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The Halfling Saga #1
A Broken Blade
Keera is a killer. As the King’s Blade, she is the most talented spy in the kingdom. And the King’s favored assassin. When a mysterious figure called the Shadow starts making moves against the Crown, Keera is forced to hunt the masked menace down.
She crosses into the magical lands of the Fae, trying to discern if her enemy is Mortal, Elf, or a Halfling like her. But the Faeland is not what it seems, and neither is the Shadow. Keera is shocked by what she discovers and can’t help but wonder who her enemy truly is…
The King that destroyed her people? The Prince that tortures them? Or the Shadow that threatens her place at court?
As she searches for answers, Keera is haunted by a promise she made long ago. A promise not only to save herself but an entire kingdom.
She crosses into the magical lands of the Fae, trying to discern if her enemy is Mortal, Elf, or a Halfling like her. But the Faeland is not what it seems, and neither is the Shadow. Keera is shocked by what she discovers and can’t help but wonder who her enemy truly is…
The King that destroyed her people? The Prince that tortures them? Or the Shadow that threatens her place at court?
As she searches for answers, Keera is haunted by a promise she made long ago. A promise not only to save herself but an entire kingdom.
427 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 14, 2021
About the author
Melissa Blair
8 books1,563 followersMelissa (she/her/kwe) is an Anishinaabekwe of mixed ancestry living in Turtle Island. She splits her time between Treaty 9 in Northern Ontario and the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg in Ottawa, Canada. She has a graduate degree in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies, loves movies, and hates spoons. Melissa has a BookTok account where she discusses her favorite kinds of books including Indigenous and queer fiction, feminist literature, and non-fiction. A Broken Blade is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,275 reviews
December 12, 2021
I had such a fun time reading this book!
I picked it up because of the mystery surrounding the anonymous author, after being sent a copy to unbox, and fell in love with the characters and the world. This book has a diverse cast of fantastic characters, it doesn't shy away from heavier themes, and the plot will keep you glued to the page. However, it did take me a few chapters to get fully invested in the story, but once I was hooked, I couldn't put it down.
also- THAT ENDING!! I need book 2 immediately
4.5/5 stars
I picked it up because of the mystery surrounding the anonymous author, after being sent a copy to unbox, and fell in love with the characters and the world. This book has a diverse cast of fantastic characters, it doesn't shy away from heavier themes, and the plot will keep you glued to the page. However, it did take me a few chapters to get fully invested in the story, but once I was hooked, I couldn't put it down.
also- THAT ENDING!! I need book 2 immediately
4.5/5 stars
March 7, 2024
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley (thank you Union Square & Co.). All thoughts and opinions are my own.
✅ Gorgeous cover
✅ Strong, but flawed and morally grey MC
✅ Enemies to (almost) lovers
✅ Only one bed / Forced proximity
✅ Holding her as she wakes up from a nightmare
✅ Politics
✅ Lies and scheming (and kinda betrayal? Is it betrayal if they have the same goal and are on the same side?)
✅ Pace and plot
✅ Beginning of a "found family" vibe
✅ Magic, faes, and elves
❗️❗️Trigger warnings: colonialism, torture, deaths, alcoholism, self-harm, depression, mention of torture, and some suicidal ideation (brief)
4.5 stars I think... I liked it more the second time around.
First, can we take a few seconds to admire this gorgeous cover?
This is a fast-paced fantasy adventure with magic, politics, and some of my favorite tropes (hate-to-love, one bed, comforting presence after a nightmare, found family, etc.). While I struggled a little at first to really get into the book, once I got past the 15% mark, it was very easy to get lost in this book and to read “just one more chapter” until I finished it.
Keera is a Halfling working for King Aemon. As the King’s Blade, she is responsible for organizing the King’s Shades (spies and assassins), as well as tracking down and killing whoever the king wants to get rid of. From early on, we can see how Keera hates the king for what he has forced her to become and to do over the years. She doesn’t enjoy being the Blade, and she would be very happy to see the king dead if only it didn’t mean that the crown would go to Prince Damien who’s crueler and even more dangerous than the king, but since her life is at stake, Keera has no choice but to obey and be as efficient as she can when she is sent on a hunt.
Keera is full of guilt because as the king’s blade, she has been forced to hunt and kill enemies of the king, but also Halflings and their families for the past few decades. She wants to get rid of the king, but it’s an impossible feat to perform alone, and she cannot trust or rely on anyone else. When the king sends her on a mission to hunt down and kill the person known as The Shadow, Keera realizes that maybe she’s not the only one wanting to see the king dead, and maybe there are people out there who will be able and willing to help her if she is willing to try to see them as something other than her enemies.
The world-building is well done and complex enough to be engaging, but it honestly took me a while to figure out and understand the difference between all the species, and even now, the difference between the Elves and the Faes in this book is not that clear, besides the fact that faes can wield magic whereas elves cannot.
Here is a little summary of the important facts:
- Elvarath is ruled by the mortal king Aemon.
- The king of Elvarath has a shaky alliance with the Dark Faes. The Dark Faes live in the West and do not care much about the politics of Elverath. They just want to be left alone, and they are also trying to help the Halflings since they consider them as their kind too.
- Halflings are the children of mortals and elves or faes, or they have elves or faes somewhere in their ancestry. Their blood runs amber instead of red, and they are property of the king, not much better than slaves. The men are used as workhands and the women are used as weapons or courtesans.
- The Elves are believed to be extinct, but they are not all dead. Most were killed by King Aemon, the survivors are hiding and living with the Dark Faes mostly.
Keera is a great main character. As a halfling, she’s at the very bottom of the hierarchy, while also being one of the most dangerous people in the realm. She was found as a child and has been forced into the King’s service ever since. From the very first chapter, we can see that she is ruthless when it comes to her missions, but also that it costs her to kill innocent people. As the story progresses, we can see more and more of her caring side, and also her flaws. She does not really care about her survival, but she really wants to help the halflings in her kingdom, acting a little like a Robin Hood whenever she can, and giving money to those who help the halflings. I like that while being a badass and very strong character, she is also flawed and does not flaunt her prowess in everyone’s face. I like strong main characters, but it annoys me when they become overconfident and their super-badass side just takes too much room in their personality.
Keera is what I consider to be a morally grey character, but not necessarily by her own choices. She was forced into this life, and she was forced to kill innocent people and traitors, whether she wanted it or not. Because of her training and her life as the Blade, she has become very efficient and can make tough decisions when she needs to, even when it breaks her heart. She knows how to be efficient and deadly… But she is also in desperate need of some love and a hug.
I like the beginning of the found family we saw in this book. It was not a real found family, because Keera did not spend that much time with them, and they do not really trust each other yet, but there is potential there, and I hope the author will use this dynamic to create a tight-knit unit that Keera can trust, and that will show her what having friends and people that care for her feels like.
I wouldn’t say that there is romance yet in this series, but there is clearly a physical attraction between Keera and another character, and there is a huge potential for an awesome enemies-to-lovers relationship to continue to develop. There is a little bit of mild smut near the end, and I am not sure how I feel about it, to be honest. The lack of spicy smut and romance makes perfect sense, and I loved the slow progression, but it still felt somewhat a little forced? Still, it was cute and I like that there is a promise of more to come because there is sexual tension there, and both parties are clearly feeling “something more” for each other.
The ending promises a second book filled with even more politics, spying, and also some angst (probably… hopefully). I am very eager to read it and see what awaits Keera! I did see that final twist coming, but I am still very happy about it, and I love all the angst it might bring to the beginning of the next book.
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✅ Gorgeous cover
✅ Strong, but flawed and morally grey MC
✅ Enemies to (almost) lovers
✅ Only one bed / Forced proximity
✅ Holding her as she wakes up from a nightmare
✅ Politics
✅ Lies and scheming (and kinda betrayal? Is it betrayal if they have the same goal and are on the same side?)
✅ Pace and plot
✅ Beginning of a "found family" vibe
✅ Magic, faes, and elves
❗️❗️Trigger warnings: colonialism, torture, deaths, alcoholism, self-harm, depression, mention of torture, and some suicidal ideation (brief)
4.5 stars I think... I liked it more the second time around.
First, can we take a few seconds to admire this gorgeous cover?
This is a fast-paced fantasy adventure with magic, politics, and some of my favorite tropes (hate-to-love, one bed, comforting presence after a nightmare, found family, etc.). While I struggled a little at first to really get into the book, once I got past the 15% mark, it was very easy to get lost in this book and to read “just one more chapter” until I finished it.
My body is made of scars,
some were done to me,
but most I did to myself.
Keera is a Halfling working for King Aemon. As the King’s Blade, she is responsible for organizing the King’s Shades (spies and assassins), as well as tracking down and killing whoever the king wants to get rid of. From early on, we can see how Keera hates the king for what he has forced her to become and to do over the years. She doesn’t enjoy being the Blade, and she would be very happy to see the king dead if only it didn’t mean that the crown would go to Prince Damien who’s crueler and even more dangerous than the king, but since her life is at stake, Keera has no choice but to obey and be as efficient as she can when she is sent on a hunt.
“Why else make a journey you didn’t expect to survive? But maybe you’ll find more than survival here. Maybe you’ll find redemption.”
Keera is full of guilt because as the king’s blade, she has been forced to hunt and kill enemies of the king, but also Halflings and their families for the past few decades. She wants to get rid of the king, but it’s an impossible feat to perform alone, and she cannot trust or rely on anyone else. When the king sends her on a mission to hunt down and kill the person known as The Shadow, Keera realizes that maybe she’s not the only one wanting to see the king dead, and maybe there are people out there who will be able and willing to help her if she is willing to try to see them as something other than her enemies.
