OK, well I thought the first half of this book was great...interesting characters, friendships forming, some action and plot going on, solid world building, you name it. Then, it slowly began turning into a different story, one filled with melodrama, dialogue that was waaaaayyy too long (started skimming when I saw it was long paragraphs of the same talk over and over), and lots and lots of tears - from so many men! Corin's crying is kinda explainable, but it all got to be a bit...much. I think this could have been a tighter story with some editing, so it wasn't so...wordy? I'm going to give the second one a try though, and see how the series goes!

2.75 ✨

I didn’t completed hate it but I didn’t completely like either. Loved the idea and the concept of the story/ plot but I don’t think it was executed well.

A great book from a new author and it's SF! There's just too much that goes on for me to explain and write a proper review. I really enjoyed this one. Lots of action and a lot of things going on. A great read.

Good intro to this series

There's a lot of great world building in this book which is why it perhaps felt a bit messy at times.

Corin was just a bit too perfect and it felt on occasion that the whole world was just falling at his feet wanting to be his friend.

Kel felt a bit more rounded as a character and the secondary characters and setting was very well done. The Avanti squad are all varied characters I'm going to be interested in reading about.

I believe this was the author's first published book and, having read some of her other works, I think that goes some way to explaining the rougher edges.

The dialogue gets a bit overblown in some of the speeches and I have to admit that 'cute child speak' just grated on my nerves each time she opened her mouth.

But, overall, I enjoyed this first foray into a new series.

Good intro to this series

There's a lot of great world building in this book which is why it perhaps felt a bit messy at times.

Corin was just a bit too perfect and it felt on occasion that the whole world was just falling at his feet wanting to be his friend.

Kel felt a bit more rounded as a character and the secondary characters and setting was very well done. The Avanti squad are all varied characters I'm going to be interested in reading about.

I believe this was the author's first published book and, having read some of her other works, I think that goes some way to explaining the rougher edges.

The dialogue gets a bit overblown in some of the speeches and I have to admit that 'cute child speak' just grated on my nerves each time she opened her mouth.

But, overall, I enjoyed this first foray into a new series.