First half of January was all winter romances, but the second half was reserved for fantasy retellings ✨ In this post, I'll be talking about Feathers of Snow (Goose Girl), Forgotten (East of the Sun, West of the Moon and The Snow Queen) and Dragon's Kiss (which isn't a retelling 😂)
🦢 Feathers of Snow by Alice Ivinya ★★★
Well, it's a shame I didn't fully enjoy this because it's got so much potential! For one, it's not a "romantasy" IMO, since it talks more about the differences between two nations, potential dangers at the border, mystery surrounding the "Old Blood" and "Spirit Beasts" that occupy the area. Basically, the romance was the least present, which I didn't mind one bit 😂
The second thing I appreciated about this book is how dark it gets at times. Judging by that cover, you would never guess how many shocking deaths and cruel actions are mentioned in the book. This might be someone's con, but to me it's a pro because ultimately, this story is about political marriage and a possible upcoming war.
The third aspect I'll mention is the characters. Brianna started off as a meek, slightly boring character who got stronger and better as the story progressed. I think she'll become an even more amazing character in the sequels. Jian was okay. I appreciated what he did for his people, and while he slightly annoyed me at the start, after his true intentions were revealed and we learned more about him, I started to like him 😂
All of these were good points, so why didn't I rate this higher? It didn't make me feel anything. I cared for the story, but not too much. The characters were fine, but not great. The romance, while not being the centre focus, didn't wow me. The whole "Old Blood" talk and world-building slightly bored me. I would skip entire paragraphs of descriptions because I truly didn't care and TBH didn't understand how any of this worked. I doubt I'll remember anything significant after a month or two, which is a shame because I can see the author had some great ideas and the sequels would probably be better, but I don't have the will to continue reading them to see if I was right 😂
✨ Forgotten by Camille Peters ★★
The very thing that drew me in at the start was the thing that drove me insane for the rest of the book. It was obvious the author wanted to have as much "flirty banter" as possible, but it seems that while she was busy writing "interesting quips" and the same declarations of love in slightly different words for the millionth time - she forgot to add the plot. Where is it???
At first, I found the MCs interactions as cute and would read their witty comebacks like "aww look at them pretend to hate each other but actually fake it"....then I read the next 50 pages and I was like "umm we're literally still in the same dialogue, when will they stop talking and do something?" then I read the next 50 pages and THEY WERE STILL JUST TALKING.
This whole book is one giant mix of past and present conversations where they switch from fawning all over each other in word form to whining how they can't be together. This exact same conversation repeats, albeit with some other synonims and then the book ends with an over-the-top HEA.
To make things worse, there were a couple of time jumps besides all the "past/present" POVs changing. The little bit of plot we got was full of holes, but it doesn't matter since every problem gets resolved in the last few chapters.
🐲 Dragon's Kiss by E. A. Winters ★★★
To start off, while having that tag, this book is by no means a romantasy - this is FIRMLY on fantasy territory, and the romance was basically nonexistent. There were hints of a relationship forming, but more like friends first and maybe something romantic in book two.
Moving on, this was a solid read. I think, had I been more of a description, world-building girly, I'd love it more. Unfortunately, I'm not and I skimmed a lot of the pages where you can see huge chunks of text describing basically nothing of great importance.
The fight scenes were amazing, detailed and you could really picture everything that was happening. That along with the strategic way all of the characters made plans was so so good. Semra was a brilliant MC and I loved how we weren't just told she was skilled - her talent, fighting skills and excellent planning were all shown throughout the book.
As I already mentioned, the romance is barely present, which suited the tone of the book but I will admit I expected something different. The tags on the page clearly say "romantasy" and "clean romance." I'm not saying there should be romance, but you also shouldn't mislead people.
That combined with the fact that there are A LOT of descriptions, made this a decent book that just wasn't fit for my mood right now.
As you can see, this batch wasn't the best but it was okay. I can't say I regret reading these (except maybe Forgotten...I wish I could forget that one lol) and at least they were excellent for finishing some of my reading challenge prompts.
💬 Have you read any of these books? Do you enjoy reading retellings? 💬
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