No Mortal was above the Crown, and Halflings were expendable.
I knew this all too well. It was my job to track down criminals and enemies of the Crown.
The Light Fae had left a world of beauty behind, but that would not be the case for the king. If he ever died, if he was ever killed, his legacy would be one of death and destruction. Not that it mattered—the king believed he would live forever.
The world-building is well done and complex enough to be engaging, but it honestly took me a while to figure out and understand the difference between all the species, and even now, the difference between the Elves and the Faes in this book is not that clear, besides the fact that faes can wield magic whereas elves cannot.
Here is a little summary of the important facts:
- Elvarath is ruled by the mortal king Aemon.
- The king of Elvarath has a shaky alliance with the Dark Faes. The Dark Faes live in the West and do not care much about the politics of Elverath. They just want to be left alone, and they are also trying to help the Halflings since they consider them as their kind too.
- Halflings are the children of mortals and elves or faes, or they have elves or faes somewhere in their ancestry. Their blood runs amber instead of red, and they are property of the king, not much better than slaves. The men are used as workhands and the women are used as weapons or courtesans.
- The Elves are believed to be extinct, but they are not all dead. Most were killed by King Aemon, the survivors are hiding and living with the Dark Faes mostly.
“You’re not an executioner, Keera,” she said. Her eyes were wide and the hard line of her lips transformed into a soft pout.
I turned away. “No, you’re right. An executioner has the comfort of knowing her victims had a trial,” I said. The truth of my words pulled my shoulders toward the ground.
Keera is a great main character. As a halfling, she’s at the very bottom of the hierarchy, while also being one of the most dangerous people in the realm. She was found as a child and has been forced into the King’s service ever since. From the very first chapter, we can see that she is ruthless when it comes to her missions, but also that it costs her to kill innocent people. As the story progresses, we can see more and more of her caring side, and also her flaws. She does not really care about her survival, but she really wants to help the halflings in her kingdom, acting a little like a Robin Hood whenever she can, and giving money to those who help the halflings. I like that while being a badass and very strong character, she is also flawed and does not flaunt her prowess in everyone’s face. I like strong main characters, but it annoys me when they become overconfident and their super-badass side just takes too much room in their personality.
“You don’t get to judge them for being the monsters the King turned them into. The Shades weren’t born as weapons. They weren’t born as killers. They were born as children. Stolen. Ripped from their parents and placed on that godsforsaken island.”
Keera is what I consider to be a morally grey character, but not necessarily by her own choices. She was forced into this life, and she was forced to kill innocent people and traitors, whether she wanted it or not. Because of her training and her life as the Blade, she has become very efficient and can make tough decisions when she needs to, even when it breaks her heart. She knows how to be efficient and deadly… But she is also in desperate need of some love and a hug.
I like the beginning of the found family we saw in this book. It was not a real found family, because Keera did not spend that much time with them, and they do not really trust each other yet, but there is potential there, and I hope the author will use this dynamic to create a tight-knit unit that Keera can trust, and that will show her what having friends and people that care for her feels like.
“You’re always beautiful,” he whispered. “But you’re exquisite when you laugh.”
I wouldn’t say that there is romance yet in this series, but there is clearly a physical attraction between Keera and another character, and there is a huge potential for an awesome enemies-to-lovers relationship to continue to develop. There is a little bit of mild smut near the end, and I am not sure how I feel about it, to be honest. The lack of spicy smut and romance makes perfect sense, and I loved the slow progression, but it still felt somewhat a little forced? Still, it was cute and I like that there is a promise of more to come because there is sexual tension there, and both parties are clearly feeling “something more” for each other.
The ending promises a second book filled with even more politics, spying, and also some angst (probably… hopefully). I am very eager to read it and see what awaits Keera! I did see that final twist coming, but I am still very happy about it, and I love all the angst it might bring to the beginning of the next book.
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December 11, 2021
I spent at least the first 60% of this book wanting to put it down. It dragged on and on and on. Keera was an uninteresting alcoholic and the other characters were cut and paste from other fantasy novels and just plain boring. Then, the only plot twist in the book, I actually guessed from a certain point and it just blew the whole end book for me. A Broken Blade ended up doing what it was supposed to though I guess. It was a decent representation fanfic of all of booktok books that have been huge these last few months. If you're a booktok fan of all the big tropes smashed into one - you might like this one.
March 4, 2022
Got this book because of the BookTok mystery but stayed for great plotline and badass female protagonist.
I was slightly disappointed the author chose to reveal herself just as I started reading this book as I hoped to try and figure it out on my own (I would have failed because Tiktok algorithm never showed me her page before so I didn't know her).
I like the storyline and the inclusion of all of our favourite elements in this book. The places in the book seem to have awfully familiar names and I would have liked if they were a bit more unique sounding.
I admit I had trouble figuring out what the author meant the difference between Fae and the Elves was, but I liked the mystery. [Just a side note, do we ever find out what the name of the other Shade was, her lover? I can't seem to remember.]
While I figured it out before it happened, I didn't like the final chapter one bit. I seem to have especially hard time getting over betrayal from close friends (though it never happened to me in real life, I can't forgive if it happens in books). That is the only reason this book gets four and not five stars. I know to some it may seem like an exaggeration, but to me it was a huge disappointment.
I was slightly disappointed the author chose to reveal herself just as I started reading this book as I hoped to try and figure it out on my own (I would have failed because Tiktok algorithm never showed me her page before so I didn't know her).
I like the storyline and the inclusion of all of our favourite elements in this book. The places in the book seem to have awfully familiar names and I would have liked if they were a bit more unique sounding.
I admit I had trouble figuring out what the author meant the difference between Fae and the Elves was, but I liked the mystery. [Just a side note, do we ever find out what the name of the other Shade was, her lover? I can't seem to remember.]
While I figured it out before it happened, I didn't like the final chapter one bit. I seem to have especially hard time getting over betrayal from close friends (though it never happened to me in real life, I can't forgive if it happens in books). That is the only reason this book gets four and not five stars. I know to some it may seem like an exaggeration, but to me it was a huge disappointment.
June 12, 2022
“Shadows were largest just before sunset, but lost their power when night inevitably fell. For Shadows don't exist in the dark.”
A Broken Blade empieza con un edicto del rey de Elverath en el que proclama como ciudadanos únicamente a los Mortales y a los Dark Faes. Los demás, los mestizos, o Halflings, no se considerarán ciudadanos y tendrán entregarse a la Corona para que el rey disponga de ellos como sirvientes, esclavos o cosas peores. Los Halflings que no se entreguen serán perseguidos y ejecutados.
Pasan unos años desde ese edicto y conocemos a Keera, quien es una Halfling que actúa como la asesina oficial del rey. Cuando empieza el libro, Keera lleva ya varias décadas sirviendo al rey como su Blade; sin embargo, no es un trabajo fácil para ella, pues es consciente de que es una traidora para su raza y el peso de la culpa la lleva a beber un montón y a grabarse en el cuerpo, cortándose, los nombres de todos los Halflings inocentes a los que ha asesinado. Eventualmente, Keera se topa con un grupo de resistencia que quiere acabar con el rey y se une a ellos no solo para reclamar justicia para su pueblo, sino porque entre esas personas hay un Dark Fae que la intriga muchísimo.
A diferencia de muchos libros en los que el romance se toma toda la historia por asalto, en A Broken Blade la autora realmente se preocupa por crear un mundo de fantasía con bases sólidas, conflictos bien pensados, un sistema de magia coherente y personajes tridimensionales. Además, un punto súper positivo de este libro es que, a pesar de que Blair está presentándonos un continente entero que no conocemos, razas de criaturas, mezclas, décadas de abuso y cambios de poder, en ningún momento cae en el info dumping. Todo lo que conocemos acerca del worldbuilding y del pasado de los personajes aparece gradualmente a lo largo de los capítulos y no como párrafos interminables de explicaciones.
Algo que me gustó mucho fue el manejo de los temas peliagudos de los que se advierte en una nota al principio del libro. Las menciones sobre abuso, autolesiones, problemas con el alcohol y pensamientos suicidas están muy bien manejadas, no son explícitas y, además, suscitan reflexiones importantes dentro de la trama. Ninguno de esos elementos está allí gratuitamente y eso me pareció importante.
El libro también tiene romance y es más del tipo slow-burn, cosa que a mí no suele gustarme mucho, pero aquí sí que me enganchó. La relación entre Keera y el personaje misterioso que no mencionaré porque es un spoiler tiene que desarrollarse con mucha paciencia por ciertas circunstancias que se explican en la historia… y precisamente por eso sentí que tenía sentido el que todo fuera a pasos de tortuga, aunque eso no quiere decir que no hubiera tensión, conversaciones impresionantes, besos robados, etc.
En general, creo que A Broken Blade es un inicio de saga que promete muchísimo y que me deja con ganas de ver hacia dónde lleva la autora esta historia.
A Broken Blade empieza con un edicto del rey de Elverath en el que proclama como ciudadanos únicamente a los Mortales y a los Dark Faes. Los demás, los mestizos, o Halflings, no se considerarán ciudadanos y tendrán entregarse a la Corona para que el rey disponga de ellos como sirvientes, esclavos o cosas peores. Los Halflings que no se entreguen serán perseguidos y ejecutados.
Pasan unos años desde ese edicto y conocemos a Keera, quien es una Halfling que actúa como la asesina oficial del rey. Cuando empieza el libro, Keera lleva ya varias décadas sirviendo al rey como su Blade; sin embargo, no es un trabajo fácil para ella, pues es consciente de que es una traidora para su raza y el peso de la culpa la lleva a beber un montón y a grabarse en el cuerpo, cortándose, los nombres de todos los Halflings inocentes a los que ha asesinado. Eventualmente, Keera se topa con un grupo de resistencia que quiere acabar con el rey y se une a ellos no solo para reclamar justicia para su pueblo, sino porque entre esas personas hay un Dark Fae que la intriga muchísimo.
