**Book Reviews**

I recently finished reading and discussing some books with my household book club, and I wanted to share my thoughts on each of them.

**The first book was from a series called Supernatural Politics**

One of the books I read this month was part of the Supernatural Politics series. In this series, the main character Kate is pulled into a world of supernatural politics, where there are werewolves, shifters, vampires, necromancers, and many other mythological creatures. The story follows Kate as she navigates these different factions and tries to uncover the truth about her past. I really enjoyed this book because it was like a mystery story that tied into the meta plot of the bigger bad that Kate will eventually have to fight. This series is known for its intricate world-building, complex characters, and slow-burning romance, which were all on full display in this installment.

**Romance Developments**

One of the things I loved about this book was the development of the romance element. The main character's love interests are two idiots who have a hard time falling in love with each other, but despite their stubbornness, they're both lovable and relatable. Their romance was a highlight of the story for me, as it was sweet and tender, but also had its share of tension and conflict.

**Overall Impression**

Overall, I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It was an enjoyable read that added to my understanding of the Supernatural Politics series and Kate's journey. The romance development was a major highlight for me, and I appreciated how the author handled the complexities of the characters' emotions.

**The Sword of Kigen by ML Wang**

The second book I read this month was "The Sword of Kigen" by ML Wang, which was our household book club pick. This is a standalone fantasy novel set in an Asian-inspired world with modern technology and elements of feudal Japan. The story follows a woman named Mei, who is married to a man with a troubled past, and their teenage son, who discovers that their family's life is not what it seems.

**Trigger Warnings**

Before reading this book, I want to warn that there are trigger warnings for rape, death of a child, war, sexism, and misogyny. These themes are present throughout the story and can be distressing at times.

**A Different World**

One of the things that struck me about this world is how different it is from our own. The society in which Mei lives is structured around traditional values, with women expected to take on certain roles and expectations. This is a far cry from modern-day society, where women have more freedom and autonomy.

**Character Work**

While I appreciated the character work that was present in this book, particularly in the second half of the story, I felt that it could have been fleshed out more. Some characters were underdeveloped or lacked depth, which made it hard to become invested in their stories.

**World-Building and Pacing**

I also found the pacing of this book to be a bit slow at times, particularly in the beginning. There was also a lot of world-building that felt like info-dumping, which can be overwhelming at times. While I appreciated the Asian-inspired setting and magic system, it felt like there were too many elements being introduced all at once.

**Potential for Growth**

Despite its flaws, I think this author has potential for growth and development. The writing was sometimes clumsy or unclear, but also showed flashes of brilliance. With editing and a team behind them, I believe ML Wang could produce something truly special in the future.

