This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024, and it really disappointed me. The worldbuilding was barely there: we don't learn much about the world past Lore's town and a couple of other towns and cities. The library itself, which seemed like it was going to be a really large part of the book, given the summary, was far less relevant than I thought it would be. For a magical ancient library, it was pretty bland. Lore was a fine main character, but the love triangle really, really got on my nerves. Love triangles are never my favorite, although I do enjoy them in some books when they're done well, but this one was not done well. Everything in this book was really surface-level and honestly a chore to get through most of the time.

Lore Alemeyu’s people live in a village imprisoned by the fae, the price for attempting to escape is deadly and life is bleak. Then a deal is struck between her and the ruling fae - she will organize a library that they cannot enter, and they will help her people.

While Lore looks forward to the promised reward for doing the work, she also has her own reasons for taking on the task. Meanwhile, she meets Finndryl and Asher, two fae who become intertwined with Lore and her mission, for very different reasons.

The thing with the fae, though, is that they are a tricky sort - never make a deal with them without scrutinizing every part of it or you will be deceived. Lore’s determination sees her grow into her own during the story, her naivete understandable as someone who has grown in such an isolated place.

This is only the first part of the story, though, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Lore of the Wilds is a cozy fantasy that follows Lore, a young human woman as she tirelessly works to save her community from the fae oppressors. In exchange for her community's safety and resources from the fae kingdom, Lore agrees to travel from her human home, Duskmere to the fae world to work in an enchanted library. It is there she meets and makes an unlikely alliance with Asher, a fae who protects Lore and later travels alongside her in the journey. In this adventure we find found family, to an enemies to lovers subplot, and, my guess is the beginnings of a love triangle.

The magical world Sbranna crafted is lush and filled with wonderful prose that made me feel like I was alongside Lore. Her writing really stole the show, and in some moments, stole my stomach because the food in this world sounded unbelievably delicious. The world is cozy and fun, and I found myself wanting to be more and more immersed in it. One of the highlights for me was the enchanted library. This specific elements felt like a love letter from one reader to another, and I felt like Lore was living readers' dreams! (minus the human oppression that led her to that circumstance).

My primary critiques arise out of the fact that cozy fantasy is not my primary genre to read. First, I felt the audience needed a little more political and magical exposition to truly understand and feel the impact of the wonders of the magic along the backdrop of fae oppression. Sbranna interweaves themes of social political repression, including systemic poverty, substance use as a tool of destabilization and control, and forced birthing, and I felt like I needed some additional prior narrative of the fae oppression to property situate some of these violences. This is consistent in the magical world building--I felt left wanting a little more to understand the nuances of the magic system at play. Further, some of the plotting and pacing felt a little chunky. Some parts of the story received long chapters worth of exploration, while others were left relatively unexplored. One area where this suffered in particular for me was the character development and character relationships. I felt like I got the gist of the main cast, but they felt one-dimensional. Finn, for example is presented as being grumpy and annoyed, but we are never told why and I felt like there could have been some truly rich character building there that I truly hope Sbranna uncovers in the second book. I had a hard time believing the romance(s?) presented in this book--there was not a lot of tension building and it felt like while the intention was enemies to lovers, we didn't get the tension and eventual emotional hinge that shows us what pushed our main characters over the bridge from enemies into lovers.

Overall, I really enjoyed the concepts of this novel, but feel like the execution is one that didn't make me the right reader for this. And that's okay! I do see the strong potential in this story and believe it will rivet and engage many readers who enjoy cozy fantasy with enchanted libraries, cute FMCs (with a tiny bit of spice), and found family.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for allowing me to read this early!

I am downright obsessed with this book! I first heard about it on TikTok and immediately knew I had to request it whenever ARCs went out. This has everything I was wanting and more. Character development, great world building, cursed libraries, fae, and diversity! Say less and just buy this book!