A diferencia de muchos libros en los que el romance se toma toda la historia por asalto, en A Broken Blade la autora realmente se preocupa por crear un mundo de fantasía con bases sólidas, conflictos bien pensados, un sistema de magia coherente y personajes tridimensionales. Además, un punto súper positivo de este libro es que, a pesar de que Blair está presentándonos un continente entero que no conocemos, razas de criaturas, mezclas, décadas de abuso y cambios de poder, en ningún momento cae en el info dumping. Todo lo que conocemos acerca del worldbuilding y del pasado de los personajes aparece gradualmente a lo largo de los capítulos y no como párrafos interminables de explicaciones.
Algo que me gustó mucho fue el manejo de los temas peliagudos de los que se advierte en una nota al principio del libro. Las menciones sobre abuso, autolesiones, problemas con el alcohol y pensamientos suicidas están muy bien manejadas, no son explícitas y, además, suscitan reflexiones importantes dentro de la trama. Ninguno de esos elementos está allí gratuitamente y eso me pareció importante.
El libro también tiene romance y es más del tipo slow-burn, cosa que a mí no suele gustarme mucho, pero aquí sí que me enganchó. La relación entre Keera y el personaje misterioso que no mencionaré porque es un spoiler tiene que desarrollarse con mucha paciencia por ciertas circunstancias que se explican en la historia… y precisamente por eso sentí que tenía sentido el que todo fuera a pasos de tortuga, aunque eso no quiere decir que no hubiera tensión, conversaciones impresionantes, besos robados, etc.
En general, creo que A Broken Blade es un inicio de saga que promete muchísimo y que me deja con ganas de ver hacia dónde lleva la autora esta historia.
August 1, 2022
Rep: bi mc, bi side character, sapphic side character
CWs: self harm, implied abuse, alcohol abuse, sexual harassment, suicidal ideation, torture, violence
Galley provided by publisher
I picked up A Broken Blade on a whim and, ultimately, that’ll teach me to read books described as a “booktok sensation”! A book categorised as new adult (although how this protagonist can possibly be described as ‘new’ adult at the age of 60 is beyond me, especially when she reads as a generic YA protag), this is a book that feels like the worst blandness of YA. Obviously, as with almost every review I write, YMMV! You might like this where I didn’t!
But, boy, I didn’t.
Pretty much everything about this book is basic: the plotline, the worldbuilding, the characters… Not that I was expecting much more, when I picked it up, but I wasn’t expecting this. I will say, though, it did have the potential to dive deeper into its discussion of colonialism here. But that was probably the best part of it, and ultimately let down by everything around it.
The first thing I noticed on opening this one up was the writing. I’m going to be using the word bland a lot in this review, so please bear with me. But that’s the best word I can use to describe it. I would hesitate to say this was bad writing (although some parts got very close to it), but there was just nothing to it. I felt like I was being told a lot of things and not shown enough. And I was also getting told those things repetitively.
But I persevered (although probably later came to regret it). The next thing was the characters. None of them felt anything beyond archetypal to me, easily summed up by a few characteristics and not much more. This even extended to the main character who is usually, I find, the sole exception to this. She gave off extreme “not like other girls” vibes, mostly because she basically had no friends bar one and disdained almost everyone else. But also because she was “flawless”. I don’t mean actively had zero flaws, because I think her alcoholism was meant to be that (which we’ll come to), but more that there was nothing that really impacted how her story went. Everything came up trumps! Whatever she put her hand to, she excelled at! There were no points where I thought maybe their plan wouldn’t work. Any obstacles that were put in her way were swiftly overcome, or even just written out of the story once they’d served a purpose (I mean the alcoholism). And of course in the end it turns out she’s not just special, she’s extra special.
Maybe the plot and worldbuilding here could have been a saviour but no, both were just as bland and underdeveloped as the rest of the book. The worldbuilding in particular was very flimsy: I finished the book with so many questions and not a lot of answers. Perhaps this will change in book two, but I doubt it. It’s pretty much your basic YA fantasy fare and nothing more. Of course, as I mentioned with the colonialism themes above, it has the potential to improve! But I don’t think I’ll be reading it to see if it does.
So, unfortunately, this won’t be a series I’ll come back to. And if it’s taught me anything, it’s never trust a “booktok sensation”.
CWs: self harm, implied abuse, alcohol abuse, sexual harassment, suicidal ideation, torture, violence
Galley provided by publisher
I picked up A Broken Blade on a whim and, ultimately, that’ll teach me to read books described as a “booktok sensation”! A book categorised as new adult (although how this protagonist can possibly be described as ‘new’ adult at the age of 60 is beyond me, especially when she reads as a generic YA protag), this is a book that feels like the worst blandness of YA. Obviously, as with almost every review I write, YMMV! You might like this where I didn’t!
But, boy, I didn’t.
Pretty much everything about this book is basic: the plotline, the worldbuilding, the characters… Not that I was expecting much more, when I picked it up, but I wasn’t expecting this. I will say, though, it did have the potential to dive deeper into its discussion of colonialism here. But that was probably the best part of it, and ultimately let down by everything around it.
The first thing I noticed on opening this one up was the writing. I’m going to be using the word bland a lot in this review, so please bear with me. But that’s the best word I can use to describe it. I would hesitate to say this was bad writing (although some parts got very close to it), but there was just nothing to it. I felt like I was being told a lot of things and not shown enough. And I was also getting told those things repetitively.
But I persevered (although probably later came to regret it). The next thing was the characters. None of them felt anything beyond archetypal to me, easily summed up by a few characteristics and not much more. This even extended to the main character who is usually, I find, the sole exception to this. She gave off extreme “not like other girls” vibes, mostly because she basically had no friends bar one and disdained almost everyone else. But also because she was “flawless”. I don’t mean actively had zero flaws, because I think her alcoholism was meant to be that (which we’ll come to), but more that there was nothing that really impacted how her story went. Everything came up trumps! Whatever she put her hand to, she excelled at! There were no points where I thought maybe their plan wouldn’t work. Any obstacles that were put in her way were swiftly overcome, or even just written out of the story once they’d served a purpose (I mean the alcoholism). And of course in the end it turns out she’s not just special, she’s extra special.
Maybe the plot and worldbuilding here could have been a saviour but no, both were just as bland and underdeveloped as the rest of the book. The worldbuilding in particular was very flimsy: I finished the book with so many questions and not a lot of answers. Perhaps this will change in book two, but I doubt it. It’s pretty much your basic YA fantasy fare and nothing more. Of course, as I mentioned with the colonialism themes above, it has the potential to improve! But I don’t think I’ll be reading it to see if it does.
So, unfortunately, this won’t be a series I’ll come back to. And if it’s taught me anything, it’s never trust a “booktok sensation”.
January 23, 2024
2.5 stars
When it was first released, A Broken Blade blew up on Booktok, and it's clear why. This story is full of popular tropes and elements, and while that was enough to get me to pick up the book, the writing, characters, and core story itself never compelled me to keep reading. It's a difficult task to create an entirely original piece of art, many even argue it's impossible. While I don't expect every book I read to be an entirely original work, I except it to have something unique to keep me reading. Overall, though I did appreciate the author's inclusion of the topics of alcoholism, sexism, and other real world issues in this book, the plot and characters themselves never truly held my interest. This book just felt like a combination of others I had already read, and while I understand that is what may make it so palatable to many others, for me it just inspired boredom.
Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
When it was first released, A Broken Blade blew up on Booktok, and it's clear why. This story is full of popular tropes and elements, and while that was enough to get me to pick up the book, the writing, characters, and core story itself never compelled me to keep reading. It's a difficult task to create an entirely original piece of art, many even argue it's impossible. While I don't expect every book I read to be an entirely original work, I except it to have something unique to keep me reading. Overall, though I did appreciate the author's inclusion of the topics of alcoholism, sexism, and other real world issues in this book, the plot and characters themselves never truly held my interest. This book just felt like a combination of others I had already read, and while I understand that is what may make it so palatable to many others, for me it just inspired boredom.
Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
September 3, 2023
A Broken Blade is a solid fantasy romance with an intriguing plot written by an Indigenous author.
Keera is the King’s Blade and favourite assassin. Someone known as the Shadow has been making moves against the Crown. The King assigns Keera to find the Shadow and bring him their head.
Keera will venture into Faeland and begin to question where her loyalties lie.
You’ll enjoy this if you like:
- Slow-burn enemies to lovers
- Fae
- Political intrigue
- Court politics
- SJM
There are discussions on colonization, grief, and alcoholism.
This book isn’t original in terms of plot or characters, but it is sort of comforting if you’re looking for your next fae fantasy romance series.
It ended on a huge cliffhanger, so I’ll be starting the next book shortly.
Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.
https://booksandwheels.com
Keera is the King’s Blade and favourite assassin. Someone known as the Shadow has been making moves against the Crown. The King assigns Keera to find the Shadow and bring him their head.
Keera will venture into Faeland and begin to question where her loyalties lie.
You’ll enjoy this if you like:
- Slow-burn enemies to lovers
- Fae
- Political intrigue
- Court politics
- SJM
There are discussions on colonization, grief, and alcoholism.
This book isn’t original in terms of plot or characters, but it is sort of comforting if you’re looking for your next fae fantasy romance series.
It ended on a huge cliffhanger, so I’ll be starting the next book shortly.
Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.
https://booksandwheels.com
April 6, 2023
A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair
The Halfling Saga series, book 1. Fantasy. Cliffhanger.
