Thank you to NetGalley and the author for this eARC!

In this romantasy, we follow a Raven Prince named Lorcan. His jealous cousin concocts a plan to get rid of him, as he wishes to take his place as heir to the throne. Lorcan finds himself kidnapped and sold into slavery, but twists of fate allow him to find love within his miserable situation.

This story was an interesting mix of history and mythology, with queer characters. It also has a different take on the fated mates trope which was enjoyable. I believe the ideas behind it were quite good, and it makes for an easy read.

The problem, to me, lies in execution. It felt like the author was telling, not showing. Very little was ever written about the MC’s feelings, making it impossible for me to get attached to him. The writing was too direct, with almost no descriptions, which didn’t allow me to visualize settings. The different problems facing the characters had very quick and easy resolutions, meaning that tension didn’t have the time to build. All of this sadly made it impossible for me to feel or care about the characters and the plot.

To me, good writing is when I don’t notice I’m reading. But this book made me notice. I wasn’t able to let myself be pulled into the story. I do recommend it though for readers who enjoy the myths around the Morrigan and shape-shifting to crows, or for readers who don’t mind writing that doesn’t follow the “show, don’t tell” technique.

This book is a mix of YA and NA with simple, straight-forward world building and characters with a bisexual lead who has both a female and male mate — though Tavi, his would-be other lover is given very little attention or time and most of the focus is on Lorcan and Livia. Tavi is also shown as jealous and petty, while Livia is open minded and Lorcan devoted to her. I can nonly hope in the following books Tavi is given a chance to be more of a character. I do appreciate that Livia is not ashamed of her past, either as a slave, or as a woman who has had partners before.

The story itself is … fine. Everything is laid out in a straight forward manner with very little nuance. People are, for the most part, good and kind, treating the slaves kindly and with respect. Even the cruel slave who tries to kill Lorcan is brought back so Lorcan can show his merciful side. All in all, this book is … well, fine. The writing is solid, the pace is good and while it’s a little uninspiring, it’s also not offensive.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

very thoughtful and descriptive start to this book which grabs you on to it to find out more and to see what will happen next. It’s full of suspense and mystery. I really like reading this book and I can say it’s surely does hook into you. The only reason why I gave 4 stars is purely because a lot of characters get introduced at the same time and this ruins a lot of character and story building. It can confuse you at times remembering all the characters. Overal a good solid read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Riverdale Avenue for sending me this eARC for review.

I was on the lookout for some gladiator romance, and I saw this book mentioned gladiators as well as raven shifters and immediately requested it. The actual fantasy/shifting is not a huge part of this book except in the beginning (maybe it will feature more in future books, since there is definitely more to come).

The best part about this book is definitely the historical attention to detail, especially once Lorcan, the MMC, is in Rome. If you love learning about gladiator fighting/training, there is so much of that. When there is action, it's really great! I really felt immersed in the world, and I wouldn't call this writing flowery or overindulgent at all.

I did have a hard time with the romance aspect, partially because this is a fated mates romance and it's very insta-love. However, even with it being a fated mates, I feel like we could have had more depth to the character relationships. It also felt like Lorcan just won everybody over in Rome very easily with very little difficulty. He really doesn't struggle there at all except in minor ways--he has a decent "master," is allowed to be with his lover(s), and overcomes any hurdles with ease since people just seem to like him, really.

I also realized later on that there is apparently a prequel book to this, which is very apparent as you meet a lot of characters in the beginning of the book that already have a backstory. I would be very interested in reading the prequel to learn more about Morrigan, and Lorcan's family dynamics and how they came into their shifting powers, because I felt like a was missing some things when I first started reading this. It wasn't too much of an issue, but it was apparent to me.

With all that being said, this was a super entertaining book, and I usually would not go for a book with an MMC having fated mates/lovers, but the three of them made sense together and were very sweet. I loved that in this world, it is just completely normal for same-sex attraction. There was no drama about it at all. I'm looking forward to reading the next book!

I'd like to start this out with what attracted me to read this book. The raven on the cover, and then it became the book summary. I happen to LOVE ravens, they are one of my favorite birds and are far more intelligent than man gives them credit for. Add in that the summary mentioned a Raven Shifter! I opened the book and found I quickly consumed it. I had moment of laughing out loud, utter shock and just an outright WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?!? moment during my read through of this.