**Overall Impression**

I would give "The Sword of Kigen" 3.5 out of 5 stars. While it had some enjoyable moments and intriguing world-building, it was ultimately disappointing due to pacing issues, underdeveloped characters, and a lack of polish. Despite its flaws, I think this author has potential for growth, and I'm excited to see what they'll produce in the future.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Sam and this is my March wrap up March flew by it was like a really weird reading month for me but uh I got a lot more red than I thought that I was going to so let's get into it also I'm using a new mic like an external mic because a lot of you have said and I know that the sound in this room is not great so you let me know if this sounds better I will know once I start editing it um but you also let me know what your thoughts are hopefully it's better or fingers crossed I completed seven books in March and dnf'd one I'll just talk about my dnf really quick it was The Luminaries by Susan Dennard at about 70 pages when this book is not very long so the fact that I couldn't really push through it I think says something but this is the first book in a why a modern fantasy like contemporary fantasy duology it has a lot of elements that I thought I was going to really like like the mystical Woods where monsters pop up and they're Monster Hunters and whatever but this was written so juvenile to me like this was definitely very young y a where her other series the witchland series is very much like an older why a series in my opinion and just is more elevated than this and so I did not resonate with this the there's this whole like I think that really sticks out to me so there's whole clan naming system where everyone takes the last name of the day of the week that they go hunting on but none of them are like related really like it's like a whole thing there's just a lot of very very juvenile um trophy things going on it just I could not hear less so as much as this is a beautiful cover and the story sounds like something that would resonate with me very much didn't so dnf to this one so the first book I actually finished in March was Leviathan Wakes by James S.A Corey I am re-reading the books in the expanse series which is a series that I've already read so I think I've read the first three so that I can continue with the rest of the series of which they're eight or nine so this is the first book that primarily follows Holden who is uh Captain James Holden he's the captain of this ship that gets involved in this kind of conspiracy-ish thing where his ship that's just an ice carrying ship gets attacked uh this is in the far future where we have colonized um the like all the way out to like Saturn and Pluto and whatever like the asteroid belts we colonize asteroid belt um there are people colonizing Mars there's all of these like different people and there's all of these interplanetary politics and so this screw is just like a ragtag crew that brings ice from Saturn's rings back and their ship something that will get stuck in the situation gets destroyed and so they get pulled into this like crazy plot of like political things and whatever meanwhile there is detective Miller who is an asteroid belt police officer detective basically and he gets tasked with trying to find this like missing woman uh and there's also this like weird virus thing that's gotten released so this is just the start of the series which is very long very epic Sci-Fi series and we're following both of those characters I remembered a lot of this first book more so than the next two in the series that I forgot a lot of for some reason I think because I read them primarily in like 2019 and 2020 when my brain was not soaking up information but this one I read earlier than that so I remembered a lot of it I liked it much more on reread keep in mind there are triggers in here for some really juicy body horror and uh mentions of rape and things so this is a little bit heavier in some of the descriptions that I even remember but I really dug this uh I'm glad we're back in this world this was a solid four stars when I think when I first read it it was like a 3.5 I found more to like about it this time around uh probably now having been in the world a little bit longer it was just kind of nostalgic to reread so looking forward to continuing with this series then I read the last graduate by Naomi novik this is the second book in The scolo Man series which is an adult fantasy series that takes place in a magical school where everyone sends their children because Magic kids are a attractant to these mouths they're basically called it's it's these Monsters of all different types they'll basically eat children for their Mana for their power uh and so the safer option is to send them to the scholomance which is this magical school that basically trains them slash tries to kill them but it's safer there with and monsters are there too is safer than out in the real world so that's what the first book is about can't talk much about the second book because it would spoil a lot of the first book but I've done a spoiler free review for this book if you're interested in my thoughts on it I didn't like this one quite as much as the first one it felt a little bit filler to me much more World building stuff I mean the World building in this series is pretty heavy and I like the World building but I wish we would have gotten a little bit more some of the character stuff I continue to like the characters and I didn't think it was at all bad and what it's setting up for the final book I think will be really interesting but this wasn't just quite as strong for me as the first book was so I gave this one still a 4 out of 5 stars there are continued