Keera is the King’s Blade. An assassin. It’s her job to protect the kingdom and act as spy. She needs to know the differences between the mortals, an elf or halflings, like herself. Keera is now on the hunt to kill the Shadow, by order of the King. Her personal agenda is actually deeper. She wants, no, needs, to save the kingdom.
Keera is deeply troubled by the killings she’s been forced to do over the years. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone. She has a softness in her heart for her attendant. That tells us she’s not as cold as she wants everyone else to believe. Even a bit naive to me in some respects.
It reads a bit YA to me but we do find out she is quite a bit older. With the killings and tortur pe and blood, this is definitely an adult read.
Twists and surprises and cliffhanger ending.
I’m looking forward to reading more.
The Halfling Saga series, book 1. Fantasy. Cliffhanger.
Keera is the King’s Blade. An assassin. It’s her job to protect the kingdom and act as spy. She needs to know the differences between the mortals, an elf or halflings, like herself. Keera is now on the hunt to kill the Shadow, by order of the King. Her personal agenda is actually deeper. She wants, no, needs, to save the kingdom.
Keera is deeply troubled by the killings she’s been forced to do over the years. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone. She has a softness in her heart for her attendant. That tells us she’s not as cold as she wants everyone else to believe. Even a bit naive to me in some respects.
It reads a bit YA to me but we do find out she is quite a bit older. With the killings and tortur pe and blood, this is definitely an adult read.
Twists and surprises and cliffhanger ending.
I’m looking forward to reading more.
March 9, 2023
DNF
I keep telling myself "no more BookTok fantasy" because it is almost always, without exception, absolutely godawful toneless style-free eighth grade Sarah Maas fanfiction.
This is no exception.
Everyone conveys every single emotion with their shoulders/eyebrows/mouths like third-rate community theater actors playing to the cheap seats, and the writing has all the flair of a JCPenney fall sale mailer. There's absolutely no voice, no craft, no joy.
I keep picking these up because I always have hope that even if the writing is bad, the story will be fun, or the romance will be engaging. It turns out that bad sentences and bad worldbuilding and bad characters beget, uh, bad books. More fool me.
I keep telling myself "no more BookTok fantasy" because it is almost always, without exception, absolutely godawful toneless style-free eighth grade Sarah Maas fanfiction.
This is no exception.
Everyone conveys every single emotion with their shoulders/eyebrows/mouths like third-rate community theater actors playing to the cheap seats, and the writing has all the flair of a JCPenney fall sale mailer. There's absolutely no voice, no craft, no joy.
I keep picking these up because I always have hope that even if the writing is bad, the story will be fun, or the romance will be engaging. It turns out that bad sentences and bad worldbuilding and bad characters beget, uh, bad books. More fool me.
December 18, 2021
4.5 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
“You don’t get to judge them for being the monsters the King turned them into. The Shades weren’t born as weapons. They weren’t born as killers. They were born as children. Stolen. Ripped from their parents and placed on that godsforsaken island.”
A Broken Blade is fantastic debut novel that offers a little bit of everything a fantasy enthusiast could wish for, including an slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance!
It introduces an intriguingly dark world of magic, fae, and elves. A broken world corrupted by human greed and the suffering of others.
Like most readers here, I picked this book up because I was curious and amused by the peculiar yet brilliant way this book was marketed.
I truly believe readers should experience this book first-hand and so I won't be writing a detailed review but will do my best to do it justice.
Let me start by expressing my adoration for the main character Keera. I quickly got attached to her early on and rooted for her in every page. She is such a morally grey character and what added to her complexity is the stark difference between her actions and her emotions. She is the King's Blade, his favorite assassin and the most ruthless of the Halflings.
Keera has her struggles not only with her missions as an assassin but also on a personal level. I'm glad those struggles are not merely brushed over, they are addressed.
There is a lot of mystery surrounding Keera's past that the reader is able to pick up the threads as the story progresses. There are plot-twists in every corner. Not to mention this book has a generous amount of action scenes.
To quickly summarize the tropes you can expect in this New Adult Fantasy Romance book:
— Enemies-to-lovers
— Morally grey POC heroine with a tragic past
— One-bed trope
— Forced proximity
— Hidden identity
— Political intrigue
— Found family
I just cannot wait to read the next book and see where Keera's journey will take her, especially after that twist on the end.
Trigger warnings: alcoholism, mention of self-harm, violence, mention of torture.
“You don’t get to judge them for being the monsters the King turned them into. The Shades weren’t born as weapons. They weren’t born as killers. They were born as children. Stolen. Ripped from their parents and placed on that godsforsaken island.”
A Broken Blade is fantastic debut novel that offers a little bit of everything a fantasy enthusiast could wish for, including an slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance!
It introduces an intriguingly dark world of magic, fae, and elves. A broken world corrupted by human greed and the suffering of others.
Like most readers here, I picked this book up because I was curious and amused by the peculiar yet brilliant way this book was marketed.
I truly believe readers should experience this book first-hand and so I won't be writing a detailed review but will do my best to do it justice.
Let me start by expressing my adoration for the main character Keera. I quickly got attached to her early on and rooted for her in every page. She is such a morally grey character and what added to her complexity is the stark difference between her actions and her emotions. She is the King's Blade, his favorite assassin and the most ruthless of the Halflings.
Keera has her struggles not only with her missions as an assassin but also on a personal level. I'm glad those struggles are not merely brushed over, they are addressed.
There is a lot of mystery surrounding Keera's past that the reader is able to pick up the threads as the story progresses. There are plot-twists in every corner. Not to mention this book has a generous amount of action scenes.
To quickly summarize the tropes you can expect in this New Adult Fantasy Romance book:
— Enemies-to-lovers
— Morally grey POC heroine with a tragic past
— One-bed trope
— Forced proximity
— Hidden identity
— Political intrigue
— Found family
I just cannot wait to read the next book and see where Keera's journey will take her, especially after that twist on the end.
Trigger warnings: alcoholism, mention of self-harm, violence, mention of torture.
December 8, 2021
4.5⭐️ (rounded up)
In a quick-paced high fantasy story centering a morally gray and sarcastic main character navigating a magic-filled Faerie society with a deep-rooted desire to rid her home of the Crown entirely, we can see the author's love for popular BookTok series within the same series. This book exists as a love letter to BookTok and it's very clear (in the best way).
First of all, I have an emotional attachment to Keera. In this world that breaks various groups of mortals and non-mortals alike into classes, we see effects of a strict colonial hierarchy put in place and how it impacts those at the bottom of the societal food chain- the Halflings. We are introduced to language variations meant to dehumanize and examples of physical alterations made to better assimilate for survival for the Halflings, and seeing Keera carry the burden of guilt of performing as an assassin for the King that oppresses her own kind as an alternative to forced sex work or death was a heavy story to take in. In this story, we follow a character filled with frustration, remorse, and anger. We follow her journey of alcohol dependence and addiction and how she tackles recovery. We see her become empowered enough to finally make a bold stand against the king and we see her open herself up to connection and community after distancing herself for so long.
I have a lot of love for the sad characters overwhelmed with guilt. Keera is high on the list of fictional characters in desperate need of a hug.
I cannot speak to the accuracy of the representation of addiction and recovery so I will speak simply to the, at times, repetitive nature of descriptions surrounding Keera's drinking. There came a certain point early on, before Keera's journey of recovery, where it seemed that at least once each chapter, we began with a sentence mentioning Keera's grabbing or drinking wine. We also got many descriptions of her annebreated and/or hungover state on top of those mentions of drinking so the presence of both felt to be extraneous at times. I think the story could be improved by a bit of editing in that department.
In contrast to the frequent descriptions of Keera's drinking, though, I think we got too little of certain physical descriptions. When a new character was introduced, we got a brief description of skin color left at either "pale", "light brown", or "dark brown" before getting their eye color, hair color, and (maybe) how their hair was styled. We would then get frequent repeating descriptions of certain characters' hair and eyes but rarely anything else and I think a bit more detail could be given for a more rounded out image. I think what we got was a solid bare minimum that could be pushed a bit more- luckily this is the first in a series and the author has plenty of opportunity to adjust (if they want to).
As for character development and growth, I'm really impressed with this debut. Something I loved so much about this story was the relationships between our main group on their mission to overthrow the government and cause social disruption. These relationships thrive not only one how deeply they are committed to protecting each other, but in how easily they're able to hold one another accountable and critique clashing perspectives. These characters are quick to acknowledge when someone isn't pulling their weight or speaking from a place of hypocrisy. They're unafraid to poke fun at one another and the history we're told is there feels real and believable.
I think this book functions as a great jumping-off point and I'm excited to see how our anonymous author develops the story further now that we have the bulk of the world-building out of the way. We've been given such an expansive world of vigilantes and casually queer characters navigating perspective clashes and flaws that make for the most interesting alliances and dynamics. I'm most curious to see how the themes surrounding colonization and the survival of an oppressed people carries on because the pieces we get hold so many layers.
TLDR: I have a crush of half the cast of characters and I'm desperate to get any future updates for later installments. I am unwell in the best way.
CW: Addiction + substance abuse, murder, death, self harm, violence, brief explicit sexual content, recurring themes of colonialism + systemic violence, torture, references to sexual assault, depression, brief moment of suicidal ideation
In a quick-paced high fantasy story centering a morally gray and sarcastic main character navigating a magic-filled Faerie society with a deep-rooted desire to rid her home of the Crown entirely, we can see the author's love for popular BookTok series within the same series. This book exists as a love letter to BookTok and it's very clear (in the best way).
