[ARC provided by NetGalley and Hodderscape. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Until We Shatter.]

Rating: 3.5/5

What happens when you combine a setting reminiscent of Red Queen with the fantasy heists from Six of Crows? You’ll get something like Until We Shatter, a technicolour adventure overflowing with betrayal, tension, and magic. In this book, Kate Dylan takes us down a winding path filled with twists and turns that will leave you second guessing every new reveal, and that will no doubt tug on some heartstrings as situations grow more and more perilous. For the most part this is a pretty fun ride and the magic system is fascinating, but unfortunately I found myself a little bored throughout the story and wondered more than once if perhaps this wasn’t the book for me.

Until We Shatter is set in a world ruled by division. There’s the people that are either magic wielding Shades or ordinary Typics. There’s a world of colour and its greyscale mirror. And then there’s what lies in between the divide, a space inhabited by Hues, those with half the magic of a Shade and a large target on their backs. This is where we find our main character, a Hue/thief called Cemmy. When she jumps at the offer to take a job that could solve all of her problems, Cemmy finds herself between the truth and lies, family and friendships, and even the limitations of her own magic.

Let’s start with the positives. I loved the magic system in this book and can imagine it developing in really fun ways as we get further into the series. I also loved the hidden Grey, the magical world overrun by shadows that the characters often have to journey through. These elements were enough to hook me into the story and although there were some areas that, for me, didn’t strike the balance between too much and too little information, my interest never dipped when it came to finding out more about this fascinating magic.

Unfortunately, this is where the positives ended for me. Outside of the magic and the core cast, I felt that the world they lived in lacked the necessary depth to back up various elements of the plot. For example there’s many high stakes situations that the characters find themselves in but I rarely felt the full weight of peril that should have accompanied them. I also wasn’t completely sold on the romance, but it’s still early days and I’m sure it’ll continue to develop in the sequel.

Although this wasn’t the perfect book for me, if you love fantasy heists, the found family trope and high stakes situations, then I’d definitely recommend adding this to your tbr.

Until We Shatter is written from the POV of Cemmy, a half-shade who spends much of her time trying to hide her existence from the Church and the Council of Shades who believe that Half-shades, or Hues as they are called here, should not exist. In this world, there are typics - people without magic- and Shades - those with magic, who operate their magic in The Gray. When a typic and a Shade have a a baby, a Hue is made. But the Council of Shades has made this illegal and Hues are hunted. And in Until We Shatter, Cemmy and her small band of found family - other Hues - are forced into a high stakes heist.

I was so excited to receive this ARC as I am huge fan of Kate Dylan and this did not disappoint. I would say that the first part can be a little tricky to get your head around as the magic system is complex and I'm not sure that I ever fully got it. However, it didn't detract hugely from my enjoyment of this. I found it a slow start to get into but by the last half, I couldn't put it down. I also wonder if my slow start with this book is because I recently read a YA fantasy heist novel (Tempest of Tea) which may have made it feel less fresh.

Things I loved:
- A true conflicted, slow-burn enemies to lovers plot line.
- Morally grey band of misfits
- Genuine high stakes that have huge consequences for all the characters
- Some compelling and unexpected twists in the final stretch
- Complex and tricky characters, all of the characters are flawed, bold and compelling - I was happy spending time with any of them.
-Beautiful writing and messaging. The quote "I am the violence the world made of me" is going to stay with me for a very long time.
- A small stage - I love fantasy books that stay in one place and this world was vividly rendered.
- I'm fully obsessed with Chase and his rainbow veins!
- The magic -the concept of the rainbow colour magic was brilliant and so compelling; I'm dazzled by it!

What stopped this from being a 5* for me:
- I found Cemmy to be very frustrating at times and am surprised her friends didn't throttle her more than once.
- Some of the reveals (the crystal, the totem) I could see coming from a long way.
- As much as I loved it, because of the complexity of the magic, I never felt fully immersed in the story in the way I would like as I felt like I was trying to catch up a lot.

Overall, this was such a good story. The magic system felt very fresh and the heist was laced with very high stakes, which really helped add tension to the story. The character development is top-notch and the message of the dangers of misinformation feels vital. I really recommend this!

I haven't been the luckiest with my reads this year (especially with ARCs) so I always dive in expecting the worst, but this book absolutely slayed.

Until we shatter is a classic YA fantasy, with a heist main plot, extremely high stakes and a found family.

