thank you netgalley and the publisher for giving me this arc in exchange for an honest review.
2.5/5. i love sarah j. maas and holly black, but i feel like this book should not say it’s for their fans. i personally was not a big fan. maybe it had to do with the writing style or it was targeted for towards teens and not young adults, but it fell flat for me. i was getting annoyed with faye; she’s so back and forth with who she wants to be with and i thought it was a single love interest for the book but apparently i’m wrong. i probably will not read the next books in this series.

The story started out with Faye at a high school party. Lots of southern charm, lots of friend dynamics already starting to form. I thought we would get to see a mix of the fae world and southern suburbia and how they interact with each other throughout the story, but this scene is really the extent we get of that.

After this, we get so much info on seelie/unseelie dynamics and absolutely no development of any of the characters. The only character who seemed well-developed was Gage. I know nothing about Faye, Isla, Ellie, or their grandmother.

The interactions with Gage are what kept me from DNFing this book. They were little glimmers of what could have been with this story had the other characters benefited from the same kind of characterization.

I loved the Bi rep as well, which is why I was so sad about not enjoying this one. It was underwhelming, and not much happens until the very end of the book. When something eventually did happen, I didn’t care enough about the characters to really feel anything.

II will give credit to this one for at least not giving me the feeling I had to DNF.

This was a quick and fun read! I enjoyed the characters, and the world building. This book really provided a bit of everything - fae/human relationships, changelings, magic, a trial, and of course a love triangle. I will say the love triangle aspect was a bit weird for me… as there isn’t really a favored person. Maybe more will come of these relationships in the next book. The situation with Kellan made me a bit sad, as I did enjoy his character. Looking forward to continuing with the series!

This was a quick and fun read. I wasn’t immediately captured by the book until about chapter 3, but once it captured my attention it was amazing.

Of Beast and Burden follows our female main character, Faye, who is half-fae and half-human. Faye has seen what the Folk has done to her mother, but she can’t help but seek them out. Once she’s been in the realm of faerie, she learns that she’s the heiress to the Unseelie throne. The Seelie Court steals her best friend, Ellie, who is more like a sister. She must face the trials and take the throne that is rightfully hers if she wants Ellie back.

This story features a love triangle. I am usually not a fan of them, but I love Gage, the Dark Court’s King, and Isla, the nymph knight. It didn’t feel forced, but maybe a bit rushed. The characters weren’t just thrown in for the sake of a romance, they actually played a part in the story. However, usually you are able to tell where this love story will be going, but I can’t. They are both good choices and clearly well written that there isn’t a clear choice as to who the better one is.

While I found it somewhat predictable, I was still able to enjoy it. The writing was enticing. I loved the banter between the characters. Faye was incredibly sarcastic and wasn’t meant to be perfect, which I really loved. This whole world was new to her, of course she is going to make mistakes. Gage wasn’t necessarily a grumpy MC, it seems more like he isn’t able to be this fun character due to the pressure of being the Dark Court’s King. He is meant to be seen as a monster to everyone, when really, he’s kind of funny and shares little smiles & smirks throughout the book. Kellan was a typical ‘I flirt with everything that moves’ type of character and I actually didn’t hate it?? While he made some questionable decisions, I could see where he was coming from. I feel like Isla could be developed a little more, but she’s still a great character, if a little boring at times.

The reason it is only 4 stars is because the world-building feels a little underdeveloped and with the predictability. The love triangle and some characters could’ve used a little more development, but overall it was still a fun and enjoyable read.

I can’t wait to see what the next book has in store! Thank you NetGalley and The Parliament House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Was it the worst fae book I’ve ever read? No. Was it the best? Also no. The description made it seem like it would live up to a hype that it just didn’t. It was a quick read that didn’t give enough detail for me to love any of the characters. It would be a great choice for a younger audience who’s just starting to read fantasy since it’s not overwhelming with details.

Thank you to NetGalley and Independent Publishers Group for the ARC 📖🤍

I didn't really expect anything surprising. 5 years ago? I would be over the moon with book like that. Today? I struggled with reading it till the end.

I haven't enjoyed this book so much I have thought I would. Plot is a little too predictable and characters aren't so memorable how they should.

It is another one history born on Sarah J Maas books success and it is following almost all the trops in this genre.