triggers in here for Gore and body horror but if you read the first book you probably know that but yeah there are parts of the beginning that kind of dragged a little bit and it just felt like a lot of World building for a second book we just got a lot more than even the first and the first is pretty heavy World building but I still enjoyed it I think part of the fun of this series is the World building so overall I plan on finishing with this series 4 out of 5 Stars Then surprisingly I read Serpent and Dove by Shelby Marin this is a book I've had on many a TBR I actually did a spoiler-free review for this as well a lot of you thought that I'd already read it because I've mentioned it so many times about being skeptical about reading it but this is the first book in Hawaii fantasy Trilogy that follows a witch and a witch hunter and things happen that make them need to get married and sort of like an arranged marriage thing she knows he's a witch hunter he does not know that she's a witch and there's a lot of political machinations it's taking place in sort of like a fantasy France and she is running from everything her past all this stuff um and the Witchcraft in here is like very dark so there's a lot going on with that but people really talk about it for the romance I ended up kind of enjoying this in a cotton candy read kind of way I flew through this I actually enjoyed the world the first little part of it I wasn't sure about but because she uses a lot of like French words as World building and I find that really annoying but she stops doing that like pretty soon into the story and then the actual magic of the witches I found really cool so it is darker there are triggers in here for self-harm scars and blood so there's a use of sort of like blood magic there's a use of um if you're doing kind of magic you need to have given something to make some kind of sacrifice yourself in order to get the magical thing but I tend to like when there's a trade-off with magic I think that works really well and is really cool and I just liked the witches and like their powers and machinations with them and all that uh I like the romance just fine I think it could have actually been a little bit more Slow Burn for how much hype there is around this being like an enemies to lover Slow Burn it could have been way slower burn than it was but it was still enjoyable I still pulled for them but I don't know if it's going to pull me through three books of a series but this first one was enjoyable for me I think like a 3.75 and I do plan to continue but I'm not like super invested in if the second book does not live up to I don't know the just the fun of this then I will dnf it then I read the parable of the sewer by Octavia is on audio this is the first book or I think I think it's a duology the first book in a Sci-Fi like near future apocalyptic duology it follows the main character who is part of a almost like cult-like Evangelical part of society um in actually supposed to be like 2024 but this was written I think in the 90s so in a near future now you know um where things are really going to um The World Is Not Safe uh Society is kind of collapsing and very much like late late stage capitalism and all this and we're following her she has different beliefs that aren't based around any different kind of religion where she really wants to like leave Earth and she feels like Earth is like we should be done with it and this really oddly enough I didn't really know what I was getting into when I got into this or just no activity Butler is like very well loved in the Sci-Fi Community this was much more uh free slash during apocalyptic didn't really feel very sci-fi there's elements of sci-fi in that our main character can also like feel other people's like experience on people's pain um in a way that is like it's like a science ability kind of um but this is much more of a slice of Life Journey than anything really epic it's much more of this like day to day them um having to form their own way having to build community um lots of really messy stuff happens there are trigger warnings in here for fire rape death of children just death in general um like animal abuse and stuff sexism and some pedophilia or basically following these people as they're trying to like Forge a life and like have hope uh and then the second book seems like it might get slightly more sci-fi I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with this this was just fine for me I could definitely see Octavia Butler like as a good author but this kind of just like slice of Lifey uh sci-fi that is this like I don't know it's just very dark um and sad and like in the same vein as like a Margaret Atwood and some of those where you're just kind of like this looks like really realistic and I just can't like I don't know um there's pieces of Hope but I don't know if it's quite enough for me so uh this was fine again I can see the writing skill here uh but I get about like a 3.5 much more sort of theme and quiet character work Focus than I was necessarily expecting then it was shiftathon so I end up finishing two books during shift-a-thon the first was Blue Moon by Laurel K Hamilton a continued reread for me for the Anita Blake Series this is book eight eight or nine I think I'm just kind of losing track of the numbers when we're getting this high and this is a continuation of a lot of the building of the meta plot of the character stuff introducing new characters introducing much more of the erotica elements or popping more into this um I've mentioned it before but this is a series that starts out it's very much urban fantasy um some like Supernatural police procedural type Vibes and as the series goes on gets much more erotica focused um and the erotica is