First of all, I have an emotional attachment to Keera. In this world that breaks various groups of mortals and non-mortals alike into classes, we see effects of a strict colonial hierarchy put in place and how it impacts those at the bottom of the societal food chain- the Halflings. We are introduced to language variations meant to dehumanize and examples of physical alterations made to better assimilate for survival for the Halflings, and seeing Keera carry the burden of guilt of performing as an assassin for the King that oppresses her own kind as an alternative to forced sex work or death was a heavy story to take in. In this story, we follow a character filled with frustration, remorse, and anger. We follow her journey of alcohol dependence and addiction and how she tackles recovery. We see her become empowered enough to finally make a bold stand against the king and we see her open herself up to connection and community after distancing herself for so long.
I have a lot of love for the sad characters overwhelmed with guilt. Keera is high on the list of fictional characters in desperate need of a hug.
I cannot speak to the accuracy of the representation of addiction and recovery so I will speak simply to the, at times, repetitive nature of descriptions surrounding Keera's drinking. There came a certain point early on, before Keera's journey of recovery, where it seemed that at least once each chapter, we began with a sentence mentioning Keera's grabbing or drinking wine. We also got many descriptions of her annebreated and/or hungover state on top of those mentions of drinking so the presence of both felt to be extraneous at times. I think the story could be improved by a bit of editing in that department.
In contrast to the frequent descriptions of Keera's drinking, though, I think we got too little of certain physical descriptions. When a new character was introduced, we got a brief description of skin color left at either "pale", "light brown", or "dark brown" before getting their eye color, hair color, and (maybe) how their hair was styled. We would then get frequent repeating descriptions of certain characters' hair and eyes but rarely anything else and I think a bit more detail could be given for a more rounded out image. I think what we got was a solid bare minimum that could be pushed a bit more- luckily this is the first in a series and the author has plenty of opportunity to adjust (if they want to).
As for character development and growth, I'm really impressed with this debut. Something I loved so much about this story was the relationships between our main group on their mission to overthrow the government and cause social disruption. These relationships thrive not only one how deeply they are committed to protecting each other, but in how easily they're able to hold one another accountable and critique clashing perspectives. These characters are quick to acknowledge when someone isn't pulling their weight or speaking from a place of hypocrisy. They're unafraid to poke fun at one another and the history we're told is there feels real and believable.
I think this book functions as a great jumping-off point and I'm excited to see how our anonymous author develops the story further now that we have the bulk of the world-building out of the way. We've been given such an expansive world of vigilantes and casually queer characters navigating perspective clashes and flaws that make for the most interesting alliances and dynamics. I'm most curious to see how the themes surrounding colonization and the survival of an oppressed people carries on because the pieces we get hold so many layers.
TLDR: I have a crush of half the cast of characters and I'm desperate to get any future updates for later installments. I am unwell in the best way.
CW: Addiction + substance abuse, murder, death, self harm, violence, brief explicit sexual content, recurring themes of colonialism + systemic violence, torture, references to sexual assault, depression, brief moment of suicidal ideation
April 6, 2023
This is a new adult fantasy romance that I would say is perfect for fans of Six of Crows. It follows Keera, who is the lead assassin and spy for the King. When a mysterious figure called The Shadow starts making moves that threaten the Crown, Keera is called to find, unmask, and stop them. A Broken Blade is fast-paced and action-packed, balanced out with a delectable enemies to lovers, a comforting found family, and a sprinkle of spice. It is SO addicting, and I literally finished it in just over 24 hours - with a break for sleep, of course - and though it was partly in order to solve the mystery, it was also because this book is genuinely that good and I never wanted to set it down. Genius marketing ploy aside, the writing is smart and oh so fun.
This work is first and foremost a critique of the current canon of fantasy romance, utilizing familiar tropes and elements while calling to attention the way a lot of popular fantasy romance mistreats and mishandles its darker themes. Particularly, it recalls a lot of the colonized-kingdom settings of these other stories and turns the lens towards the indigenous and oppressed people of those lands, asking how they would fare in these worlds and in doing so, pointing out the flaws of those colonialist narratives. Where it mimics these other works, it deconstructs them, and brilliantly so.
There's also a pretty huge issue in popular fantasy romance when it comes to representation, but this book fills its pages with diversity. Essentially all the characters of this world are queer until proven straight. The MC is canonically queer and POC (and the absolute LOML) and all of the characters, aside from a few, are POC as well. There is a side character that is disabled and though her on-page presence is brief, it is powerful. She is described as a wheelchair user and the thought that has gone into the way that she would move, function, and even dress was incredible throughout. And moreover, her disability never gets in the way of her success, as a valuable member of the Crown. It is obvious that the author cares deeply about positive and diverse representation, and it greatly elevates the material. As I mentioned earlier, this book comments on the current canon of fantasy romance, and it absolutely uses this wealth of diversity as a tool in which to do so.
Now, I can't talk about a fantasy romance without mentioning the romance. The main romance in this book is a m/f enemies-to-lovers and OH. MY. GOD. And the thing I greatly appreciate about the romance is despite the fact that it is m/f, the characters' queerness feels tangible in their relationship. What I mean by this is that their relationship and their dynamics do not correlate to gender or gender roles at all. I think this is partially due to the author's indigenous background, as often indigenous communities view gender in a way that is less binary and rigid, where as a white version of this story will emphasize gendered experiences. But in this story, the things that they find sexy and attractive about the other are genderless traits like strength and beauty and kindness, not centered around the concepts of masculine and feminine. (Again, a huge contrast to other fantasy romances that overemphasize the masculine and feminine to a point of bioessentialism.) Honestly, the compliments they gave to each other, the way that they trusted each others' independence and skill, and the way they listened to each other was what made the relationship work so well for me as a reader. It felt as though they were people to each other first, and their gender didn't matter to either of them. It was wonderfully queer.
Another thing that I felt was handled very well was the MC's alcoholism. The character's struggle is intense and honest and raw, and the topic itself is handled with such grace and care. It is a tool in the story, and not just a careless obstacle.
Lastly, I feel as though I should mention that the biggest over-arching theme of this book is the negative effects of colonization both on a large scale and an individual scale. It specifically shows the way of life for marginalized communities within a colonized society: the different types of coping mechanisms that are used for the sake of survival both mental and physical, and the forced assimilation of the "other" within that society. It discusses the reduction of a whole person to a marginalized identity, the boxes individuals must live within in order to survive within their assigned identity, and how it feels to feel powerless against the system that put them there. It held wonderful conversation about how those that have been colonized often don't have the privilege of acting under their own moral compasses; how they have to do what they can to keep themselves and others alive and safe and should not be judged for the actions they take to survive, regardless of the consequences. (No ethical consumption under capitalism, for example.)
I truly can not speak of this book highly enough, and am pleasantly surprised to have found a new world of characters to love out of what was initially just a bit to me. If you were on the fence about this book, thinking it might just be a mediocre book hiding under a large marketing campaign, I can assure you that that is far from the truth. The marketing campaign is a well-planned treasure map to the absolute gem that is this book. I can not WAIT to read the rest of this series.
P.S. Good soup.
CW: alcoholism, sexual content (on-page), colonialism, depression, systemic violence, violence, suicidal ideation (brief), self-harm, grief, assault, vomit
This work is first and foremost a critique of the current canon of fantasy romance, utilizing familiar tropes and elements while calling to attention the way a lot of popular fantasy romance mistreats and mishandles its darker themes. Particularly, it recalls a lot of the colonized-kingdom settings of these other stories and turns the lens towards the indigenous and oppressed people of those lands, asking how they would fare in these worlds and in doing so, pointing out the flaws of those colonialist narratives. Where it mimics these other works, it deconstructs them, and brilliantly so.
There's also a pretty huge issue in popular fantasy romance when it comes to representation, but this book fills its pages with diversity. Essentially all the characters of this world are queer until proven straight. The MC is canonically queer and POC (and the absolute LOML) and all of the characters, aside from a few, are POC as well. There is a side character that is disabled and though her on-page presence is brief, it is powerful. She is described as a wheelchair user and the thought that has gone into the way that she would move, function, and even dress was incredible throughout. And moreover, her disability never gets in the way of her success, as a valuable member of the Crown. It is obvious that the author cares deeply about positive and diverse representation, and it greatly elevates the material. As I mentioned earlier, this book comments on the current canon of fantasy romance, and it absolutely uses this wealth of diversity as a tool in which to do so.
Now, I can't talk about a fantasy romance without mentioning the romance. The main romance in this book is a m/f enemies-to-lovers and OH. MY. GOD. And the thing I greatly appreciate about the romance is despite the fact that it is m/f, the characters' queerness feels tangible in their relationship. What I mean by this is that their relationship and their dynamics do not correlate to gender or gender roles at all. I think this is partially due to the author's indigenous background, as often indigenous communities view gender in a way that is less binary and rigid, where as a white version of this story will emphasize gendered experiences. But in this story, the things that they find sexy and attractive about the other are genderless traits like strength and beauty and kindness, not centered around the concepts of masculine and feminine. (Again, a huge contrast to other fantasy romances that overemphasize the masculine and feminine to a point of bioessentialism.) Honestly, the compliments they gave to each other, the way that they trusted each others' independence and skill, and the way they listened to each other was what made the relationship work so well for me as a reader. It felt as though they were people to each other first, and their gender didn't matter to either of them. It was wonderfully queer.
Another thing that I felt was handled very well was the MC's alcoholism. The character's struggle is intense and honest and raw, and the topic itself is handled with such grace and care. It is a tool in the story, and not just a careless obstacle.