The writing style is very well executed, captivating and entertaining from the very first page. The magic system, with powers based on colours, is super unique, although the worldbuilding was a little dense, especially in the first 30%.
The plot was a little predictable, but with enough twists and turns to make reaching the end really satisfying. The ending, even if it felt a bit rushed, wraps up the story very nicely.

About some things I didn't like so much, in YA novels the characters somehow always end up giving the the ick, mainly because they all make extremely stupid decisions (that might be a me problem since I'm now 22, but even when I was the "right age" I always had issues with this so...). Anyway, besides the stupidity excused by young age (I hope), the main characters all have distinct personalities and satisfying story arcs.

Overall, I had so much fun reading this book and I'm looking into other books by the same author.

A solidly plotted fantasy heist novel with a diverse cast of characters, including Deaf representation, and a few twists that caught me by surprise. Until We Shatter spent a lot more time than I expected on the set up of the heist than the heist itself, with a large focus on the relationships between characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

A magical heist with high stakes, what a fun read! While heavy topics like fear, trauma, and prejudice were present… the author did a nice job showing it.

Until We Shatter was so much fun to read! I love the pacing of the book and the writing was so dynamic, with characters that were easy to love. Looking forward to more from this author!

Magic is in the blood of Isitar and its residents, but the Council of Shades is systematically hunting down anything less than a full Shade. Cemmy and her friends are all Hues, the name given to half-Shades, forced to live and operate in the shadows, a lifestyle which lends itself to a few particular skills. The crew are dragged into a rogue Shade’s scheme to save the magic of the world, using their colour-specific magical talents, in a life or death heist with a dash of romance.

This book promises a lot for its relatively short length. The grey and the in-between magic are creative and relatively unique, and who doesn't love a found family story? The story also features queer (wlw) and disabled representation (a deaf character), although this feels a little heavy handed at times (no pun intended) when a very clunky and pointed conversation comes up about how to make it easier to communicate with said deaf character, making it very clear to all that she does not need “fixing”. The pacing was also comfortable, with no moment lingering too long, and the plot carrying on at a steady trot towards a fast climax.

The romance between Cemmy and Chase was a standout of this book. I've not read anything else by Kate Dylan but it definitely felt like this was where she was most comfortable and confident with her writing, perhaps she is used to writing more spicy scenes as it certainly felt like it was heading there at times. As the best written parts, I felt like they could have been more of a focus of the book or be given some more space. Despite this, however, the other relationships in the story felt tenuous - there was a tendency to tell rather than show how the friends felt about each other, and history was stated rather than shared in memories. It’s difficult to buy into existing relationships that started before the opening act of the story, and I don’t feel like the author particularly succeeded here.

Despite the premise of the unique magic system, I also feel that the colour/metal naming conventions were a little juvenile and not particularly helpful with reader comprehension. I’ve finished the book and I think I could only tell you what a handful of the colours actually mean (gold, bronze, maybe green?). The story would have benefited from either from simplification, or a lot more depth being given to the worldbuilding of the magic system, even to the fear of “shattering”, which should have been ever prevalent. Perhaps if there were more examples pre-Chase of the crew running jobs together, or using their talents in interesting ways.

Similarly, I struggled to remember any detail about the power structures of the city and/or world - even now, writing this review, I’m having to check back to the book to remember that they are Council (pro-Shades) and Church (anti-magic). I think it was vaguely mentioned that there were three gods, but I couldn’t tell you any other features of the Church. It seemed that they were important to the world (country?) rather than just the city, and yet the pivotal members were here in this city. The on-the-run teens also knew each Council/Church member by name and face, despite being disaffected and constantly in hiding from any of them. It felt like there was a lot of contradiction between the accessibility or transparency of the various wielders of power. In line with the colours, this could either have had more time spent explaining it, or been stripped back and simplified to fit the length of the book.

The majority of my frustration or even boredom from the book came from the above, but it also didn’t help that Cemmy just fundamentally didn’t feel like an interesting main character. She wasn’t particularly likeable, and unnecessary miscommunications were used in abundance - notably about Magdelena but another more spoiler-y plot hole (in my opinion) regarding her mother.