like pulled into the magic basically it's like part of the magic system we're not quite to the part where it gets like to be the whole plot but we're moving towards it so this one was like not my favorite of all of them just because I feel like it's a little bit messy there's like so many things going on and so many elements being brought in in a way that was just a little bit overwhelming this one's also super dark there's trigger warnings in here for rape Gore possession and lots of body horror like they need to believe series is probably of all the urban fantasies that I've read the closest to horror so let's just find a three stars for me it's enjoyable just because I have Nostalgia for this series and I like these characters and whatever but um nothing like not my favorite about the installments and things uh but I will continue to read the series and then next I Read Magic bleeds by Alana Andrews this is the fourth book in the Kate Daniels series uh which is another urban fantasy series that follows Kate Daniels who is part of again sort of like a magical police force-ish but she also used to be a mercenary and she's gotten very very involved in this fantasy Atlanta where sometimes Tech is up and like sciencey stuff and Technology works and sometimes magic is up and that's when like all the magical stuff happens and there's werewolves and shifters and vampires and necromancers and different mythological creatures and everything um but she's gotten pulled into all of these Supernatural politics of this world and this is a continuation of that so again we usually have some kind of like mystery story that is now tying into the meta plot of sort of like the big bad that Kate will eventually have to fight and so we're getting much more of these connections this one was really fun we also got uh a really big step forward in the romance element here which was really enjoyable because there's is these two idiots who have a really hard time falling in love with each other and uh just need to communicate but they're both stubborn dumb dumbs and I love them so this was very fun four out of 5 stars and lastly this month I read the sword of kigen by ml Wang this one was our household book club pick for this month so there is already a live show up that we did recently so I will link that on the screen for more of my in-depth thoughts but this is a man this is so hard to kind of explain actually this is a self-published fantasy novel that is it's a standalone but it's kind of a part of a series like it's almost companiony but you don't have to write the series I didn't but I'll talk about that in a second um and this is kind of based on almost like a feudal Japan like an Asian inspired setting um a East Asian kind of inspired setting but it's also modern day like they have Tech and stuff and it's not our world it's like a different world it's all very kind of confusing but we're following this one family primarily this woman and then her teenage son um as the son is discovering more things about like this Empire and that not everything is exactly as he thinks it is she knows that but is in a place where she can't necessarily talk about it she has this more violent past that is not allowed because now she's a housewife and she's supposed to be a mom um so a very like structured Society uh and we just kind of Follow that for a portion of their lives and how this ties into the greater world this is also darker there are trigger warnings here for rape death of a child war and just sexism and misogyny within this culture this was a bit too long uh definitely a book that you can tell us I'll publishing that it really did need more of a heavy edit and like I mentioned it's advertised as a standalone everyone tends to read it as a standalone but there are so many elements of the plot here that tie into some like greater World thing and so there's a lot of things that are left sort of unfinished they're the series that this is to kind of a part of or like adjacent to is actually a series that this author is not continuing with so I'm not even sure some of these things will get answered um but this billing didn't feel like its own thing like it definitely felt like a component of something which is what it was but before I got into it it was very much advertised as a standalone so um it dragged a bit at the beginning uh and there were some characters like more than others the character work though I do think is really excellent especially in the second half there were some really cool character stuff there's some skillful writing there and some themes there but ultimately this just felt like again a sort of like Slice of Life in a very military fantasy setting without it quite being a military fantasy people talk about like being a military fantasy um I wouldn't quite call it that because you're not quite getting those elements that I expect from real military fantasy we do have this sort of like um a avatar Last Airbender type magic system honestly uh which is fun but there's a lot of World building soup here just like a lot of elements um a lot of info dumping and all that but the actual character work and some of the plot pieces were interesting um some of the writing pieces are interesting I think there's a lot of potential there for this author to grow especially if they were to actually have like an editor and a team behind them um but this was just like kind of fine for me I end up giving it like a 3.5 Stars I think and that's mostly for the end as with the character work at the end that I thought was really cool um but overall not as polished as I was expecting for like a award winner so this was good but I'm not quite sure I understand like the overwhelming amount of hype around this one but that is it for all