Lastly, I feel as though I should mention that the biggest over-arching theme of this book is the negative effects of colonization both on a large scale and an individual scale. It specifically shows the way of life for marginalized communities within a colonized society: the different types of coping mechanisms that are used for the sake of survival both mental and physical, and the forced assimilation of the "other" within that society. It discusses the reduction of a whole person to a marginalized identity, the boxes individuals must live within in order to survive within their assigned identity, and how it feels to feel powerless against the system that put them there. It held wonderful conversation about how those that have been colonized often don't have the privilege of acting under their own moral compasses; how they have to do what they can to keep themselves and others alive and safe and should not be judged for the actions they take to survive, regardless of the consequences. (No ethical consumption under capitalism, for example.)
I truly can not speak of this book highly enough, and am pleasantly surprised to have found a new world of characters to love out of what was initially just a bit to me. If you were on the fence about this book, thinking it might just be a mediocre book hiding under a large marketing campaign, I can assure you that that is far from the truth. The marketing campaign is a well-planned treasure map to the absolute gem that is this book. I can not WAIT to read the rest of this series.
P.S. Good soup.
CW: alcoholism, sexual content (on-page), colonialism, depression, systemic violence, violence, suicidal ideation (brief), self-harm, grief, assault, vomit
October 31, 2022
overview:
🆗 Slow burn romance
🆗 Flawed protagonist
🆗 Fae fantasy
🆗 Fantasy romance
👎Easy Read (but bad prose)
A Broken Blade follows Keera, who is more or less the world's most dangerous woman. She is the king's blade- owned by him due to her status as a halfling, and yet she truly hates him despite doing all of his dirty work. She is extremely edgy and cool 100% of the time and everyone fears her.
Keera goes on a covert mission for the king and uncovers a revolution right under his nose. The question is..will she fight it or join it?
Oh boy so okay. A Broken Blade is an adult series for people who think Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses is masterpiece shit. I do not anticipate this being a popular read for anyone outside the fantasy romance circle. I do however, think that for anyone reading this who is addicted to Patricia Briggs, Laura Thalassa, Danielle L. Jensen, Lexi Ryan, and Sarah J Maas this is sure to be a 5 star read for you.
The writing is...pretty juvenile and comes across like an Amazon fantasy romance, but it would be forgivable if the book was redeeming itself in other ways. I was pretty intrigued for the first 100 pages or so, but we go downhill fast when we meet the main character's love interest; a man with absolutely no personality to speak of. Their romance is slower than other work in this genre, but it's absolutely not enemies to lovers as its been advertised. Again, all forgivable if her love interest was interesting at all. Hes built to simply be someone for Keera to fall for, but his own motivations or traits are a blur. His friends (side characters) were all more interesting than him.
I also found Keera to be less than compelling. She's one of those "i'm edgy and kill people' characters, but she's got a real Lila Bard type of perfection where despite being 'morally grey' she's also a good person whose forced to do bad things. she's the strongest, moist beautiful person in the story and her huge flaw is that she's haunted by what she's forces to do for the king. Its fine...its just not compelling and borders on edgy sue territory.
The middle of this fairly long book also has a lot of dragging ass. Keera reflects on how much she hates her job, they all reflect on killing the king. You can probably put about 150 pages about this topic solidly if you added it all up.
Good things: This is labeled as a fantasy romance, but it really does TRY to build out a world and side characters even if I don't think it lands. I'd love to see more authors follow this trend. The story is really how was skimmed through the last 200 pages or so after the romance started to get going.
Once again I just learned what I should already know: I WANT fantasy romance to be my genre, but its current popular tropes and storytelling I just can't get behind.
🆗 Slow burn romance
🆗 Flawed protagonist
🆗 Fae fantasy
🆗 Fantasy romance
👎Easy Read (but bad prose)
A Broken Blade follows Keera, who is more or less the world's most dangerous woman. She is the king's blade- owned by him due to her status as a halfling, and yet she truly hates him despite doing all of his dirty work. She is extremely edgy and cool 100% of the time and everyone fears her.
Keera goes on a covert mission for the king and uncovers a revolution right under his nose. The question is..will she fight it or join it?
Oh boy so okay. A Broken Blade is an adult series for people who think Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses is masterpiece shit. I do not anticipate this being a popular read for anyone outside the fantasy romance circle. I do however, think that for anyone reading this who is addicted to Patricia Briggs, Laura Thalassa, Danielle L. Jensen, Lexi Ryan, and Sarah J Maas this is sure to be a 5 star read for you.
The writing is...pretty juvenile and comes across like an Amazon fantasy romance, but it would be forgivable if the book was redeeming itself in other ways. I was pretty intrigued for the first 100 pages or so, but we go downhill fast when we meet the main character's love interest; a man with absolutely no personality to speak of. Their romance is slower than other work in this genre, but it's absolutely not enemies to lovers as its been advertised. Again, all forgivable if her love interest was interesting at all. Hes built to simply be someone for Keera to fall for, but his own motivations or traits are a blur. His friends (side characters) were all more interesting than him.
I also found Keera to be less than compelling. She's one of those "i'm edgy and kill people' characters, but she's got a real Lila Bard type of perfection where despite being 'morally grey' she's also a good person whose forced to do bad things. she's the strongest, moist beautiful person in the story and her huge flaw is that she's haunted by what she's forces to do for the king. Its fine...its just not compelling and borders on edgy sue territory.
The middle of this fairly long book also has a lot of dragging ass. Keera reflects on how much she hates her job, they all reflect on killing the king. You can probably put about 150 pages about this topic solidly if you added it all up.
Good things: This is labeled as a fantasy romance, but it really does TRY to build out a world and side characters even if I don't think it lands. I'd love to see more authors follow this trend. The story is really how was skimmed through the last 200 pages or so after the romance started to get going.
Once again I just learned what I should already know: I WANT fantasy romance to be my genre, but its current popular tropes and storytelling I just can't get behind.
February 8, 2024
Posso dire che è stata una sorpresa inaspettata? Voglio il secondo libro, ora!
August 16, 2024
it was… okay. i’m curious enough to read the second one
considering it’s Melissa’s first book, it makes sense that some of the storytelling fell a bit to the wayside. i’m hoping as the series goes on it’ll only get better 😭
considering it’s Melissa’s first book, it makes sense that some of the storytelling fell a bit to the wayside. i’m hoping as the series goes on it’ll only get better 😭
August 26, 2022
Me waiting for this book to end:
I don't even know what to say. It's just your basic YA/NA fantasy replete with all the standard tropes. The writing didn't completely suck so that's good. And the cover's cool. There's that, too.
I don't even know what to say. It's just your basic YA/NA fantasy replete with all the standard tropes. The writing didn't completely suck so that's good. And the cover's cool. There's that, too.
December 11, 2021
I want to start out with saying this review will be addressing alcoholism if that’s a trigger for you please don’t read this review.
So at first I was really excited for this book as I was seeing the hype on booktok and figured I would give it a shot. The more I read the more I got frustrated that the author who ever they maybe had a protection agains responsibility at least until they revel who they are.
I was very unhappy with the way Keera’s addiction to alcohol was described. To sum it up Keera is an alcoholic and has been for many years. When she shows up to a duel against the shadow and almost loses because she’s drunk she decides to just stop drinking. Which would be great if addiction was really that easy. She starts using this berry substance to help deal with the craving. Which this reads to me switching one addictive substance to another but okay. We kinda of Yad yad over her struggle with becoming sober until after a hard moment she drinks herself silly. When she comes too it’s not really addressed and is yet again just kinda skipped over. Until 17 pages til the end of the book when she’s offered wine and turns it down because she doesn’t trust herself , which is great other than the fact there was no growth to get to this point of realization at least not with dealing with her addiction. I was honestly shocked how flippantly this was all handled if I’m being honest.
The book itself barring everything I just talked about was fine maybe even good. But it didn’t feel like anything I hadn’t read a hundred times before. I truly think if this big marketing with the anonymous author hadn’t been there this book wouldn’t be doing as well as it is.
So at first I was really excited for this book as I was seeing the hype on booktok and figured I would give it a shot. The more I read the more I got frustrated that the author who ever they maybe had a protection agains responsibility at least until they revel who they are.
I was very unhappy with the way Keera’s addiction to alcohol was described. To sum it up Keera is an alcoholic and has been for many years. When she shows up to a duel against the shadow and almost loses because she’s drunk she decides to just stop drinking. Which would be great if addiction was really that easy. She starts using this berry substance to help deal with the craving. Which this reads to me switching one addictive substance to another but okay. We kinda of Yad yad over her struggle with becoming sober until after a hard moment she drinks herself silly. When she comes too it’s not really addressed and is yet again just kinda skipped over. Until 17 pages til the end of the book when she’s offered wine and turns it down because she doesn’t trust herself , which is great other than the fact there was no growth to get to this point of realization at least not with dealing with her addiction. I was honestly shocked how flippantly this was all handled if I’m being honest.
The book itself barring everything I just talked about was fine maybe even good. But it didn’t feel like anything I hadn’t read a hundred times before. I truly think if this big marketing with the anonymous author hadn’t been there this book wouldn’t be doing as well as it is.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2021
Honestly I don’t know what to say other than that this book wasn’t for me. I usually don’t read this kind of fantasy novel honestly but the author mystery got me. Of course I literally don’t know any BookTokers so I couldn’t even begin to guess who the author was but I figured I’d read it anyway. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough to keep me invested in the story. But I will say for the author that a) their marketing was genius and b) the writing was very smooth!
December 12, 2021
DNFing for now, I'm not in the mood for it at all and would rather read better stuff especially after just getting out of a 6 month long reading slump. The writings alright and the plot is pretty much basic bitch fantasy, I can see how you could enjoy it but I got to almost halfway before pulling the plug on it :/
March 4, 2024
Character: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Plot: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Prose: ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
World: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
OVERALL: ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Well … that was a book.