Unfortunately overall for me personally this book was a miss. It had a lot of promise and some of the writing was really enjoyable, but I felt on the most part like I was observing it happen outside a bubble rather than being swept up in the action. It’s been a while since I’ve read YA, and while I don’t think the issues I have with the book are a fault of the genre, I do wonder if this book would have been better given a much higher word and page-count. Perhaps I’m just not the audience for this book. I do think it deserves 3 stars as I believe there are many people who would enjoy this book, especially those who are fans of shorter, quicker stories with less detail and development.

I really loved Kate Dylan previous series, this is very different, but just as captivating.
I really love books with found family, and this had that. I really love Kaye Dylans ability to really bring her characters to life!

Kate Dylan is an auto-buy author and with her first fantasy novel, she does not disappoint! Clever world building, a gripping heist, found family ... This book was a joy to read and I enjoyed every moment!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Why do I let Kate Dylan keep doing this to me?! I honestly cannot take much more of these amazing stories with so much heartbreak but there is also so much fun too. On top of that we now have impossible heists, amazing queer and disability representation and found families with a group of misfits. It’s like Dylan is purposely drawing us in to break us and then rebuild us or should I say shatter? No I shouldn’t because I am still emotionally shaken from this book after four days of finishing it.

Needles to say I loved this book so much. The characters are perfect but also imperfect in the sense that they are very, very human. Cemmy is a dream and I loved her so much. I always seem to love Dylan’s heroines because they are so badass but also have moments of fragility and nearly always have imperfections that make them all that more likable. We don’t get the perfect chosen one trope with her heroes and this makes them perfect to me.

On top of a fantastic and memorable cast of characters and their amazing found family dynamics we have a magic system that I adored and a world that you can’t help but get hooked in. It was clear this world, story and the characters have been lovingly created and crafted to make the perfect tale.

As always with Dylan there’s a bit of heartache along the way but I think, after recovering from it, this makes the story all the better. You feel and realise how dire the world and situation is, how impossible the odds and how badass the characters for continuing on regardless of this. If you love heists, found family, magic and unforgettable characters this is for you.

Is found families, impossible heists, queer and disability representation, and magic your thing? Me too, and Kate Dylan is here ticking my boxes. Ticked my non-reader-partners boxes too, as he asked so many questions and needed updates on the plot as I read.
Really enjoyed this read, loved guessing what would happen next throughout and got it spot on a few times too.
Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Dylan and the publisher for this ARC. Desperately hoping for a pretty special edition in the future as this is too wonderful a story to stay on my kindle in pdf form!

To simply say I LOVED this book is an understatement. It took over my world for the entire duration of time it took to read it, which ended up being very little and entirely not long enough. We were promised a magical heist, and boy, was it delivered. I want to be in-between the pages again!

Cemmy is a complex character, if a little daft at times. I did not mind following her though the story at all. She's a Hue, the illegal offspring of a Shade (magic user) and Typic (human) so she doesn't have the full capability and ease of magic that her mother would have had, as an Orange, whose power is to strengthen/fortify. Instead, Cemmy is classified as a Bronze. Her special power in the Grey is physicality so she can touch things in the magic side of the world. This makes her very special as a thief, and she would be a good one, if she wasn't terrified of the Grey after an incident that caused her friend to shatter. So when this fear compromises a solo lift, Cemmy and her friends get dragged into a bit of a predicament.

Overall the world building and magic system were well done. The Shades and Hues concept, the mass scope of color power, and how the Grey was powered by a state of in-between were thoughtful and consistent. We were presented with the big picture of powers and assisted in its potential uses along the way, I think this helped to not only clarify some particular uses of the broad powers, but also acknowledge how much potential each had. I appreciated the thought that went into just how a half bloods' power might manifest in more than just less of the same power overall, but how it very specifically got diminished and presented as something singular (physical speed, touch, etc).

The main plot is the heist itself, broken into tension cycles throughout the book and leading to the big reveal. In short, it is never a dull moment. You get the big picture over smaller missions and the whole picture came together quite fluidly in my opinion. There were a few moments where you may predict at what was going on, but I was pleasantly surprised by the twists and revelations that were presented. I had many an AHA! moment right along with Cemmy. For fear of spoilers, I will leave it at that.

This works amazing as a standalone, but I would be in a desperate state to get my hands on any other book following this world. Spinoff or otherwise.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton (Hodderscape) for access to the ARC. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

Great story and characters.

The world building takes a bit to understand and can be quite confusing, but once you get to grips with the Shades and Hues etc, the story takes off.