that I read in March so comment below and let me know what you read in March or if you have any thoughts about some of these books thank you all for watching and I'll see all of you guys soon bye thank youhey guys it's Sam and this is my March wrap up March flew by it was like a really weird reading month for me but uh I got a lot more red than I thought that I was going to so let's get into it also I'm using a new mic like an external mic because a lot of you have said and I know that the sound in this room is not great so you let me know if this sounds better I will know once I start editing it um but you also let me know what your thoughts are hopefully it's better or fingers crossed I completed seven books in March and dnf'd one I'll just talk about my dnf really quick it was The Luminaries by Susan Dennard at about 70 pages when this book is not very long so the fact that I couldn't really push through it I think says something but this is the first book in a why a modern fantasy like contemporary fantasy duology it has a lot of elements that I thought I was going to really like like the mystical Woods where monsters pop up and they're Monster Hunters and whatever but this was written so juvenile to me like this was definitely very young y a where her other series the witchland series is very much like an older why a series in my opinion and just is more elevated than this and so I did not resonate with this the there's this whole like I think that really sticks out to me so there's whole clan naming system where everyone takes the last name of the day of the week that they go hunting on but none of them are like related really like it's like a whole thing there's just a lot of very very juvenile um trophy things going on it just I could not hear less so as much as this is a beautiful cover and the story sounds like something that would resonate with me very much didn't so dnf to this one so the first book I actually finished in March was Leviathan Wakes by James S.A Corey I am re-reading the books in the expanse series which is a series that I've already read so I think I've read the first three so that I can continue with the rest of the series of which they're eight or nine so this is the first book that primarily follows Holden who is uh Captain James Holden he's the captain of this ship that gets involved in this kind of conspiracy-ish thing where his ship that's just an ice carrying ship gets attacked uh this is in the far future where we have colonized um the like all the way out to like Saturn and Pluto and whatever like the asteroid belts we colonize asteroid belt um there are people colonizing Mars there's all of these like different people and there's all of these interplanetary politics and so this screw is just like a ragtag crew that brings ice from Saturn's rings back and their ship something that will get stuck in the situation gets destroyed and so they get pulled into this like crazy plot of like political things and whatever meanwhile there is detective Miller who is an asteroid belt police officer detective basically and he gets tasked with trying to find this like missing woman uh and there's also this like weird virus thing that's gotten released so this is just the start of the series which is very long very epic Sci-Fi series and we're following both of those characters I remembered a lot of this first book more so than the next two in the series that I forgot a lot of for some reason I think because I read them primarily in like 2019 and 2020 when my brain was not soaking up information but this one I read earlier than that so I remembered a lot of it I liked it much more on reread keep in mind there are triggers in here for some really juicy body horror and uh mentions of rape and things so this is a little bit heavier in some of the descriptions that I even remember but I really dug this uh I'm glad we're back in this world this was a solid four stars when I think when I first read it it was like a 3.5 I found more to like about it this time around uh probably now having been in the world a little bit longer it was just kind of nostalgic to reread so looking forward to continuing with this series then I read the last graduate by Naomi novik this is the second book in The scolo Man series which is an adult fantasy series that takes place in a magical school where everyone sends their children because Magic kids are a attractant to these mouths they're basically called it's it's these Monsters of all different types they'll basically eat children for their Mana for their power uh and so the safer option is to send them to the scholomance which is this magical school that basically trains them slash tries to kill them but it's safer there with and monsters are there too is safer than out in the real world so that's what the first book is about can't talk much about the second book because it would spoil a lot of the first book but I've done a spoiler free review for this book if you're interested in my thoughts on it I didn't like this one quite as much as the first one it felt a little bit filler to me much more World building stuff I mean the World building in this series is pretty heavy and I like the World building but I wish we would have gotten a little bit more some of the character stuff I continue to like the characters and I didn't think it was at all bad and what it's setting up for the final book I think will be really interesting but this wasn't just quite as strong for me as the first book was so I gave this one still a 4 out of 5 stars there are continued triggers in here for Gore and body horror but if you read the first book you probably know that but yeah there are parts of the beginning that kind of dragged a little bit and it just felt like a lot of World