★ ★ ★ ✰ ✰ DNF

★ ★ ★ ★ ✰ Plot: The plot is very intriguing; I can honestly say I haven’t read another book similar. My only gripe is that it did seem a little bit slow, to the point of being boring, I did not get my epic high fantasy adventure that I was promised in the synopsis. It is possible that if the worldbuilding and characters were better fleshed out that this wouldn’t be as much of an issue, and that that might really be where the boredom came from, so keep that in mind as you read on.

★ ★ ✰ ✰ ✰ Worldbuilding: The main area in which I am a tough sell is worldbuilding. I give a lot of slack for plot and characters because I read for enjoyment, not purely analysis or literary enlightenment, but worldbuilding will make or break a book. In this case, it broke it for me. The plot set up a great opportunity for an amazing book, but there was hardly any effort put into the world. Which types of people live where? Apparently, there are fae (which was not in the synopsis and was hardly touched upon- no culture or history) but are there humans? There was a brief mention of sorcerers and witches but no culture or history or information on where they come from. Another issue I had was that there were no maps. With a story like this, an “epic adventure” where the characters are sailing from country to country, there needs to be some kind of visual representation.

★ ★ ★ ✰ ✰ Characters: I do not have much to say about the characters other than that they were forgettable. I formed no attachment to them, and the nicknames/ bonds that were written between characters seemed like they were copy and pasted from others in the book. Not much imagination or depth.

Final Verdict: If you are looking for a fae high fantasy adventure, this book is not for you. If you are looking for a quick pleasure read and do not mind dry worldbuilding, then give it a shot.

First off, the book description is misleading. I was under the pressure this book would be about two sisters and their worlds, kind of like Crown of Coral and Pearl, but instead the main theme was all about Faes, which nothing wrong with that, but the description gives no hint whatsoever as to what the reader is getting into. Fae is such a hit or miss sub-genre that there's a high chance the book description will mislead readers who are into fantasy fiction, just not the world of Faes, resulting into major disappointment on their part.

I pressed on with the book bc I don't mind that type of reading, but truthfully I found the book to be lukewarm at best. The writers did an excellent job with their world-building and creating the settings and the story's background, but the characters themselves were not dynamic enough. I felt no emotional pull towards any of them and it got to the point where I realized, do I even care about any of the main characters? Plus, so much background information was thrown out at the very beginning that it made for such a slow start and a clunky first few chapters. If the writing could be more seamless and planned out more strategically, I think that would make this book so much stronger.

I reviewed an ARC copy for NetGalley.

I really could not get into this book for some reason. The back and forth point of views through me off, to the point I would lose what was going on in the story.

The shadowwalking, lush scenery were great, just not my cup of tea.