Of Beast and Burden was a mixed-bag read for me, with both positive and negative aspects.
To start one a positive note: The story was mostly entertaining and I liked several of the characters. The plot and the world building was pretty great, though without a lot of surprises. It’s also important to note that protagonist is bisexual, and it's great to see that representation. On the negative side, I never really felt the spark in the FF relationship. It felt like it was just added to bring the point of the FMC being bisexual home. For me, the story followed the usual tropes so well that nothing was a surprise. I actually thought it was a little too predictable. The three trials were conquered a little too easily for my liking, so there was a lack of tension behind the action.
Overall, I did enjoy this book. However, it wasn’t something new, so the excitement fell flat.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This started out as at least a solid 4 star read. I absolutely loved the story, writing, and the world-building, but unfortunately, the book lost me a bit in the last third because of pacing and a hasty and stereotypical love triangle.

The love triangle felt like it came completely out of nowhere. Faye didn't seem to express more than basic attraction to anyone and then suddenly, bam, two love interests. And to make matters worse, it was my absolutely least favorite type of a love triangle where the main character likes two characters simultaneously and decides between them.

The pacing of the last half of the book felt off to me. Most of the book is a slow build up to Faye's trials, but when the trials finally arrive, they're rushed through in just a few pages. I actually really liked the end of the trials, but everything felt too rushed for it to have as much of a punch as it could have.

I still liked the writing and the story enough that I would be interested in reading another book by this author, but I'm not sure if I'll continue this particular series.

Thank you Netgalley and Parliament House for allowing me to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Of Beast and Burden is a crossbreed of A Court of Thorns and Roses, The Cruel Prince and many other UnSeelie/Seelie Court books.

Faye's best friend is taken to the land of the Folk and Faye has to figure out a way to save them. Faye finds out about her past and that she is half fae half human and also an heiress.

Of Beast and Burden is a book of many YA tropes and the most prominent one is the love triangle. I liked that it was between F/F/M instead of choosing between two dudes.

The story is pretty good but the pacing could have been better. There's a lot of world-building in the beginning which made me feel like I was slogging through.

A lot of the action is towards the end featuring a three task/trial like Feyre does in ACOTAR. I think if you love fae centered books you'll enjoy this one.

3.5 stars

Well developed worldbuilding and a great cast of characters makes this book a 5 star read! I thoroughly enjoy unique stories about the Fae and this one was clever and refreshing. It had all the makings of a promising new series and I am excited to see what is in store for Faye as she grows more into herself and continues her journey in future books!

I enjoyed this immensely and I wish I had the entire series to binge in one go. There were some predictable elements that tend to be present with this genre, but this was a fun ride! Highly enjoyed it and cannot wait for the next!

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The book was good. Usually i like Fae and their world buildings. But we also got Seelie Queen and Unseelie King so heck yea, i love it.

I got intrigued just by reading Synopsis and found out it got Love triangle. The heroine lost her mother to the Folk and wanted to know behind the veil so she got a chance to explore when her best friend was kidnapped. She soon found out the secret that had her world turned upside down. She caught between Dark, Broody King and Nymph turned Knight. She is trying to learn whatever she can and only then she would be able to save her friend.

I like the story, world building, magic, characters, plot twists and i love both the male characters who are handsome and sexy. I'm really looking forward for second installment cause I want to know what happens next !!!

Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers for ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book left me on an almighty cliffhanger and has me wanting to read book 2 ASAP! I honestly can’t wait to see what happens to these characters in the sequel!

I was drawn into the fae world almost instantly and the world building in this book was written so beautifully that I could vision it perfectly! Each character has their own distinct personality and I caught myself enjoying each of them in different ways! I must admit I’m not really loving the love triangle but we shall see what happens with Faye’s feelings in the next book!

But all in all, I enjoyed the plot and the trials that Faye had to go through! I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy of this novel.

Thank you @netgalley & @ipgbook for access to this ARC. It publishes soon on Tuesday, May 10th.
 
I wish I had better news to share, but I did not enjoy this one. This first half of this book was trying to be ACOTAR while the second half was trying to be The Hunger Games, but neither were well-executed. Multiple major plot points & tropes from these widely known book series were used throughout this one, and it felt like a knock-off.
 
For starters, the pacing was way off. Most of the book was slow, but the parts that were fast were too fast. The first 80-85% of the book was “building up” (I say that in quotes because there wasn’t actual build up – not much really happened) to the trials that happened in the last 10-15%, then it flew through that part so fast. And the “plot twist” during this part could be seen from a mile away.
 
I also didn’t care for any of the characters. The MC went from being weak and unsure to a confident warrior within a handful of pages. There was a love triangle (with bisexual representation, but that also kind of felt forced), and the chemistry between the female MC and these other characters was practically nonexistent.
 