The heist including the Grey was fun to read along with all the characters and what they could do. The romance was also great to read. I liked how the book ended too.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodderscape for giving me an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4

I wanted to love this book. It had all the components that would, in theory, make me love a book: a unique magic system; underdogs fighting an oppressive regime; found family; QUEER found family; a complicated queer relationship; multiple, on page, explicitly stated, bisexual characters! However, what this book didn’t have— that is critical for a novel like this that is trying to set up so many complicated and unique conflicts— is worldbuilding.

The author states at the beginning of the ARC that originally this story had been set in NYC, and honestly I wish it still was. This felt like a classic case of trying to do too much at once, and as a result not getting a chance to give anything the attention it deserved. For a story that focused so much on how the characters interacted with the world religiously and politically, I felt like we did not get nearly enough religious or political information to carry us through the novel. There were times when I honestly wondered if this was the second book in the series and I’d just missed some crucial context somewhere.

The near constant confusion about what was going on undercut the story that the author was trying tell. The book was interesting and unique for sure, I just wish we’d been able to learn more about the world it was set in.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.
I want to start this review with the magic system, because it's so unique and unlike anything I've ever read. Unfortunately, I feel like the way it was explained was very confusing (information would just pop up when it was convenient) and I only got it about 20% in. And although the concept is incredible, I missed some depth and wish it could have been further developed.
Another thing that wasn't executed very well was the plot twists. The ideas were great but the execution made them either too obvious or like they came out of nowhere, which made the ending very rushed.
The writing was fine. She did an amazing job with the more action packed scenes but the dialogue was lacking for me. There would also be some really fancy words once in a while that felt completely out of place.
And last but not least, the characters. I just didn't care about them (or their relationships) at all. They each felt like they had one single personality trait and the main character made some very contradictory decisions.
Unfortunately, Until We Shatter simply did not work for me execution-wise, which is a shame because I absolutely loved the premise and had high hopes.

This cover is gorgeous. I’m surprised it isn’t being offered with a fancy sprayed-edge first edition.

The kindle version is broken so leaving 5 stars. I didn’t actually get to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodderscape for the ARC.

This was a wild ride of a read, high stakes magical heist, blackmail, found family, romance. I had a great time reading it, it also broke my heart once or twice but I couldn’t put it down.

I really liked the magic system was new and innovative with the shades and hues, so I’m looking forward to being able to dive into the world more as the trilogy continues as it absolutely has to continue after that ending, if I didn’t value my kindle quite so highly I would’ve thrown it. I liked how all the little breadcrumbs throughout the book were brought together as I read through but in a manner so that I felt like I was able to just about come to the conclusion myself - when in reality I really didn’t - but not having them thrown in my face.

Highly recommend for those who like fantasy heist books and books with a sub-plot that includes romance. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

Until We Shatter is really classic YA fantasy, in a great way. It brings me back in time to the height of the genre. So while it’s not perfect, I think this is a fantastic read. It did have some of the pitfalls of early 2010’s fantasy. Cemmy made some honestly silly choices.

This book doesn’t have a lot of world building, but it can be confusing in the first 40%. And there is an in-story reason for you not understanding a lot, but I did find it frustrating at times. I think I could’ve done with certain revelations just a little bit earlier.

I really enjoyed the ride once the world building solidified in my mind. But I wish this wasn’t marketed as a heist story. When the actual heist doesn’t start until 75% of the way into the book, and wraps up within a few chapters, I feel like that’s a little misleading.

The characters really grew on me. Her clear main love interest felt a little flat and off at times, like they’re we’re going for an enemies to lovers but the dynamic never really came to life? He fell a little flat for me, but the further I got, the more I did like him, and the rest of Cemmy’s little group. (I don’t know why, but I do really dislike the spelling of Cemmy.)

Solid 4⭐️!

This book sounded really promising and did certainly deliver on some points- fast-paced action, cool magic system etc. However, something about it wasn't for me- the nicknames for all the characters got on my nerves, and I found the main character annoying. The world and magic system, although interesting, were also info dumped at the start of the book, making that section quite dense, and this is coming from someone who usually loves complicated magic systems and plots. 3.5 stars overall.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This book was more than a sci-fi romance, it was an emotional ride. The setting was amazing and romance just as fantastic, if not more. Seriously, I couldn’t help but root for them, the whole time I was reading this book.