Hello Sweet Friends :)
I pray today finds you all doing well, and I'm so thankful you've taken the time to drop on by The Preppy Book Princess today for another book review.
Young Adult Fiction used to be one of my all time favorite genres, and yet lately, I've found this genre to be pretty hit or miss for me personally.
I'm not a fan of the darker content starting to make it's way much more often into this genre, and often I'm left quite disappointed with how often this ends up being the case.
I recently had the chance to read a new to me fantasy title from an author I've enjoyed in the past, and today I can't wait to tell you all about the experience.
Keep reading down below for today's full review.
Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye:
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Publication Date: January 22nd, 2019
Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Circle of Shadows
Synopsis:
A thrilling new fantasy series full of magic and betrayal—from Evelyn Skye, New York Times bestselling author of the Crown’s Game series.
Sora can move as silently as a ghost and hurl throwing stars with lethal accuracy. Her gemina, Daemon, can win any physical fight blindfolded and with an arm tied around his back. They are apprentice warriors of the Society of Taigas—marked by the gods to be trained in magic and the fighting arts to protect the kingdom of Kichona.
As their graduation approaches, Sora and Daemon look forward to proving themselves worthy of belonging in the elite group—but in a kingdom free of violence since the Blood Rift Rebellion many years ago, it’s been difficult to make their mark.
So when Sora and Daemon encounter a strange camp of mysterious soldiers while on a standard scouting mission, they decide the only thing to do to help their kingdom is to infiltrate the group. Taking this risk will change Sora’s life forever—and lead her on a mission of deception that may fool everyone she’s ever loved.
Love, spies, and adventure abound as Sora and Daemon unravel a complex web of magic and secrets that might tear them—and the entire kingdom—apart forever.
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
I had previously loved The Crown's Game and The Crown's Fate by Evelyn Skye, and was looking forward to diving into another fantasy series by her. Unfortunately, this one ended up being nothing like what I was expecting, and honestly, felt like it wasn't even written by the same author.
While the world building and the magical system were both original and intriguing, I found the plot and characters to be kind of lackluster and hard to follow. The story is quite slow moving, and this ended up taking me a lot longer to finish than is even remotely normal for me.
The plot mainly revolves around a group of warriors who have basically been chosen by "the gods" to keep the kingdom safe. Of course, our two main characters fall within this division, and are the first to notice something's not right about a group of people emerging on the boundaries. Nobody wants to take Spirit or Wolf seriously when they voice their concerns, and now it's up to two of them, plus two other taiga warriors Fairy and Broomstick to try and keep the kingdom from the group of evil warriors whose magic has never met its match.
While the potential was definitely there for a fantastic story, Circle of Shadows fell short for me personally. The story is much darker than Skye's previous duology, and certain passages definitely made me uncomfortable and not wanting to continue on. As a Christian reader, I don't personally enjoy books where the gods and goddesses play a big role, and I thought this could have been done much better without that. Lastly, there were a couple of big plot twists throughout the story, but I'd unfortunately pieced together both of them from hints given quite early on in the story.
Final Rating: 2/5.
Great potential and world building, but the rest of the story fell short and I also didn't appreciate the foreshadowing that a love triangle may continue on in the second book.
I would personally recommend The Crown's Game over this one, and I'm not sure at this point if I'm interested enough to continue on with the next book or not.
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
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