This is the first book in a series, and it ended on a note that would segue well into book #2, but I don’t plan to continue on. I will say, the cover is beautiful and one of the main reasons it caught my eye on NetGalley, but the story itself didn’t hit the mark.

This was going in a direction that felt very predictable and same-y got me. Nothing too different from other fae stories I’ve read so it didn’t hold my attention.

This book had a lot of potential. The plot is quite intriguing and I love YA fantasy so I was excited to read this one. However, it fell short in many areas. It is a debut novel, so perhaps more writing experience will benefit the next books in the series, but some issues may also be specific to the writing style. The author was pretty wordy through some parts of the book. It was distracting and being a bit more concise could have kept the text more focused. The pacing was also off. Some parts were laborious to get through, while others, especially the ending, was much too short.

The characters themselves also left something to be desired. They weren't very fleshed out and it made it hard to relate to them. There also wasn't much character development. The love triangle was weird and random and really didn't work well either.

That being said, this was pretty quick and easy read. I still found it interesting, despite it's flaws, but hope the follow up can improve upon the areas it fell short.

2.5 stars.

Pleasant read but not outstanding. 3.5/5 ⭐

From the very first page, I was intrigued by the plot. I was very curious to discover how the world of the Fae would be interwoven with the real world and to get to know the characters better. But after reading almost exclusively Fae stories lately, this one just felt like a thirteenth in a dozen. The story was a bit too straightforward and predictable, resulting in it not being not really suspenseful. Problems that emerged were also always solved without much effort. The main tropes like entering-a-fae-bargain-to-save-a-loved-one, the lost heir, and the love triangle (I really didn't like this one, it felt forced upon the story, like it had to be included to make things more interesting) were shaped in a classical way, which also contributed to the fact that there were few surprising elements and discoveries. The characters also remained rather superficial in terms of development.

What I did find positive about it is that the story still has a lot of potential. Both the world and the characters can still be developed further, including how everyone will deal with the events that take place at the end. In addition, many questions arose about how things are in the ordinary world in the meantime, such as how Delia is doing and whether the absence of Faye and Ellie is noticed (hopefully this will be addressed in the next book). It was also good to get more information about the Veil and the whole Seelie-Unseelie thing together with Faye, so you are certainly taken along in the story. And don't forget to take a look at the cover, it's really magnificent.

So all in all, I absolutely didn't think Of Beast and Burden was a bad book, there just wasn't much innovative about it. But if you like to read stories in which various classic tropes are present, in a setting with various familiar elements (such as the Seelie Court and Unseelie Court as opposites of each other), you will certainly enjoy this story.

“You should never tell a queen what she cannot do.”

✹ ✹ ✹ ✹

A very lovely debut. I didn’t think I would like a book about faerie that much. However, I’m left with both positive and negative feelings about this one. First of all, the plot is really great! It was a quick and light read that I enjoyed a lot. It didn’t exactly got me hooked from the start and I was missing some thrilling events, but somehow I was still encouraged to keep on reading. Although I did miss some special element that distinguishes this book.

Faye is an amazing main character. She is stubborn, courageous and funny. I liked Ellie a lot as well, definitely a second character I loved. I hope to read more about her in the second book. Something I was quite bothered with, is the love triangle. It sometimes felt kind of like a teenager that was charmed too easily. I missed the spark. It felt incomplete and a bit rushed. A lot of blushing and hidden smiles…

The world-building however is phenomenal. Also the writing-style was amazing. It was an easy read and the story unfolded in a good pace. The ending had a plottwist that isn’t that unpredictable, but I still liked it a lot. It kind of follows all the usual tropes, so nothing ‘special’ there. Quite predictable, but still enjoyable.

I believe it’s a very promising new series. Hopefully the second book will follow soon!

Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,5

I was not vibing with the entirety of this book until literally the last 5 minutes. Now that cliffhanger is definitely got me wanting to see what comes next.

I did not like the wishy-washiness of Faye and her feeling between Gage, Kellan, and Isla. That’s just not my kind of romance. I’m not a big fan of triangles to begin with but also to just keep flip flopping the whole time isn’t my jam.

The trials Faye also had to go through also didn’t happen until the last 5 minutes and were over way to fast. So much build up for so little to happen.

It was such a pleasure reading this ARC. From the very start I knew I was in the hands of an author who was carefully crafting her own world of fae and magic. The characters were interesting, each in their own right, and the romance element really had me excited at every turn.

I thought the ending was great and it has me excited to read the next book which is the feeling I’m always chasing when reading something new!