A book full of typos and incorrect terminology (you do not holster a sword, a holster is for a firearm), and boring, inconsistent characters that I just … urgh. URGH. The best bit was reading it on Discord with friends, because that made it the funny kind of bad instead of the kind of bad where you have to suffer on your lonesome because you have no one to talk to about this book I have been reading and please I need to talk about it my GOD— Anyway, this is how I want to read these YA/NA TikTok books from now on. For my mental health, see. I should probably stop reading them all together, but where’s the fun in that?
ONWARDS!
A Broken Blade is a story about our main girlboss, Keera, being a reluctant assassin for the evil tyrant colonising king. She then goes on a quest to find and apprehend a terrorist called the Shadow who has been targeting the kingdom, and learns more about the kingdom and those she serves than she’d ever dared to imagine. In order to free her fellow minorities, she must girlboss all over King Aemon (no, not a Targaryen).
Keera, as mentioned before, is our main girlboss. Just like Celaena before her, she is the bestest of best assassins ever, but she comes with a slight drinking problem, self-harm tendencies (kind of), and a truckload of depression enough to have a dramatic, Furiosa scream to the heavens when two people she has never met die in front of her. She was very frustrating to follow, being inconsistent with her motives (she does not want to be the Blade and tells us how much she despises taking life, but then will turn around and stab people for being collateral when there are literally other solutions available with about three seconds of thinking) and a crippling case of “I must be the most badass character in the room” and subsequently robbing people of being smart and capable themselves. Did you know you can capture a 5,000 year old warrior elf just by sneaking up on her with a blowdart? Because how else is Keera going to show how much of a badass she is when she executes the rescue mission? Her whims and motives have the same unfortunate tendencies as one of our favourite BookTok queens, Sarah Maas’s, characters, that being their entire existences coast off “vibes”. In this part of the book, we want badass vibes so that she can cold-heartedly murder people. In this part of the book, we want dramatic vibes so that we can race the clock and ride our horses to death (despite the fact that huffing them up on magic cocaine is not a solution). In that part of the book, it’s tragic hero vibes when she almost blows herself up and asks to be left to die, for she is too damaged, and tired, and evil for this world, as her boyfriend tearfully carries her off bridal-style to try and save her life.
Can we stop writing YA protagonists whose entire personalities are vibes? Thanks! :)
The supporting characters were likewise frustrating to read about. They didn’t seem very smart or beholden to being themselves because of the whims of the plot. They defer to Keera for seemingly stupid reasons, they constantly hold the Idiot Ball so Keera can show off, and overall just plain suck. Their only purpose is to act as Keera’s cheerleaders. You go, girlboss! Go gaslight gatekeep them bitches!
Next, I want to touch on the insane number of typos in this book and the countless examples of misused terminology, such as the holster one mentioned above. We have characters who treaded off the main path, despite treaded only being a word in the context of “treaded tyres”, characters “setting the charges” for their gunpowder plots, despite setting charges needing electricity to actually work, the leaf of rabbit (wtf?), the constant “farther” vs. “further” confusions, etc. The typos were at least funny. You have characters avoiding each other in alleys by giving them “wide births”, one character biting the inside of his “check”, and a particularly memorable one at the end where the apostrophe in “don’t” is replaced by its unicode character (don2019;t). I hope these typos are not in the print version. Especially the last one.
This is an excellent part to segway into the poor prose. You can really tell this is one of the author’s first attempts at writing a book, if not the first. Overall, it was amateur. The characters are constantly communicating with the same five actions of body language (smirking, stiffening backs, brows furrowing, taking single steps towards another character/object, etc. did you know the word “brow” appears in the book more times than Keera’s name? (137 vs. 120)), and there is very little variety in the prose; lots of sentences starting with “I did action”, lots of fragmented sentences, and repeating words. The more egregious instances of the bad writing though were in the action sequences, which were written in a very wooden step-by-step manner of “I did this, my opponent did that, and this was the outcome. Repeat until scene is finished”. Very video gamey. Very IKEA manual. Slay, kween! This book definitely needed more time in the oven, and more drafts.
The worldbuilding was not that well thought out, especially, for me, regarding how old stuff is. You have characters who are hundreds or even thousands of years old, but acting like shitty teenagers or incredibly stupid adults who go through life by throwing literal tantrums. What? I think the idea of multiple celestial bodies such as the multiple suns or moons was cool, but it really feels like an afterthought. There wasn’t anything in the way how two suns might affect anything. Are the lengths of days and nights different to Earth’s because of how light falls on spheres? Do the suns and moons even have different names? There were mention of “gods” in the world, but what gods? What religion? Is Keera religious? Or is it just a left over expression from a time before the king oppressed religion and now everyone’s agnostic or atheist or they worship him as a god king? Be prepared to never find out because it’s only mentioned once at the end. For flavour like so much else.
Finally, the book wanted to do an exploration of a colonised people, but I felt this was a very surface level kind of exploration. There’s a lot of talk about Halflings being oppressed, but the oppression they face is very … I want to say “20th/21st century flavour” as in these characters aren’t allowed to do things full-blooded humans can because they have icky Elf/Fae blood, and are enslaved by either being put into brothels or made into assassins for the king or they’re put into work camps or something. I’m not actually sure, because it’s never really talked about other than as bad things that are happening somewhere vaguely on the map. The situation sucks, but it sucks in a very sanitised “over there” fashion. It’s something we as readers can all agree is bad without having to do much else. It’s a Colonialism Aftermath 101 online echo chamber, and for that it’s just boring, and kind of insulting. It’s acknowledging a very harmful, traumatised, hurting, and deepset issue in society, and just slapping the terminal online bandaid on it by having Keera roast other characters for not doing enough to help, reminiscent of what one does when constructing clapback arguments in the shower. But the big solution to fixing this as presented by the book is our main cast plotting to kill the head of government. Because that makes sense I guess. Never mind that the government has been running on this system for seven hundred years and so produced dozens of generations of people (on both sides!) who like it and wouldn’t want it to change. Didn’t you know that discrimination stops being a thing when a head of government vacates their position and all the prejudices and policies and attitudes that are baked into the society they were the head of are just wiped out overnight? Damn, me neither. That’s what I wanted to explore. Keera girly, you stinky badger, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one here.
Finally, we’ll touch on Keera’s drinking. Her alcohol dependency was not well written. She can kick it with very little effort other than some cravings every so often to remind us that that was a thing. Because didn’t you know, if you just try hard enough, you can bin any of your drug dependency habits just like that! If you’ve got the willpowerrrrr! What do you mean it can come with health effects? What do you mean going cold turkey after thirty years of drinking daily until you’re blind drunk can kill you? The same lack of thought is taken regarding the self-harm. Keera cuts the names of her targets into her skin every time she kills them, and says she does it to remember her victims. I thought this was a cool idea until she mentions that she makes her scars look pretty by designing them like Elven warrior tattoos, which really distorts the message being delivered. Are you doing penance, do you actually have mental health issues regarding self-harm, or are you just doing it to give yourself edgy tattoos?
I guess mixed messages is the ultimate message of the book, and I hope the next books Melissa Blair writes have gone through more rounds of revision. But for now, I’m just glad it’s done. If you want to read a fantasy book about badass ladies fighting colonialism, just read The Final Strife ; it does everything A Broken Blade wants to do, better.
Plot: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Prose: ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
World: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
OVERALL: ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Well … that was a book.
A book full of typos and incorrect terminology (you do not holster a sword, a holster is for a firearm), and boring, inconsistent characters that I just … urgh. URGH. The best bit was reading it on Discord with friends, because that made it the funny kind of bad instead of the kind of bad where you have to suffer on your lonesome because you have no one to talk to about this book I have been reading and please I need to talk about it my GOD— Anyway, this is how I want to read these YA/NA TikTok books from now on. For my mental health, see. I should probably stop reading them all together, but where’s the fun in that?
ONWARDS!
A Broken Blade is a story about our main girlboss, Keera, being a reluctant assassin for the evil tyrant colonising king. She then goes on a quest to find and apprehend a terrorist called the Shadow who has been targeting the kingdom, and learns more about the kingdom and those she serves than she’d ever dared to imagine. In order to free her fellow minorities, she must girlboss all over King Aemon (no, not a Targaryen).
Keera, as mentioned before, is our main girlboss. Just like Celaena before her, she is the bestest of best assassins ever, but she comes with a slight drinking problem, self-harm tendencies (kind of), and a truckload of depression enough to have a dramatic, Furiosa scream to the heavens when two people she has never met die in front of her. She was very frustrating to follow, being inconsistent with her motives (she does not want to be the Blade and tells us how much she despises taking life, but then will turn around and stab people for being collateral when there are literally other solutions available with about three seconds of thinking) and a crippling case of “I must be the most badass character in the room” and subsequently robbing people of being smart and capable themselves. Did you know you can capture a 5,000 year old warrior elf just by sneaking up on her with a blowdart? Because how else is Keera going to show how much of a badass she is when she executes the rescue mission? Her whims and motives have the same unfortunate tendencies as one of our favourite BookTok queens, Sarah Maas’s, characters, that being their entire existences coast off “vibes”. In this part of the book, we want badass vibes so that she can cold-heartedly murder people. In this part of the book, we want dramatic vibes so that we can race the clock and ride our horses to death (despite the fact that huffing them up on magic cocaine is not a solution). In that part of the book, it’s tragic hero vibes when she almost blows herself up and asks to be left to die, for she is too damaged, and tired, and evil for this world, as her boyfriend tearfully carries her off bridal-style to try and save her life.
Can we stop writing YA protagonists whose entire personalities are vibes? Thanks! :)
The supporting characters were likewise frustrating to read about. They didn’t seem very smart or beholden to being themselves because of the whims of the plot. They defer to Keera for seemingly stupid reasons, they constantly hold the Idiot Ball so Keera can show off, and overall just plain suck. Their only purpose is to act as Keera’s cheerleaders. You go, girlboss! Go gaslight gatekeep them bitches!
