Shade Lapite

The 16 year old MC, although young, was so determined, courageous, and had a passion for really making a difference for her country. She had gone through heartwrenching trauma and yet it didn't break her. This was a fast-paced read and while I'm typically not a fan of romance - I didn't find it distracting at all and there wasn't so much of it that the main point of the story got lost. Her spending so much of her life in the forest kinda reminds me of the story of rapunzel in that she was cut off from the world, so to speak, and when she got out into it she really made an impact. This was a beautiful story of a young heroine with the right amount of fantasy, action, suspense, and romance sprinkled in. I'm looking forward to more from this author.… (more)

Goddess Crown works best as a lower YA/Middlegrade book with its writing style. Too much telling and not enough showing.

The book starts with a bang with Kalothia’s guardians being targeted and death and kidnappings around every corner, but it felt emotionally flat. If we had more time with certain characters, maybe I’d be more invested.

Kalothia did well for her circumstances, but I didn’t connect to her. Or the beginnings of a first love, and I absolutely love the royalty falls for the bodyguard and vice versa trope. It's technically not instalove because these two have history, but it their connection is hollow because they've had so few conversations with each others

The court politics were boiled down to the world is sexist/hates women. It worked for me, but I can understand others looking for more intrigue.

Overall, the cover is lovely and drew me to it. I think this was a slow start that might improve if there's a sequel. But this story left me indifferent. The writing style just wasn't for me, but thank you for shorter YA books.… (more)

While it’s refreshing to sit down with a fantasy that isn’t an overstuffed eight hundred page commitment, there were moments here that I wished had been expanded upon, such as the quest Kalothia is sent on, which zipped along faster than I thought it maybe should have, and I also wished this had gone a little more descriptive with the setting as well as the cultural aspects, especially since it’s noted that this was in part inspired by the author’s Nigerian roots, a place and people I’m curious to know more about.

Although I didn’t mind their chemistry, the pacing of the romance didn’t quite work for me, between Kalothia somewhat understandably hung up on animosity towards her love interest for much of the book, and that love interest being a less than stellar communicator for much of that time, too, it left me wanting a few more moments of them genuinely connecting.

As for something I outright loved, Ye Ye, Kalothia’s pet monkey topped the list, I adored this mischevious, smart, loyal little guy.

I also thought Kalothia made for a good heroine. I’m not a big fan of books where someone’s immediately skilled at something they’ve never done before, so I liked that it’s immediately established that Kalothia trained her whole life in physical fighting and she was also taught to take things in intellectually and strategically, so when the circumstances of the story require Kalothia to step up in those areas, you can easily buy in that she can handle herself.

If you’re in the mood for fantasy that moves briskly, this one’s a solid choice with plenty going on storywise, touching on everything from women’s rights to palace intrigue and a murder mystery. As mentioned there were certain things I wanted fleshed out a bit more, but overall it entertained and I’d give the potential sequel a try, I thought this left off in an interesting place for Kalothia (without a cliffhanger).… (more)