Really great fantasy world building and magic system. The story was fresh and exciting, and the characters were captivating. Lore, Isla and Finn are all relatable and their stories are interesting. pacing was a little off in the beginning, but eventually evened out. 4 stars

I’m torn on this one, because some aspects I absolutely adored. I loved the library and Lore’s character. The pacing, some of the other characters and a couple of plot holes/character moments that just did not make sense kept this from being an amazing read. It felt like it had so much potential, but just made a couple of wrong turns on the way.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

This book started off so strong for me. I was entranced and loving the idea of an enchanted library. The pacing in the middle and towards the end sort of slowed down for me but I was still enjoying it. Then the ending…while I’m glad there will be more books; I’m super upset by the “twist”. It honestly made no sense and I fell like it was unnecessary and took away from the book. The love interests in this was strong and enjoyable and now I feel like it’s messy and unlikeable.

I don’t know. Maybe book two will be strong and make me like book one more. I just had high hopes and now I’m just “blah” about it.

I’m really unsure what to rate this because like I said; I liked it up until the end.

3-3.5 stars.

BEAUTIFUL. SPECTACULAR. AMAZING.
Such strong world building, amazing characters and I am so sad I’m done with the book. I could’ve lived in the library scenes.

I cannot overstate how much I loved this book. I was given the opportunity to read an arc from NetGalley and I will absolutely be buying this one for my personal collection.

It has fae. An enchanted library. The entire cast is people of color. You have high stakes and tense situations. It is beautiful. The only reason it isn’t a 5 is that some parts were distracting. A world of magic and horses with medieval style tech, but they know about adrenaline? Some of the dialogue was a little off, definitely a first novel.

But it was great and enjoyable. And I will read this one again and again.

The pros: a fae/fantasy story populated by brown-skinned characters and a black girl protagonist. A magical library!

The cons: Not enough time in the magical library. Pacing, especially in the middle. Aside from a "spicy" scene, this read like YA rather than NA (I love YA and I think this would be a standout if that's where it was!)

A great alternative to Sarah J. Maas, with a much more likable heroine. This fantasy tackles racism, generational trauma and PTSD with a gentle yet adventurous tale that I would definitely define as cottagecore.
The twist at the end made my jaw drop and I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next. I think this will be a popular pick for romantasy readers.

I have been looking forward to The Lore of the Wild for ages now, so I was thrilled when I was approved for an ARC. I am so happy to say that it lived up to the hype I built up in my head!

I will admit that the first half was stronger for me but I think that it is just because it has more of the tropes that I liked and I adored the setting! The story changes about halfway through and becomes more of an adventure, which isn't usually my favourite thing. That said, we meet my favourite side characters in the second half and it becomes a found family story! There are some repeated lines I found distracting and the pacing wasn't perfect but overall I adored this. The ending blew my mind. I really didn't see it coming. Can't wait for the next book!

Rating: 3.5

It felt like too much was happening in only one book. I liked the characters, and I didn't see the plot twist coming, so I'm looking forward to the next book.

Beautiful rep in romantasy, but at times felt more YA in writing and voice, and the cover matched YA more, often throwing me off every time I went to read. Pacing was also off at times.

"Lore of the Wilds" captivated me with its enchanting narrative and intricate story development. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, but the unexpected twist left me pleasantly frustrated—caught off guard yet intrigued. Regretfully, getting an ARC heightened my impatience for the awaited book two.

While the main characters rightfully earned our love, I found myself warmly attached to Isla, Gryph, and Grey. Hoping to follow their journeys closely in future books.

As someone who didn't label themselves a fantasy reader, I am ready to embrace the genre, thanks to this captivating tale entirely. The book transformed me from a fantasy dabbler to an eager fantasy reader, hungry for more stories like this one. Thank you, Harper Voyager, for trusting me with this one.

I was lucky enough to receive and eARC through netgalley. This was a good debut book, albeit in my taste and opinion, a little slow. For those just getting into fantasy, it would be a good place to start. The world and magic is easy to understand. While this might be of my own fault, I found the book quite slow, boring, and predictable. I’m used to books that are very fast paced with twists and turns where the author connects things in impossible ways. I thought there was a few plot holes as well. *Spoilers ahead*
I found it weird how a human girl easily broke her friend out of the QUEENS castle? There was not even a little fight. I found it odd how fast the FMC fell for a fae guard- and found Asher quite predictable and felt that he would turn on her. Finn is another interesting character who we didn’t get to know almost at all, yet the FMC created this wonderful bond with him. I didn’t end up feeling very connected to any of the characters.

