desperate to touched, to have sex - you get the idea. Even worse, they have this horrible mating call. This mating season doesn't come up once, but twice in the book, because once wasn't enough, apparently. First, it happens to Kyra, and she is tortured by the church to endure it without release.

The scene that takes place at 70% was even worse. The novel alternates between flashbacks between current time on the main land, and Kyra's time on her native Isle. On the Isle during heat groups of young unmarried women are escorted through the city by post-menopausal and asexual guards to attend a play (something to do with their race's traditions). They are not allowed to have release until after the play. So a group of desperate, vulnerable in heat young women are escorted through a city, a city which is teeming with men who react to them in heat and want to rape them. The guards have to actually kill the males to stop them reaching the women.

This isn't vulgarity. It's someone's wet dream, and it's extremely demeaning. I'm pretty sure if this was reversed and men were the ones in heat this wouldn't be about "vulgarity".

Despite having a lesbian protagonist everything in Pennyblade is about sex, but it comes via the male perspective of the author. Kyra’s appetite never feels like it comes from a female one, and I say this as a bi woman, not a straight one. She is constantly thrusting her hips at people... but why? This is a male gesture because men have something to thrust. Yes, women can use strap-ons, however, Kyra never uses one (as of 70% anyway), she has one used on her. Likewise, during a sword fight she holds her rapier up and makes a joke about how "size does matter". Umm.. what? Women don't generally make size jokes (unless we're specifically talking about a man's penis) like that because we don't have anything to measure. The whole concept of measuring is again, a male thought process.

Again, it’s not about femininity, it’s about the male gaze vs the female gaze and I constantly felt like I was reading a male gaze through a female body. Like a male gamer playing a female avatar in a video game. The author tries to bury this feeling in Kyra’s alienness, she’s not human after all. But it fails miserably.

There are also two worrying disability representations in this book. There is a woman, Poppi, with an intellectual disability, who exists just to be physically, emotionally and sexually abused. There's also the sister who has a stutter and suffers from muscle spasms. As I DNFed at 70% I didn't learn her full story, and I didn't want to. She was beginning to be portrayed as a sadistic bigot, and seeing a disabled character portrayed in that way was too much.

Often when fantasy stories involve elves they're portrayed as regal beings, ancient creatures whose society is so old and so wise that they look down upon humanity and see us as nothing more than savage children; it's the classic Tolkein elf. And whilst the elves in Pennyblade are ancient, are more advanced, and do look down upon humanity, we quickly learn that they are just as savage, just as decadent, and just as corrupt as us. And I absolutely loved it.

The story of Pennyblade is split across two different times, set a number of years apart, in a twisting narrative that follows Kyra Cal'Adra, a high born commrach. In the present day narrative Kyra is living on the mainland, the human territory. She's left her home to live on the road, travelling from one small town to the next putting her skills as a sword fighter to good use to become a pennyblade, a hired mercenary. We quickly learn that despite being good at her job she's hated by most of the people around her. People distrust her because she's a pennyblade, they hate her because she's not human, and they despise her because she loves women.

Kyra's been travelling with a small group of pennyblade's, taking work wherever they can find it; but when a simple mission to kill a man who's been coming to a small town, forcing the inhabitants to hand over women and girls to him for him to sleep with, goes wrong her life on the mainland is changed. Suddenly she's alone, unsure if she can trust anyone, and when she passes out from exhaustion running from an angry mob she wakes inside a local church. Unfortunately, the church didn't take her in out of the kindness of their heart. Instead, they plan to force Kyra to work for them. With no way to escape her captors, and with the threat of execution hanging over her head, Kyra's forced into even more danger.

Whilst reading this we also alternate between Kyra's past, to the time where she was still living on The Isle, the homeland of the commrach. Here we see a much different version of Kyra, where she lives a life of luxury with her twin brother Kyran as part of one of the ruling houses of their nation. Here Kyra is something of a spoilt brat, and she's trying to rage against a system that she's expected to be an active part of and uphold for future generations as her scheming grandmother attempts to plan out the futures of Kyra and Kyran. These chapters not only give us further insight into the commrach society, but also fills in the gaps explaining how Kyra ended up living on the mainland as an exiled mercenary.

One of the things that I absolutely loved about Pennyblade, something that I'd seen other people talking about before I got this book, is how awful so many of the characters are. J.L. Worrad doesn't seem to be concerned about creating a story where you'll instantly like the protagonist. You might go for the entire novel not even standing her; but what he does do is to create a group of characters that I adored in spite of the fact that they're all complete bastards.