The story was able to paint a scene in my head along with what I was reading. The author did a great job with being able to help imagine and feel like I could be part of that action. They made me gasp and feel joy for things that happened with Lorcan. I loved the mixture of the worlds we got between Eire and Rome and the different cultures.

The time we spend with Lorcan we see him love, we see him through lose and betrayal. We find him as a slave and without his sense of self. His fights as a Gladiator after being sold and the hope he brings to others in Rome was great to be a part of. I got to a point where I just couldn't put this book down. I kept having hope, I kept disliking Cormac. I am hoping to be able to find out what happened to the rest of his home and kin.

This book actually exceeded my expectations! The speech in the book while other's I know would dislike it, I found that it made sense as the language being represented would be different, spoken differently as well as the MMC didn't know the language either so it would make sense to have it feel like it stumbled at times. I liked this. I loved getting to know the tidbits we do about his Flock and being a Raven shifter. The characters were characters I could enjoy spending my time with as well as being able to understand why they were doing the things they did. The good guys made me root for the good guys, while wanting to fight alongside Lorcan for the things that happened to him. The even better guys....... Made me internally cheer and root even louder for them. I loved the action we got and the balance between the plot and any of the romance.

I absolutely loved that this was not a FMC based book and that it was in fact a MMC. I don't commonly come across books that are just the MMC as the lead. This is his story, his love, his world. Lorcan is a strong and smart guy, and he has an interesting sense of humor. The way his speech comes off to me is definitely a distant land, a different time. He thinks so poorly of himself and that he can't be a true raven, which makes me dislike Cormac even more than I already did. I hope Lorcan get's his retribution in the long run and can save his home. I will be reading the next book! Please keep this one coming, I cannot wait to experience more with Lorcan, hoping for his return home and the swift (but not to swift just because Cormac deserves it) beat down of his cousin.

It was interesting to google a few things and find that Roman wedding ceremonies were fairly fairly similar to that which was mentioned in the book, and such and I feel like the author did some decent research. I couldn't find anything that contradicted itself or proved inaccurate in the little bit I looked. I'm going to be adding this one to my trophy bookshelf one day hopefully and am patiently waiting for the next book!

For those that are curious... There is MM in this book. There is I would say 1.5 scenes between MM, 1 towards the beginning and one midway through that doesn't actually go towards the act. The other scenes I would say it was maybe 4 or 5 between MF. In this respect they were not overly drawn out, they were present and enough to give to the story rather than take away. I love both sides of the romance that we got and I'm hoping that the other half will develop. This book does have Fated Mates so it can be fairly insta-love but they do truly start to build a connection that you get to start to see blossom.

Thank you to NetGalley and Riverdale Avenue for sending me this eARC for review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Riverdale Avenue for sending me this book for review. All opinions are my own.
Raven's Fall is a sensual, low-fantasy with the thrill and tension of Ancient Rome at it's centre. Schechter immerses the reader in this period of history through observations on societal structure and the use of Latin terminology. This was especially effective during our protagonist Lorcan's time training to be a gladiator, in which the various fighting styles are explained and described with the right amount of detail to be digestible without becoming confusing. A heartwarming family dynamic is developed between Lorcan and the other slaves which nicely contrasted the intensity of the gladiator action scenes. I particularly enjoyed his friendship with Yaroah, and would have liked to learn more about his backstory, however this might be something introduced in subsequent books in the series. I felt the build up to the romances could have been stronger as the love and connection was instant, although I appreciate this can be difficult to navigate when using the fated mates trope. That being said, once the love interests knew each other better I found their dynamics endearing and enjoyable to root for. This book does contain explicit open-door scenes making it more suitable for older audiences. The fantasy element involving ravens was appealing, and I would have enjoyed more worldbuilding with regards to the Morrigan as a goddess and how her lineage works. We were introduced to a lot of characters very quickly in the initial chapters which was confusing since they do not appear for the rest of the book, but I expect this was laying the foundations for Lorcan's family becoming more prominent characters in future installments. Nonetheless, we get to know the flock through Lorcan's reminiscing, and I enjoyed the socio-political commentary established through comparison between Eire and Ancient Rome, and the practice of using slaves as gladiators; "they hate and fear us because of what they made us".