Overall the book was fine, just felt oddly paced and a bit lack luster.

This book was like nothing I have ever read before, in the best way. The writing style was flowing and easy to read. I enjoyed the storyline progression as well as the character development along the way. Lore was such a likable main character, you couldn’t help but feel for her. I’m not sure if there are going to be more books but I can definitely see more because of that ending!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an e-Arc!
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW.
Also, for those curious, this novel leaves off on a MAJOR cliffhanger.

This is definitely a story I think I need to re-read when the book comes out. There's an author I follow on Twitter who recently said that e-ARC's are a bad depiction of the final book because sometimes the e-ARC's are old drafts of the story before line edits were done on it. I only started reading e-ARC's a lot recently and in this book I think I can see how correct that author was. There were some plot points in this novel that were never finished or touched upon again (i.e Lore's mini dagger training session. You'd think she'd need more than one??) and some plot points that were never discussed (i.e Lore mentions toward the end of the book that the word 'clanless' is a slur against Finn butI don't remember it ever being mentioned before that moment). The chapters also felt weirdly short like there was meant to be more to it but there wasn't. My e-ARC even says that it's 288 pages but Goodreads says it's 352 pages.

So, after saying all of that, I've decided not to pick apart the details that weren't refined and instead talk about the story as a whole.

And, as a whole, I adored this story. Lore and Finn were so stubborn and it reminded me a lot of myself actually. Which is why, from the moment I met Finn, I knew he was the one she was meant to be with. Asher was cute and sounded very genuine but... when Finn immediately showed a distaste for him, I knew that I should trust the grumpy fae boy. AND IT TURNS OUT I WAS RIGHT. I don't think I necessarily saw that Asher wasn't who he said he was but I definitely knew something was up with him. He seemed almost TOO genuine at times, like he was faking it to get close to Lore.

Isla was a character I wish I had more of. She was brilliant and I was enamored with her from the moment she appeared. Grey too seemed like a really cool character that could have been utilized more in the beginning of the novel. His appearance in the fae realm was a little startling when Lore saw him with her magic though. I hadn't expected to see Grey back in the story until possibly the next installment. He fit in seamlessly with the rest of the group though and I enjoyed reading about him again.

I will admit that the first third of the book is a totally different vibe from the other two thirds. The beginning reads very cute cottage core as she cleans up the library. I honestly thought we'd spend more time in the library/castle setting than we did. the other 2/3 feel more like an adventure novel as she's trying to escape and as her companions keep dropping other fae around her.

Overall, I'm excited for the next installment and I'm going to be sure to read the final version when it comes out!

Summary
Lore a lowly human banished, lost, stranded whichever it may be she’s here trapped in a world where her people are treated as vermin. Lore has always dreamed of adventure. Of a world bigger than the ones she’s always known. Of freedom. But all those things lay just out of her reach. Until she is propositioned by the vicious fae for a taste at real life. Lore will learn that things are not always what they seem and that if she can just be brave enough and harness the power within her. The life that she dreams of for herself and her people is just within her grasp.

Review
Ahhhhh lemme tell you something I started this book and I thought o nice a sweet cozy adventure with a little mystery!! Boy I was so wrong. This tough strong caring potty mouth of a woman will do whatever it takes to make a better life for all. Lore is Wild seems like a more fitting title because homegirl ain’t come to play no games. She has a way about her that is so genuine and that’s what helps others believe in her ally with her and risk their lives for her. Black cast humans and fae secrets magic family and betrayal everything but the kitchen sink!! There were twists and turns that I never saw coming until it was right in my face. There were a few moments that felt like the information was just there as a space filler but the overall flow of the read was great. This was a Fantastic read! I personally can’t wait for this adventure to continue!!

Why'd it have to end on a cliffhanger?? I need book two immediately.

I adored this story and these characters. It was so charming and adventurous, and overall, just great. I couldn't put it down.