The Kyra on the mainland is bitter, resentful, out only for herself, and is willing to screw over most of the people around her if it gets her ahead. Thrown into this is Sister Benadetta, a member of the Pilgrim's church who ensnares Kyra into working for her. She considers Kyra to be without a soul, she hates her for being a lesbian, and she uses her position to hurt people. There's also Shortleg, a mercenary who's a womaniser, a homophobe, and generally unlikable in every way; and Nail, a Caliban, a human commrach half-breed, who seems to hate everyone, who lies and cheats, and seems thoroughly untrustworthy. And this is our group of heroes. This is the noble band that is going out into the world to stop an evil cult and save everyone.

But despite all of these flaws, despite every single one of them being terrible in some way, you can't help but like them. You slowly see connections begin to form between them. They start to trust each other, they begin taking risks for each other, and they start bringing the best out in each other. By being forced into this situation none of them actually want to be in they get to grow and evolve, becoming fairly decent people. By the end of the book I was loving spending time with them, to the point where I was sad to see the book end because I wanted more time with the weird little dysfunctional family. They'd come a long way, and I wanted to see them grow more, to become even better and realise that they were actually pretty good people now.

About half of the book is set in the past, a few years before the main story, when Kyra was still living with her people. The Kyra we see here isn't a good person either, but is a very different one nonetheless. This version of Kyra sees herself as better than most. She's grown up in a position of extreme wealth an priviledge, of never really having to worry about not getting whatever she wanted. And this is where the main drive of her story in this era comes in. Kyra is finally being told what she can and can't do, and she's raging against that.

Kyra comes across a young woman, Shen, who challenges her in ways she's never seen before. Shen comes from a small town, outside of the city of Corso. She doesn't like the system that The Isle has, she doesn't like the way their society is, and she refuses to fit into it the way everyone expects. This intrigues Kyra, draws her in, and when she realises she loves Shen it sets her on a new path from the one where she thought she'd spend her days drinking, playing, and sleeping with any woman she desired. Her life is also disrupted in other ways as her grandmother has arranged for her to marry a man from a rival house, despite Kyra having no interest in men. Now Kyra is trying to work a way out of it, having to engage in plotting and politics in ways she's never had to before; and it pushes her abilities to the limit.

This Kyra is a schemer, but also a dreamer. She thinks that if she can just figure out the right plan, come up with a clever enough play she can outwit her grandmother's machinations. Despite only being set five years before the main events of the book this Kyra feels so much younger, and it shows how much her time on the Mainland has changed her. But these sections aren't just an insight into her, but her people as a whole.

The human world of Pennyblade is very similar to our own history in a lot of ways, albeit a world with magic and the existence of elves. The commrach society, on the other hand, is very different. Whilst the human world is ruled by capitalism and religion, with the poor forced to live in squalor, and queer peopl persecuted, the commrach have none of this. There might be different levels in their society, but none are left on the streets to survive on their own. They aren't ruled by puritanical thinking, and sex and queerness aren't seen as anything to be ashamed of or hidden away at all. The vast majority of elves seem to be open to all genders, with the odd exception being those born twins, where they're born homosexual. And the elven society even has trans people, who are never treated as anything but their actual genders, and not what society believes them to be.

But that doesn't mean the commrach are perfect, as there's a lot in their world that seems brutal, or even openly sadistic at times. Worrad hasn't just created a race of people who are humans with long lives and feelings of self importance. The commrach feel completely alien in a lot of ways. They're a society so unlike the human one, shaped not just by their long different history, but by the fact that they're so different to us biologically too. It's one of the most interesting take on elves I think that I've ever seen, and it makes for a fantastically compelling read.

Pennyblade is a book filled to the brim with amazing, interesting ideas, with characters that are flawed and awful, yet so wonderful at times too. There are no big fantasy hero archetypes here, just imperfect people in an imperfect world, trying to balance the scales out a bit by doing a little good whilst they can. Whilst this book is a perfect story all on its own, and I loved every moment of it I truly hope that this is a world that Worrad revisits in the future, as I'd love to see more.

Firstly, I want to thank the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Unfortunately, I think it wasn't my cup of tea.
I found myself stopping and picking up the book again on multiple occasions, as it was harder for me to “connect” with it due to the writing style.
I am a big fan of the grimdark genre and I love morally gray characters and gritty storytelling…alas, the main heroine felt like she lacked any character development and her cruelty was unnecessary and childish at times.
As a whole, it is a great mercenary book in a fantasy setting, but the writing style and the vulgarity will put many readers off.

