Incendiary eARC Review

GoodReads:

An epic tale of revenge and redemption in a world where a memory thief must fight against terrifying monarchs bent on the destruction of her people.

When the royal family of Puerto Leones sets out to destroy magic through a grand and terrible inquisition, spy and memory-thief Renata seeks to kill the prince, leader of the King’s Justice, who plans to use a terrible new weapon to wipe out the magic of the Moria…

For fans who enjoyed the ferocity of Ember in the Ashes, INCENDIARY explores the double-edged sword of memory and the triumph of hope and love in the midst of fear and oppression.

My Review

This is a first but like 3.75/5?? [I would say it’s really more of a four, but, it took me halfway through before it became a four]

The first half of the book has slow pacing and the world-building is a bit vague, which is fine, but it really picks up about 49%, I couldn’t put it down after that!

This is plot-driven versus character-driven, which is fine for me, but sometimes that can be an issue for someone. Our MC is intricate and you can tell there is so much to her personality but it doesn’t surface in this book just yet, we’re cracking barriers though and making headway.

This was set up more like a stepping stone to the story, which is why I say it took up to the 49% mark for me to really hit its stride. We’re getting a glimpse into the world and I’m so excited to see more of it.

The romance is done nicely and the characters are all intriguing though Leo was definitely my favourite! I did have such a hard time liking the Lynx unit, so, I don’t know how I’ll feel about any of them later on, but I am curious to see what happens next!

A fun read, great pacing the second half and lovely flowing writing style!

^ That was my review from GoodReads ^ I feel that it pretty much captured my thoughts on it, but I want to just expand on a few points, do my little pros and cons list as well!

The World-Building wasn’t really done in this book, but, I feel like this is one where we’re going to dip in slowly until we become immersed, so I’m really hopeful on that front. I loved the glimpses we saw but I need more! What are the other lands like, what makes one people magical and others not, how did the metals come into play? I’m so curious because I love the ideas so far!

Again, plot-driven, I loved Renata but the plot was about her abilities and the fear they cause and the way people want to use them. So, I enjoyed that but when we got to the point where we were seeing more of Renata herself and not so focused on the perceptions of her ability, that’s when things started to flow for me! I think this also follows along with the point of the Whispers and the fact that Renata’s unit was just…such a mess in regards to her.

It was annoying while reading to see that Renata had been with them for NINE years and they were still so suspicious of her, it would make more sense if she wasn’t in their unit and hadn’t done anything to help them but she did. So, I really clashed with those characters while reading. [They weren’t all horrible to her!]

The turning point as I said was about halfway through, suddenly everything is just snapping into place for me and I am on this amazingly wild ride! The way that Prince Casian is done is to perfection, I loved the twist on that, the smashing of that stereotype by giving us something different in the end had me mark this as four stars. This is how much I loved everything once we got down to the fast-paced half. Through this, I will sing praises for this book and I am very intrigued and excited to read book 2.

Overall I enjoyed it too much to not give it four stars! Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Pros:
-Unique magical abilities
-Varied cultures and lands
-Inquisition era-inspired!
-Not your normal stereotype with the Prince
-Renata’s heart is such a soft cinnamon roll
-Political intrigue everywhere!
-Castle side characters are amazing
-Renata’s Unit is called the Lynx unit…I’m all for that

Cons:
-The distrust of some of the unit to Renata is overwhelmingly negative that you can’t focus on much else
-The romance wasn’t overdone but it felt a bit shallow, but I think this is on purpose and has to do with book 2, so don’t hold me to this!
– No explanation or fuller descriptions of the powers and the reasoning behind it
-Disjointed pacing, took halfway before something happened, then everything happened.