Chloe C. Peñaranda
Bramble
8 October 2024
432
eBook - PDF
Fantasy
ARC via NetGalley
In a world abandoned by the celestial guardians and left to suffer a tyrant king’s reign, all Astraea knows is safety in seclusion. With fragmented memories of only five years of her life, she’s determined to discover more about her past, even if that means fleeing the cruel arms that hold her safe from the wicked vampires rumored to roam the land.
But when Astraea stumbles upon the mysterious Nyte, she soon realizes determination alone isn’t enough to guard her heart. He lingers like the darkness that expands between the stars, and soon she discovers her captor’s wicked means of control weren’t based on a lie to keep her under locks after all. In her desperation, Astraea accepts Nyte’s help before she can decide if she might have sold her allegiance to one of the bloodthirsty beings the people of her world fear.
Once their bargain is struck, Astraea’s chance to escape comes in the form of accompanying her best friend Cassia to the King’s Central. There on royal territory it’s the centenary of the Libertatem, a succession of trials hosted by the king in which five human lands compete for a cycle of safety from the vampires seeking blood, claiming souls, and savaging after dark. So when tragedy strikes, Astraea must decide if taking the place of a murdered participant for the safety of her kingdom is a ruse is worth dying for, or if protection—and the answers to her past—really are her strongest desires.
I was initially intrigued by the blurb for this book, as the story sounded interesting and right up my alley. If you look at the start and finish dates for my reading of this title, you will see it took a long time for me to get through it, but I'd like to add a disclaimer to say that was because I had to read it on my PC, a chapter here and there. I added it to my e-reader but couldn't read it on there because the artwork on the first page of each chapter in the ARC I received, while beautiful, caused such heavy delays of close to 10 minutes to turn the page to start each new chapter that it was driving me insane with frustration. Even on the PC in Adobe Editions it took a good 20 seconds each time, but at least that was better.
So, my reading experience was a bit disjointed, but I did my best to read at a steady pace on days I was at home and on the PC. The story idea was indeed captivating and full of potential, which was one of the plus points for this book. I also found the relationship between Astraea and Nyte reasonably enjoyable despite the heavy reliance on insta-lust and romantasy tropes. However, I struggled with the prose style and the pacing/structure of the narrative. There was a lot going on, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but to make that work, especially in a book of only 400 pages, you need the pacing to be tight and the structure to support the multiple POVs and the world building elements, and I didn't think that was entirely successful as there were several plot holes and other moments when I was left confused about where things were heading. There was definitely a good story in there, but the book needed a structural edit to bring everything into focus and allow those good points to shine through.
I am giving it 3.5 stars. There were several elements I liked, and I thought the story had great potential, but the execution needed to make it sparkle wasn't quite there.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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