Heya Steemians!!
Another quick book review ☺️This time a YA Fantasy Novella. Full of fun, adventure and even dragon hunting🐉
A WILD AND UNREMARKABLE THING - Jen Castleberry
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Synopsis:
Cayda has spent her entire life training to slay a Fire Scale. Now the time has come to leave her dragon-ravaged village behind, march into the Summer Alps, and reap the rewards of a Champion. But the road between poverty and prosperity is rife with beasts, betrayals, and baser temptations. Sensible Cayda soon discovers she’s not the only Champion with her eye on the prize, or the only one wearing a disguise.
A Wild and Unremarkable Thing pits girl against dragon in a stunning blend of Greek mythology and medieval lore. Don’t miss the thrilling novella that readers are calling poetic, enchanting, and a must-read for fans of fantasy!
(Copied from Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35279009-a-wild-and-unremarkable-thing )
My Review:
A fast paced and thrilling novella that draws you in from the start. The main plot is basically a girl forced to live as a boy, by her dad, in order to slay a dragon and save her family from poverty.
The story however is also cloaked with mystery and mythology and makes for a fun book to read.
I immediately felt deeply for Cody/Cayda while she battles internally with the fact that she is being forced to be someone she’s not, but also desires to save those she loves. Torn between the willingness to sacrifice a part of herself and the “selfishness” of wishing to explore who she really is.
We also have Wolfe, a rather prissy/dainty character….“playmate” for the crown prince, who finds himself restless and wants to experience adventure rather than just reading about it. Or in his own words…”he would rather slay the dragon than feast on it”.(Just as a little side-note/rant…I have never before found myself disliking a “reader” in any book as much as I did with Wolfe)
The book has multiple POV’s and I personally enjoyed this aspect. Even though some characters definitely worked on my nerves(cough Wolfe), the point of view changed frequently enough that it didn’t stop your progress, but kept the story alive. (If you didn’t particularly like a character’s POV, you could just quickly read it and continue on to the next person 🙃)
It is also with these changing perspectives that BAM we meet our third perspective and the story immediately becomes more interesting…with this new unexpected presence giving the book a mysterious air.(No love triangles…don’t worry!)
Even though I was really entertained by this powerful quick novella, often times I felt like I might have missed a few pages…like there was details missing. The ending felt a little rushed as well and left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. I just think that this story had the potential to be a full novel that would blow you away. With a really good plot and enjoyable characters, the story(and characters) was just underdeveloped and lacked depth and sufficient backstory to make the characters’ actions a bit more motivated and believable.
It does lend itself to a possible follow up book though…
That said, if you are looking for an exciting quick read(this can totally be read in a few hours) with an intriguing storyline, this book is perfect. It was fun and I am happy to have read it.😊
This review is also up on my Goodreads account and the main photo is from my Instagram account😁
You are welcome to check them out on the following links:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/70707048-esli-kloppers
https://www.instagram.com/insignificant.beauties/
Much love ❤️