Next, I want to touch on the insane number of typos in this book and the countless examples of misused terminology, such as the holster one mentioned above. We have characters who treaded off the main path, despite treaded only being a word in the context of “treaded tyres”, characters “setting the charges” for their gunpowder plots, despite setting charges needing electricity to actually work, the leaf of rabbit (wtf?), the constant “farther” vs. “further” confusions, etc. The typos were at least funny. You have characters avoiding each other in alleys by giving them “wide births”, one character biting the inside of his “check”, and a particularly memorable one at the end where the apostrophe in “don’t” is replaced by its unicode character (don2019;t). I hope these typos are not in the print version. Especially the last one.
This is an excellent part to segway into the poor prose. You can really tell this is one of the author’s first attempts at writing a book, if not the first. Overall, it was amateur. The characters are constantly communicating with the same five actions of body language (smirking, stiffening backs, brows furrowing, taking single steps towards another character/object, etc. did you know the word “brow” appears in the book more times than Keera’s name? (137 vs. 120)), and there is very little variety in the prose; lots of sentences starting with “I did action”, lots of fragmented sentences, and repeating words. The more egregious instances of the bad writing though were in the action sequences, which were written in a very wooden step-by-step manner of “I did this, my opponent did that, and this was the outcome. Repeat until scene is finished”. Very video gamey. Very IKEA manual. Slay, kween! This book definitely needed more time in the oven, and more drafts.
The worldbuilding was not that well thought out, especially, for me, regarding how old stuff is. You have characters who are hundreds or even thousands of years old, but acting like shitty teenagers or incredibly stupid adults who go through life by throwing literal tantrums. What? I think the idea of multiple celestial bodies such as the multiple suns or moons was cool, but it really feels like an afterthought. There wasn’t anything in the way how two suns might affect anything. Are the lengths of days and nights different to Earth’s because of how light falls on spheres? Do the suns and moons even have different names? There were mention of “gods” in the world, but what gods? What religion? Is Keera religious? Or is it just a left over expression from a time before the king oppressed religion and now everyone’s agnostic or atheist or they worship him as a god king? Be prepared to never find out because it’s only mentioned once at the end. For flavour like so much else.
Finally, the book wanted to do an exploration of a colonised people, but I felt this was a very surface level kind of exploration. There’s a lot of talk about Halflings being oppressed, but the oppression they face is very … I want to say “20th/21st century flavour” as in these characters aren’t allowed to do things full-blooded humans can because they have icky Elf/Fae blood, and are enslaved by either being put into brothels or made into assassins for the king or they’re put into work camps or something. I’m not actually sure, because it’s never really talked about other than as bad things that are happening somewhere vaguely on the map. The situation sucks, but it sucks in a very sanitised “over there” fashion. It’s something we as readers can all agree is bad without having to do much else. It’s a Colonialism Aftermath 101 online echo chamber, and for that it’s just boring, and kind of insulting. It’s acknowledging a very harmful, traumatised, hurting, and deepset issue in society, and just slapping the terminal online bandaid on it by having Keera roast other characters for not doing enough to help, reminiscent of what one does when constructing clapback arguments in the shower. But the big solution to fixing this as presented by the book is our main cast plotting to kill the head of government. Because that makes sense I guess. Never mind that the government has been running on this system for seven hundred years and so produced dozens of generations of people (on both sides!) who like it and wouldn’t want it to change. Didn’t you know that discrimination stops being a thing when a head of government vacates their position and all the prejudices and policies and attitudes that are baked into the society they were the head of are just wiped out overnight? Damn, me neither. That’s what I wanted to explore. Keera girly, you stinky badger, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one here.
Finally, we’ll touch on Keera’s drinking. Her alcohol dependency was not well written. She can kick it with very little effort other than some cravings every so often to remind us that that was a thing. Because didn’t you know, if you just try hard enough, you can bin any of your drug dependency habits just like that! If you’ve got the willpowerrrrr! What do you mean it can come with health effects? What do you mean going cold turkey after thirty years of drinking daily until you’re blind drunk can kill you? The same lack of thought is taken regarding the self-harm. Keera cuts the names of her targets into her skin every time she kills them, and says she does it to remember her victims. I thought this was a cool idea until she mentions that she makes her scars look pretty by designing them like Elven warrior tattoos, which really distorts the message being delivered. Are you doing penance, do you actually have mental health issues regarding self-harm, or are you just doing it to give yourself edgy tattoos?
I guess mixed messages is the ultimate message of the book, and I hope the next books Melissa Blair writes have gone through more rounds of revision. But for now, I’m just glad it’s done. If you want to read a fantasy book about badass ladies fighting colonialism, just read The Final Strife ; it does everything A Broken Blade wants to do, better.
August 17, 2024
4⭐️ I was pleasantly suprised by this and really enjoyed it. Main character gave big Celaena Sardothian vibes which I loved
December 31, 2023
3,5 - 4🌟
Rtc!
Rtc!
February 12, 2023
A perfect serviceable NA fantasy. I don't think I have that much to say here, because if you can think of a popular trope that has appeared on TikTok in the past 3 years, it shows up at some point in this story. I'm not saying this as a knock against it - it executes all these tropes perfectly well and to their full capacity, and I think the story gets better as it goes along.
If you're looking for something to pull you out of a reading slump, this would be perfect. If you're looking for something fresh and exciting, you may want to look elsewhere
If you're looking for something to pull you out of a reading slump, this would be perfect. If you're looking for something fresh and exciting, you may want to look elsewhere
September 1, 2022
A fun, trope-y adventure in a pseudo-medieval setting.
August 12, 2024
❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
August 24, 2024
No ha sido para mí 😭. La trama está entretenida pero es demasiado estereotipada y “larga”. Podía haberse concretado más. Siempre os doy mi opinión, pero es mi opinión de lectora de mucha fantasía, por lo que si a mí no me sorprende, no quiere decir que a vosotros tampoco eh🥰 Yo personalmente no voy a continuar esta saga pero a vosotros os animo a descubrirla. Está bien narrado, con sus personajes definidos y una trama correcta, pero he de decir que he leído decenas de libros así 🥲
May 19, 2024
Eine solide Fae-Geschichte, die in vielen Punkten an »Throne of Glass« erinnerte, jedoch in einer deutlich schwächeren Version. Leider konnte mich das (Hör)buch nicht wie gewünscht von sich überzeugen, sodass ich bereits wenige Tage nach Beenden des Buches den Plot kaum noch im Kopf behalten habe. Bis der zweite Band erscheint habe ich dann definitiv schon alles wieder vergessen und es reizt mich ehrlich gesagt auch gar nicht, die Reihe weiterzuverfolgen...
July 21, 2022
listen i wasn’t expecting much but i did enjoy this especially for a debut novel i’m excited for the next book
February 26, 2023
I'm embarrassed it took me so long to get my hands on this book because A Broken Blade is truly as amazing as so many of my mutuals said it was. I immediately was captivated by Keera as a character and this world in the first few pages of the novel. This world reminded me a lot of the fantasy films and shows I love, such as The Witcher. Often times, I feel super confused as a fantasy reader about how the politics and magic systems work in a fantasy world, but Melissa Blair did such a great job of immersing us into Keera's world. There are also several characters introduced throughout the novel, and the role they each play in this world's politics and class systems were also easy to follow along.
Speaking of characters, Keera's character development was so well done throughout this novel. I fully empathized with her backstory and journey as the Blade that secretly harbors treasonous feelings against her king while juggling survivor's guilt and her addiction. There were so many times where I wanted to give her a hug and tell her everything would be okay 😭. Her compassion for all Halfings, including the Shades, is so apparent and I admire her strength greatly for having that compassion while being a "cold-blooded killer."
The dynamics between Keera, Riven, Nikolai, and Syrra were also super interesting to follow. I did partially spoil myself for the big reveal at the end of the book (because I read the synopsis of Book 2 before starting this book 🤧) so I wasn't incredibly shocked when reading the ending, but it was still a super captivating ending! I'll beg if I have to for an ARC of A Shadow Crown because I just know the angst between Keera and Riven, as well as Syrra and Nikolai tbh, will be through the roof in the sequel.
Overall, this was a fantastic fantasy from debut Indigenous author Melissa Blair and as a follower of hers before the self-pub release of A Broken Blade, I'm so proud of everything she has accomplished!
Follow me on TikTok | Instagram | Twitter for more book reviews & recommendations!
Speaking of characters, Keera's character development was so well done throughout this novel. I fully empathized with her backstory and journey as the Blade that secretly harbors treasonous feelings against her king while juggling survivor's guilt and her addiction. There were so many times where I wanted to give her a hug and tell her everything would be okay 😭. Her compassion for all Halfings, including the Shades, is so apparent and I admire her strength greatly for having that compassion while being a "cold-blooded killer."
The dynamics between Keera, Riven, Nikolai, and Syrra were also super interesting to follow. I did partially spoil myself for the big reveal at the end of the book (because I read the synopsis of Book 2 before starting this book 🤧) so I wasn't incredibly shocked when reading the ending, but it was still a super captivating ending! I'll beg if I have to for an ARC of A Shadow Crown because I just know the angst between Keera and Riven, as well as Syrra and Nikolai tbh, will be through the roof in the sequel.
Overall, this was a fantastic fantasy from debut Indigenous author Melissa Blair and as a follower of hers before the self-pub release of A Broken Blade, I'm so proud of everything she has accomplished!
Follow me on TikTok | Instagram | Twitter for more book reviews & recommendations!
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