DNF at 38%

I just can't keep going with this. Every time I pick up this book and start reading, I end up wanting to fall asleep. It's just so boring. Perhaps not the story itself, because it definitely has some interesting things going on, but the way this is written feels like it drags on and on and on. Plus, it has zero characters that I ended up having any interest in what happens with them.

The first chapter started out pretty good with a sword that chooses it's wielder by telling it's current one the next. There's a "test" where this new person has to survive to claim it and the current one has already failed to find his successor more than once because he doesn't want it to be the one the sword keeps telling him. I assume he didn't want to because it was a girl? But after he comes clean to his king about it, there's a huge time skip making that first chapter feel so disconnected from the rest of the story because everyone there is now dead and we have no idea what happened to lead up to what's happening now.

From what I got of Rhada up until I quit, I didn't particularly like her character. She was petty against another girl she didn't like and she doesn't question any of her orders. Including the slaughtering of children. She's practically the second most powerful person in this kingdom and her king has chosen to rule by fear, but she just seems to blindly follow along. Despite the fact that she later laments the fact she can't get close to anyone. Perhaps she changed by the end of this book, and that would be great, but I'll never know.

Admittedly, I am very curious about what it was that destroyed the one city. But I feel like it would be harder for me to get to that part than how satisfying it would be to find out.

A great fantasy that kept my attention. The author did a great job writing vivid characters and a world that came alive. Also, and I never comment on this, the cover totally lived up to the book.

Book review of Shadows of Men by M. Lee Holmes

As is the case sometimes ... life got in the way and reading this took WAY TOO long ... but finish it I did.

It was a great Fantasy story! Well written with vivid characters and world.

I very much enjoyed reading this book!

#booklover #bookreview

Treachery, treason, and betrayal go hand in hand in a realm where no one trust anymore and the greedy seeks more power. The realm was besieged by the emerging darkness of evil, one so terrible it turns the living into zombies by first consuming them inside out. Men and women with their deceitful ways have been led to their own destruction at the hand of the enemy all because their minds were weak and easily manipulated by the enemy. An intense gripping and gruesome tale filled with blood-curdling screams, yet one cannot resist its compelling pages.

I was really puzzled reading this book, I couldn't make out which characters I was supposed to like and which ones were supposed to be the bad guys. I found the world building very effective and atmospheric and I looked out the next book in the series to continue on