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Huge thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for a copy of this in return for an honest review.

SPOILERS BELOW

I gave this book 3 stars, not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because there was just so much going on that I would honestly struggle to condense it all into this review. This is a fun, interesting, brilliantly diverse read set in a world that has been thoroughly fleshed out. Both the magic system and the representation of the fae are new, and unlike anything I have read before.

Sbrana clearly spent a lot of time developing this world, and that is absolutely clear. The universe she creates has it’s own rules, and it tends to play by them. I will say she has a habit of deus ex machina-ing her way out of situations. Whilst this is fiction, and I want the MC to succeed, it did start to get a little repetitive that Lore would discover a new power just as she needed to, which I think made suspense harder to establish later in the narrative.

I liked most of the characters. Lore was fiery, Asher was lovable, Finn and Isla both interesting and kind. Some of the characters I struggled to understand the role of. Grey specifically I thought was odd, not that Lore couldn’t have a friend from home, just that his reappearance felt like a side-quest. The whole rescue of Grey I also found a little odd, perhaps some chapters were scrapped for brevity, but we miss out on all of the planning and intrigue, and just kind of see the tail-end of a rescue. It also seemed unlikely that Lore, by herself, would be able to carry this out. It reminded me of the kind of fantasy novels I read as a teenager in the 2010s, a little bit Mary-Sue meets the chosen one; Lore seemed to have mad skills at everything despite an ostensible lack of experience with anything.

On that note I struggled with the writing style / content dichotomy. I felt that this was written in a very YA style, and if asked I would have probably shelved it under YA, even with some of the dry-rutting and violence. Then maybe 7/8ths of the way through we get a sex scene. There was build up, it didn’t come out of nowhere, but I found it pretty at odds with the tone of the novel up until that point.

The twist was great, I didn’t not see it coming (you could definitely see Sbrana building in clues) but it was still very well done. I’d be interested to see how everything will play out here, I don’t know if it will be a duology or more, but I look forward to the next.

This reminds me a lot of Assistant to the Villain, which I read this year, in terms of structure, MC characterisation, and general mayhem; both novels are absolutely packed to bursting with plot-lines and details. There are a lot of differences between them, but I think if you really disliked Maeher’s novel, you might struggle with Sbrana’s. That being said Lore of the Wilds is 10x more diverse, and much more lushly described.

Overall a solid start to a new fantasy series. I don’t know if totally drew me in, but I did stay up late to finish it – so make of that what you will.