Awkwardly written with too much foreign world/ world building thrown into the beginning. Could have started better so that I care about the characters.

Good story but wasn’t for me.

WHAT I LIKED:

-It's mostly male perspective which I really loved, and you get multiple POV from a lot of the characters.
-The plot idea of dragons, a dangerous mist and magic was very intriguing.
-The ending was pretty gripping and was satisfying because it's a standalone. (Not in a series)
-A few moments through the book were good but I really enjoyed the last 5 chapters the most.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:
-The Beginning. You are thrown into a very dramatic opening scene which some people love but I do not. It's so abrupt, there’s no time to meet the characters properly or connect with them, which results in me not caring for 90% of the book.

-Confusing and slow middle. About 3/4 of the way through, I realized that no one knows what's going on. The characters know nothing. I know nothing. None of us know what's happening.

-The lack of world building. I STILL don’t really know what most of this book was about. I can only explain about 20% of the magic system and like 4 characters because, (A) It was all presented in choppy clusters and (B) The NAMES. NO ONE can pronounce those names.
I had to write down the different names of magic, people, and places. But in the end, I COULD NOT keep up, so I ignored it and finished the book in my confusion…

Here’s my notes… (These are just a few)

How do you say vilmeid?
Dreamspinner... Do they heal or mess with dreams?
Ragestoker ... war?
Earthwalker?
Winddancer... wind and weather
Cradleweaving?
Hermitting??
Gamr are dogs??
Sallaedi
Jotun
Sendings?
Ratatosck?
Valkyrie
Helheim ... hell?
Odin and loki are mentioned
Who is Hauld?
Nissef.... the dragon or beast?
Ursulard??
Lay.... a story?
Godi.... God?
Baldr
Niflhel
Dvergarkin
Fritjof
Ut
Saehrimnir
Lyall
Sumidji

You get the idea.

The romance was decent. There wasn’t enough of it throughout for me to really care. Just random heated moments.

Overall, the book was ok. I just could not connect with the characters or begin to understand it until the last 10% of the book. If you like a beginning with lots of action, a slower middle, you don't mind being a bit confused with world building and there's a fast and interesting ending, you’ll probably like this book.

CONTENT WARNING:
Some language. Fade to black romance, Violence and some gore.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Characters - 5
Atmosphere/Setting - 5
Writing Style - 5
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 3
Logic/Relationships - 4
Enjoyment - 3

Total: 32
Divided by 7 = 4.5 ( 2 stars )

1.1-2.2 *
2.3-4.5 **
4.6-6.9 ***
7.0-8.9 ****
9.0-10 *****

Excellent Historical fantasy! great start to what looks to be an great story. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review their story.