I really wanted to love this book. I saw it on netgalley and after requesting to read an advance copy, my request was granted.

I did not love this book, but I did like it. I like the idea of sylphs and winged creatures. I didn't really feel much for any of the characters though which kind of made me not really care of their dates throughout.

When I started reading it, I have to admit, during the opening scene, I almost put it down. I actually thought the grammar and writing was very poor, but strangely it was only like this for that first opening scene during the battle, then the writing got so much better that for a little while I was convinced that the beginning was written by someone else entirely.

As I said though, it gets much better and o was quickly drawn in. Quite fast paced once you get into it and well worth a read. I am looking forward to more titles by the author

One of the books I think everyone should read is THE ONE WHO COULD NOT FLY. It is a fantasy that has a YA feel and it’s so good.
A girl who wings too small to carry her is kidnapped by humans she didn’t know existed. Can she survive?

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for gifting me a free digital copy of this book!

The One Who Could Not Fly surprised me with how much I ended up loving it.

This book follows the main character Ravenna, who grew up ostracised amongst the sylphs because of her small, deformed wings and unusual colouring. Pretty early on in the book she gets captured by humans, beings that are supposed to be a myth to her people, and sold into slavery.
She's thrust into this unfamiliar world where she has to learn how to adapt to the ways of humans and by doing that also look inwards. She has to determine if humans are like the nightmares described in her people's legends or if they're not all that different and what that means.

I was invested in this book right after I finished reading the prologue. I was never bored and immediately liked Ravenna as a main character. I rooted for her from the beginning and seeing her growth and character development in just book 1 was amazing to read.
Her relationship with Tacitus was one of my favourite things in this book. I'm a sucker for mentor type characters and I ended up really loving him.

I absolutely loved the plot of this book and how everything came together in the end. It was really well-paced and not once did it feel like it dragged to me. From the synopsis alone, I didn't know where the story was going to exactly. Suffice to say that I was pleasantly surprised with where it went and expanded.

The world-building was one of my favourite things of this book. The way everything was described made the world feel so tangible and real. From the clothes to the food to the environment to the political structure of the world.

I was a big fan of the writing style too. Not too complicated and really easy to read.

There is also a romance in this book that I absolutely fell in love with. Ravenna and Miska are so cute together omg. Is it kinda insta-lovey? Maybe. Do I care? Absolutely not.

Miska is another character that is just so easy to love. He is like this big cinnamon roll that just wants to do good and I just love him and I want to give him a hug. He also happens to be deaf because of a past injury and I wanted to point that out and not just erase that aspect of his character.

We're also introduced to Queen Lenore of the Red Desert and suprise surprise...I loved her too. I love her kindness and strength and her love for her people and I can't wait to learn more about her.

I also quickly wanted to talk about Davorin, the villain of the story. I loved his chapters because of the amount of political intrigue and further exploration of his character and his motivations. In his chapters we're also introduced to his sister and I hate that I don't remember her name anymore but I loved her so much. I also thought that the way Ravenna and Davorin's story lines were intertwined was cleverly done.

The ending of this book was pretty explosive and I did not see it coming at all. It ends on a buy cliffhanger that makes you want to pick up the sequel immediately. I might have already bought the second book and I can't wait to read it.

I'm just so grateful for Netgalley for putting this book on my radar because I wouldn't have known about it otherwise. This book is sooo underrated it hurts. I hope that this book gets the hype it deserves soon because it really was incredible.

I loved this novel ! It's pretty unusual to read about sylphs and I loved that aspect. Ravenna had an amazing journey, she becomes stronger and realizes so many things about herself, the other sylphs and the humans. I wasn't fond of the romantic relationship, even if we don't see it for long. I would have preferred for the characters to remain friends, but oh well. Davorin was a good villain. He seemed "better" than his brother, but in the end he was as cruel and power-thirsty as him. I didn't really catch what he's done to Nadezhda, hopefully I will understand it better in the second volume. I just got that it wasn't good. I'm so excited to read the rest of this series, even more so that we will probably see dragons !

Diversity : I think Ravenna was the only white character, deaf character
TW : violence, blood, death

this was a great start to a series, I enjoyed getting to go on this journey and meeting the characters in this world. It was so well done and I enjoyed the way the author writes.