Possibly more of a 3.5. Definitely a good read, with incredible writing. Truly, the writing style was divine. But the various POVs in 2nd person kept me from fully submerging and feeling this book. The emotion was there, for sure. Which I love. I enjoy when my books make me feel all kinds of emotions. But the POV situation and the slow, heavy pace made it difficult to fully invest in the characters' lives.

Amazing story. None of the kindlings is male, some are nonbinary, and during the war, they were all enemies. They used to kill each other. Now, under the same code, the way of the sword, they will fight together to protect a village. Following the code, honor, tranquility, and compassion. Bringing peace with blood and violence.

It is a story told with multiple points of view and present tense, second person like a dungeon master bringing us closer to a new world.
We need to pay attention to the title of each chapter to know who the "you do..." refers to, but the author made all the warriors different and filled with personality, and soon this doesn't slow us down.
It is overall a slow read, emotional, sad, and a great homage to movies, historical fiction, historical dramas, and anime that fans like me will love. The author was inspired by the iconic movie The Seven Samurai. I was inspired by Kenshin Himura and Hitokiro Battōsai and as a former Kendoka, I loved their classic way of doing good for those who can't. Kendo is about finding an honest family as well.

By having so many characters and points of view we can see many versions of the trauma (pos war) of being so young and taught to be a warrior of death, on top of that, they are special and their magic is supposed to kill them young. They all deal with the trauma differently which brought me close to all of them and love all of them and fear for all of them. Congratulations on this unique modernization of such an iconic genre.

The balance is good with a bit of romance and quick/subtle sex scenes but full of passion. These moments of love and camaraderie help with their reminiscence of pain, loss, and violence.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this eARC NetGalley and Publish.

This was such a heavy read. Honestly had to DNF it at 25% but it doesn't mean I won't pick it up again. Maybe when I'm in a better mood? I feel my second attempt at this will be better because I'll be a little more prepared to take this on. Traci Chee is such an amazing writer so even though I couldn't get into this right now, you can bet I'm still going to get this for our collection.

I wanted to love this but unfortunately I did struggle with it - and honestly it is completely a "me" thing, not this book. I was not expecting second-person POV for the entirety of the book, especially with multiple POVs being involved, and I am just not the sort of reader who enjoys second-person style writing. It caused me to struggle with picking the book up or even getting too invested in the story. I will say, from Traci's previous work and here in Kindling, that the writing is beautiful and that this truly did feel like a Magnificent Seven retelling. I think there are going to be a lot of people who are going to fall in love with this book, these characters, and the POV style even if I wasn't one of them.

(Also, that cover is GORGEOUS!)

⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ I don't think my review is spoilery but more heavy foreshadowing. So this is your warning. ⚠️⚠️⚠️

I was given this eArc for an honest review from netgalley.

A solid 4 stars.

Sapphic and non-binary representation.

It's no joke when the author said this was a homage to The Magnificent Seven because in truth that is all I could think about as I read this. Now, I didn't enjoy the Magnificent Seven, remake or otherwise, but that's me. Still I like a good cowboy movie here and there and this very much was a cowboy movie....book, lol, regardless of the setting or the background.

While I rather enjoyed the story I have to admit that the narration threw me off at first because I've only ever read that kind of perspective from Tumblr fanfiction. So that was new for me in this format, but once I realized who is actually telling the story I was like, "What? No!", but I knew going in that some, if not most, of the characters weren't going to make it out alive. This is after all a homage to The Magnificent Seven and if you don't know how that ends I'd suggest you prepare yourself.

On a lighter note Kanver was by far my favorite character and I wish I could have seen more of them! Needless to say every time I set this down I kept thinking about it! The world building and its architecture are quite interesting and I wouldn't mind seeing another story in this world.

Truthfully, I'm finding it hard to put my thoughts down about this book. Not because I didn't like it, but because it was so unique and all-consuming that I'm left a little out of my depth. For starters, the way it's written is something I haven't experienced before. There's multiple POVs, but each is written in second-person. It took a bit for me to get used to it, but I found that I actually liked it, in the end. Though I know not everyone will like it, I think it suits the story. The one critique I do have is that I wish there were a bit more of the characters interacting before the big battle. It felt like there were a few key character moments that didn't quite get resolved entirely. Also, I feel like the villain could've been explored a bit more as a character? I know this is all very vague, but I feel it's best to go into it knowing as little as possible to get the full scope of the characters and the impact of the story.

Overall though, this was a pretty impactful read and if you like reading books about kids forced to be killers then ditched when the war ended, who stumble around trying to find a place in a world that has no need for them, then definitely pick this up. Though I'd make sure to see if you can find some trigger warnings just in case.