But For The Mountains

Honest Review in exchange for an ARC copy of this book thanks to Netgalley! All opinions expressed are solely my own.

Erin Riha is certainly a writer of skill. I enjoyed this book once I was able to throw myself in, I found the opening slightly confusing and too vague to be of interest, but once I pursued, I enjoyed it a lot more. People compare this a lot to The Selection... I have to admit, The Selection is definitely one of my biggest guilty pleasures; as such I know it well enough to easily see the commonalities between the two books (and their eventual series). And I agree. This is very similar in concept, but I knew that going in, what I didn't know is how quickly it would attempt (fairly successfully at points) to turn this into a redemption of self-worth for our MC.

Arden. I love love love that name, and in a way it totally suits her. Arden, to my knowledge, comes from a meaning of “High” and sometimes “High Beauty”, or “High Value”. Which to me, is a compliment to our MC's virtue. Here we have an MC that is no damn damsel in distress, but a young woman who's had stuff chucked her way since she was a kid, and still stood strong, finding a way through and on, not just collapsing in a heap or onto a mans shoulders as they do for disney. She's not the most relateable MC, but I still enjoyed her as a character immensely. It's a shame side characters like Zerah weren't given more of a relationship with our MC as I would have found that deeply intriguing and interesting for their perspectives to grow. I love that the ‘sidekick' or closest to that, was written in a strong woman who has a mask to the world but still has an obvious archilles heel. No more of those powderpuff girls who act like they've never had brains, here we see an array of DIFFERENT women, each with their own personalities. Now, I have to follow that up with the disappointment that for so many of those characters there was a bitter rivalry that felt secondary to the goings on of the book. Mainly because it would have been ever more so interesting for their to be some woman/woman power instead of just more of the misogynistic world we are so familiar with. Though that leads me to the positive point; that this writer addresses the misogyny at multiple times within our MC's narration, and gives Arden the “hell naw” energy we've been missing in the books of authors prior. My biggest disappointment? The Pirate man. He was a freaking asshole, and his crew weren't life changing just different. AND I am so, so so so so done with bloody love triangles. And it felt so over done and over played with the whole “oh it felt different with him” vibes and “oh but i dont know what that means”... just ENOUGH. Please. In regards to the sensitive matters dealt within of rape/assault and violence etc, I think they were covered and dealt with with grace. I find many authors struggle with this sensitive material and make it too fantastical, or horror story like and unrealistic, and I struggle to read the graphic depictions attempted by other writers. Here, it feels realistic and repulsive, and CJ... CJ is the man we all want to punch in the face, and the two personas shown within society are crafted well, cleverly, and believable. Overall, I enjoyed this book and found it an interesting read, but the forced love triangle (with a toxic member, a sensitive wanting to learn member who is basically an aside story, and a member recovering from something as drastic as Arden), lack of interesting connections between characters, and fairly standard and basic world building, leads me to a score of 2.5/5 stars. I'm not sure I'll read the sequel or continuing books unless I find myself bored.