building for a second book we just got a lot more than even the first and the first is pretty heavy World building but I still enjoyed it I think part of the fun of this series is the World building so overall I plan on finishing with this series 4 out of 5 Stars Then surprisingly I read Serpent and Dove by Shelby Marin this is a book I've had on many a TBR I actually did a spoiler-free review for this as well a lot of you thought that I'd already read it because I've mentioned it so many times about being skeptical about reading it but this is the first book in Hawaii fantasy Trilogy that follows a witch and a witch hunter and things happen that make them need to get married and sort of like an arranged marriage thing she knows he's a witch hunter he does not know that she's a witch and there's a lot of political machinations it's taking place in sort of like a fantasy France and she is running from everything her past all this stuff um and the Witchcraft in here is like very dark so there's a lot going on with that but people really talk about it for the romance I ended up kind of enjoying this in a cotton candy read kind of way I flew through this I actually enjoyed the world the first little part of it I wasn't sure about but because she uses a lot of like French words as World building and I find that really annoying but she stops doing that like pretty soon into the story and then the actual magic of the witches I found really cool so it is darker there are triggers in here for self-harm scars and blood so there's a use of sort of like blood magic there's a use of um if you're doing kind of magic you need to have given something to make some kind of sacrifice yourself in order to get the magical thing but I tend to like when there's a trade-off with magic I think that works really well and is really cool and I just liked the witches and like their powers and machinations with them and all that uh I like the romance just fine I think it could have actually been a little bit more Slow Burn for how much hype there is around this being like an enemies to lover Slow Burn it could have been way slower burn than it was but it was still enjoyable I still pulled for them but I don't know if it's going to pull me through three books of a series but this first one was enjoyable for me I think like a 3.75 and I do plan to continue but I'm not like super invested in if the second book does not live up to I don't know the just the fun of this then I will dnf it then I read the parable of the sewer by Octavia is on audio this is the first book or I think I think it's a duology the first book in a Sci-Fi like near future apocalyptic duology it follows the main character who is part of a almost like cult-like Evangelical part of society um in actually supposed to be like 2024 but this was written I think in the 90s so in a near future now you know um where things are really going to um The World Is Not Safe uh Society is kind of collapsing and very much like late late stage capitalism and all this and we're following her she has different beliefs that aren't based around any different kind of religion where she really wants to like leave Earth and she feels like Earth is like we should be done with it and this really oddly enough I didn't really know what I was getting into when I got into this or just no activity Butler is like very well loved in the Sci-Fi Community this was much more uh free slash during apocalyptic didn't really feel very sci-fi there's elements of sci-fi in that our main character can also like feel other people's like experience on people's pain um in a way that is like it's like a science ability kind of um but this is much more of a slice of Life Journey than anything really epic it's much more of this like day to day them um having to form their own way having to build community um lots of really messy stuff happens there are trigger warnings in here for fire rape death of children just death in general um like animal abuse and stuff sexism and some pedophilia or basically following these people as they're trying to like Forge a life and like have hope uh and then the second book seems like it might get slightly more sci-fi I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with this this was just fine for me I could definitely see Octavia Butler like as a good author but this kind of just like slice of Lifey uh sci-fi that is this like I don't know it's just very dark um and sad and like in the same vein as like a Margaret Atwood and some of those where you're just kind of like this looks like really realistic and I just can't like I don't know um there's pieces of Hope but I don't know if it's quite enough for me so uh this was fine again I can see the writing skill here uh but I get about like a 3.5 much more sort of theme and quiet character work Focus than I was necessarily expecting then it was shiftathon so I end up finishing two books during shift-a-thon the first was Blue Moon by Laurel K Hamilton a continued reread for me for the Anita Blake Series this is book eight eight or nine I think I'm just kind of losing track of the numbers when we're getting this high and this is a continuation of a lot of the building of the meta plot of the character stuff introducing new characters introducing much more of the erotica elements or popping more into this um I've mentioned it before but this is a series that starts out it's very much urban fantasy um some like Supernatural police procedural type Vibes and as the series goes on gets much more erotica focused um and the erotica is like pulled into the magic basically it's like part of the magic system we're not quite to the part where it gets like to be the whole plot but we're moving towards it so this one was like not my favorite of