Astrid Hawk
Six morally gray killers are recruited to work together in a plot to commit regicide against a brutal god-king and place one of the six on the throne instead. Each has their own dark secrets in their past that motivate them to participate in this quest, and each brings unique skills to the game. With that setup, it *should* have been a really interesting story that practically compelled me to keep turning the pages... but somehow it fell short.
The book follows their individual (well, paired) paths to join the group for the first half, and then follows the group's journey and coup attempt for the second half. I found the first half, while the group is split up into 3 pairs doing different things, a bit dull. Each pair encounters some drama along the way that challenges them to work together, but ultimately they feel like isolated incidents. They have no real bearing on the rest of the story beyond allowing the characters to showcase their skills, develop their personalities a bit better for the reader, and test/grow their bonds. But the incidents themselves feel like side quests that never really get tied back in at the end - especially Euyn's and Mikail's.
The story is told from each of the 6 characters' perspectives - some get more narrative time than others, but all are told in 1st person present tense. Unfortunately, all of their inner voices sound extremely similar. Royo uses "tough guy" speak, occasionally using "ain't" and sometimes mismatched subject/verb agreement (e.g. "it don't matter none") - but it isn't consistent, and feels jarring when it happens. Aeri occasionally has a bubbly, spritely inner voice, but it's also not consistent. The rest of them all sounded the same to me, and if you didn't read the chapter titles (which include the narrator's name and their location) it was possible to lose track of who was narrating when they were all in a group together.
It didn't help that most of the chapters were extremely short, some only 3 pages, and few in the 10-12 page range. There was little overlap in the timeline between one character's chapter and the next - more overlap might have helped add more opportunities for intrigue or puzzle solving, since it would have helped the narrators seem more reliable than they were. Instead, it felt a bit like they were sharing a camera, passing it between them from moment to moment, and the story felt a bit disjointed. In many cases, the perspective switch didn't really add much value.
Where most books earn the title of romantasy because they're really romance stories with a fantasy setting, this book actually features THREE romantic pairings. Fortunately, although this sounds like 3x the romantic nightmare, the author does a good job of making the dynamics of each relationship different - and none really overtakes the story or any of the individual characters. Euyn and Mikail's relationship is especially challenging (which makes it more compelling), as they are wrestling with class differences and the fact that they are both killers with strong self-interest. They think they love each other, but they also know that they won't sacrifice themselves or their individual goals for their love for the other. It's an interesting dynamic to watch, and I found it refreshing compared to the usual romantasy tripe.
I found it an enjoyable enough story over all, with plenty of secrets to slowly reveal (and a few saved for the next book) - it just wasn't as riveting as I thought it could have been from the premise. I'll likely read the next one to see where the series goes. While I'm not particularly attached to any of the characters or their relationships (slightly disappointing), I'm still interested in the group overall and their path to learning to be a found family.
Six morally gray killers are recruited to work together in a plot to commit regicide against a brutal god-king and place one of the six on the throne instead. Each has their own dark secrets in their past that motivate them to participate in this quest, and each brings unique skills to the game. With that setup, it *should* have been a really interesting story that practically compelled me to keep turning the pages... but somehow it fell short.
The book follows their individual (well, paired) paths to join the group for the first half, and then follows the group's journey and coup attempt for the second half. I found the first half, while the group is split up into 3 pairs doing different things, a bit dull. Each pair encounters some drama along the way that challenges them to work together, but ultimately they feel like isolated incidents. They have no real bearing on the rest of the story beyond allowing the characters to showcase their skills, develop their personalities a bit better for the reader, and test/grow their bonds. But the incidents themselves feel like side quests that never really get tied back in at the end - especially Euyn's and Mikail's.
The story is told from each of the 6 characters' perspectives - some get more narrative time than others, but all are told in 1st person present tense. Unfortunately, all of their inner voices sound extremely similar. Royo uses "tough guy" speak, occasionally using "ain't" and sometimes mismatched subject/verb agreement (e.g. "it don't matter none") - but it isn't consistent, and feels jarring when it happens. Aeri occasionally has a bubbly, spritely inner voice, but it's also not consistent. The rest of them all sounded the same to me, and if you didn't read the chapter titles (which include the narrator's name and their location) it was possible to lose track of who was narrating when they were all in a group together.
It didn't help that most of the chapters were extremely short, some only 3 pages, and few in the 10-12 page range. There was little overlap in the timeline between one character's chapter and the next - more overlap might have helped add more opportunities for intrigue or puzzle solving, since it would have helped the narrators seem more reliable than they were. Instead, it felt a bit like they were sharing a camera, passing it between them from moment to moment, and the story felt a bit disjointed. In many cases, the perspective switch didn't really add much value.
Where most books earn the title of romantasy because they're really romance stories with a fantasy setting, this book actually features THREE romantic pairings. Fortunately, although this sounds like 3x the romantic nightmare, the author does a good job of making the dynamics of each relationship different - and none really overtakes the story or any of the individual characters. Euyn and Mikail's relationship is especially challenging (which makes it more compelling), as they are wrestling with class differences and the fact that they are both killers with strong self-interest. They think they love each other, but they also know that they won't sacrifice themselves or their individual goals for their love for the other. It's an interesting dynamic to watch, and I found it refreshing compared to the usual romantasy tripe.
I found it an enjoyable enough story over all, with plenty of secrets to slowly reveal (and a few saved for the next book) - it just wasn't as riveting as I thought it could have been from the premise. I'll likely read the next one to see where the series goes. While I'm not particularly attached to any of the characters or their relationships (slightly disappointing), I'm still interested in the group overall and their path to learning to be a found family.