*First off thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for an arc of this book*

Pennyblade is the story of Kyra a type of elf. She's a murderer, a thief, and a mercenary. Gives you Gideon the ninth feels except this woman is feral very very feral. The book itself goes back and forth between the past and present. And the author does a great job of unveiling her struggles. Its definitely dark and gritty and definitely classifies as grimdark. There are a lot of sex scenes and a lot of violence. Its not a book for the faint of heart. I enjoyed it.

*Trigger Warning: This book contains a LOT of potential triggers for readers and should be taken in consideration before picking this book up."

I wanted to love this book as I love dark fantasy and morally-grey characters, but I struggled from the beginning with Kyra the MC.

I understand if a character starts out as unlikeable, but when I am hitting over the 70% mark, her attitude, selfishness, lack of empathy, abusive behavior toward other just gets old. I feel like I didn't see a single moment where she genuinely seemed to think more on her words and actions.

Now I'm not saying that every character didn't deserved her treatment, there were VERY evil characters in this book that deserved far more than what she was dishing them, but there were a few where it just felt like her cruelty was just childish and made me put down the book so many times because it didn't feel justifiable to me.

There is one scene in particular where she just unalives a friend of hers who is severely heartbroken by her rejection. Now, he was not the best guy in the world and clearly had his own bad beliefs and did deserve to be rejected but not in the way she did (which was instant F you attitude and not actually explaining in a calm, mature manner), but I don't honestly believed he deserved what she did to him. She just... does it and that is my problem.

There wasn't a debate in her mind, no thought like "what else can I do?" "should I leave him behind?" "I have to think of my safety," etc. She just instantly decides to unalive him without question and no further thought on it. Even though they were supposed to be friends as least in the "doing heists, partying, and drinking" kind of friend so these two people did have history and some long history too which makes the entire event just come off as weird to me.

She does get called out for it later but she is firm in her belief (after she lies about it of course) that it was a "mercy" when the guy was not nearly dead. She just ended him like a wounded horse out of inconvenience.

Another scene has her thinking about abusing her slaves because.... reasons? She mentioned about wanting to slap one of the servant girls out of nowhere. There was no inciting spoken word or action that I could understand that justified this reaction. The servant did her job and offered the platter of food and then Kyra waved her away which is fine, but there is the mention of just "almost slapping her" added to it. Why? I needed some more context here.

The servant later gives her own version of a middle finger and then Kyra does nothing about it? But earlier, she wanted to smack her around for offering the platter? I don't really understand the motivation.

Kyra just felt like a privileged, spoiled rotten child to me throughout the whole book. I didn't see a true growth from her character. I understand that she went through some abuse in her life which I would've liked more information on which might've shown me more sympathy for her, but I just didn't care.

As I said, I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't connect with Kyra. Morally grey characters to me, IMO, need to have some sort of balance of good and evil. You can have them do some really bad things but a balance is needed. They need that speck of good somewhere even if it's in their mind that they are doing the right thing. Some sort of redeeming quality. Perhaps they believe in a more "long term good" such as "unaliving these 150 people to save the 5000 in the future" sort of thing I didn't personally see that balance and I think that is what ultimately made me just not enjoy it.

I think it's safe to assume that this book might be for someone, but I don't think it's for me personally.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read it.

I very rarely DNF books, but I found myself putting this one down at 18%. Many readers, I have no doubt, will feel differently than I did, but I found for the first part of the book the main character was the type of ‘tough guy’ heroine I’ve seen done too many times now, and the homophobia this character faces in this fantasy feels like it’s there simply to show how different she is from other characters in the book. This just really wasn’t the book for me, and not one I found myself wanting to invest more time in.

Thank you to Titan for providing me a copy of this book via NetGalley. Views remain my own.

I DNFed this book and because I wouldn't want to give an overtly negative review, I won't be posting a review on my blog..
I read 50 pages, approximately 15%, but I just couldn't continue due to the vulgar language and the use of sex scenes at the most inappropriate moments. A book doesn't have to be 'clean' to be enjoyable for me but there was put way too much emphasis on here. In the little I read of the book, there were almost 3 sex scenes, talk of heaving bosoms and too many descriptions of penises. It was a bit to grotesque for my liking and that's just not what I'm looking for in my fantasy books. The story and strife between the two races, however, did pique my interest and I do think there are things I would genuinely like in Pennyblade, the vulgarity prevented me from fully enjoying that part of the book.
I would still like to thank Titan Books for the opportunity to read this ARC and I'm sorry I couldn't give a favourable review