all of them just because I feel like it's a little bit messy there's like so many things going on and so many elements being brought in in a way that was just a little bit overwhelming this one's also super dark there's trigger warnings in here for rape Gore possession and lots of body horror like they need to believe series is probably of all the urban fantasies that I've read the closest to horror so let's just find a three stars for me it's enjoyable just because I have Nostalgia for this series and I like these characters and whatever but um nothing like not my favorite about the installments and things uh but I will continue to read the series and then next I Read Magic bleeds by Alana Andrews this is the fourth book in the Kate Daniels series uh which is another urban fantasy series that follows Kate Daniels who is part of again sort of like a magical police force-ish but she also used to be a mercenary and she's gotten very very involved in this fantasy Atlanta where sometimes Tech is up and like sciencey stuff and Technology works and sometimes magic is up and that's when like all the magical stuff happens and there's werewolves and shifters and vampires and necromancers and different mythological creatures and everything um but she's gotten pulled into all of these Supernatural politics of this world and this is a continuation of that so again we usually have some kind of like mystery story that is now tying into the meta plot of sort of like the big bad that Kate will eventually have to fight and so we're getting much more of these connections this one was really fun we also got uh a really big step forward in the romance element here which was really enjoyable because there's is these two idiots who have a really hard time falling in love with each other and uh just need to communicate but they're both stubborn dumb dumbs and I love them so this was very fun four out of 5 stars and lastly this month I read the sword of kigen by ml Wang this one was our household book club pick for this month so there is already a live show up that we did recently so I will link that on the screen for more of my in-depth thoughts but this is a man this is so hard to kind of explain actually this is a self-published fantasy novel that is it's a standalone but it's kind of a part of a series like it's almost companiony but you don't have to write the series I didn't but I'll talk about that in a second um and this is kind of based on almost like a feudal Japan like an Asian inspired setting um a East Asian kind of inspired setting but it's also modern day like they have Tech and stuff and it's not our world it's like a different world it's all very kind of confusing but we're following this one family primarily this woman and then her teenage son um as the son is discovering more things about like this Empire and that not everything is exactly as he thinks it is she knows that but is in a place where she can't necessarily talk about it she has this more violent past that is not allowed because now she's a housewife and she's supposed to be a mom um so a very like structured Society uh and we just kind of Follow that for a portion of their lives and how this ties into the greater world this is also darker there are trigger warnings here for rape death of a child war and just sexism and misogyny within this culture this was a bit too long uh definitely a book that you can tell us I'll publishing that it really did need more of a heavy edit and like I mentioned it's advertised as a standalone everyone tends to read it as a standalone but there are so many elements of the plot here that tie into some like greater World thing and so there's a lot of things that are left sort of unfinished they're the series that this is to kind of a part of or like adjacent to is actually a series that this author is not continuing with so I'm not even sure some of these things will get answered um but this billing didn't feel like its own thing like it definitely felt like a component of something which is what it was but before I got into it it was very much advertised as a standalone so um it dragged a bit at the beginning uh and there were some characters like more than others the character work though I do think is really excellent especially in the second half there were some really cool character stuff there's some skillful writing there and some themes there but ultimately this just felt like again a sort of like Slice of Life in a very military fantasy setting without it quite being a military fantasy people talk about like being a military fantasy um I wouldn't quite call it that because you're not quite getting those elements that I expect from real military fantasy we do have this sort of like um a avatar Last Airbender type magic system honestly uh which is fun but there's a lot of World building soup here just like a lot of elements um a lot of info dumping and all that but the actual character work and some of the plot pieces were interesting um some of the writing pieces are interesting I think there's a lot of potential there for this author to grow especially if they were to actually have like an editor and a team behind them um but this was just like kind of fine for me I end up giving it like a 3.5 Stars I think and that's mostly for the end as with the character work at the end that I thought was really cool um but overall not as polished as I was expecting for like a award winner so this was good but I'm not quite sure I understand like the overwhelming amount of hype around this one but that is it for all that I read in March so comment below and let me know what you read in March or if you have any thoughts about some of these books thank you all for watching and I'll see all of you guys soon bye thank you\n"