This was a multi POV story with lots of action and an epic battle and strangely enough giant ants that attack civilization.
It definitely got my attention and made me interested to see where the story could progress into another book.

This book, although not amazing, was still a good read. The imagination put into the story was very good, but the characters seemed a bit flat and uninteresting. The final battle was awesome and lasted a good chunk of the story, as any epic final battle should. This book felt a bit like a setup to some bigger series, and since all the main characters have their powers by the end (or are dead), it would be very interesting to see where it went next.

This book does not hold back on the action. We're dropped in to the story and almost immediately the characters are in danger and we see a character death. This sets the tone for the rest of the story. The characters we follow are in combat almost all the time, fighting for their lives and to save their city against demons and other creatures. There are also a lot of character deaths, so don't get too attached to anyone.

It's nice to have action, but it's almost too much. It doesn't leave a lot of room for character development, relationships, or worldbuilding. I don't really understand the demons or why the Citadel is the only place with free humans instead of slaves. I'd also like to see some strong friendships and maybe a romantic relationship.

I am interested in reading a sequel, hopefully we'll get more depth to the story and learn more about our main characters.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Citadel of the Fallen was a book that started off a bit slow for me. Luckily for me, after a handful of chapters I was getting a bit more intrigued in everything that was happening. In it, you will meet a group of students who are about to face their biggest challenge yet.

Giant ants are coming to town to destroy everything in their path. Yep, you heard me right - Giant. Ants. Now there's always a hint that something else is going to come their way but I'm just dead set on Giant Ants. For some reason, I kept picturing 'Honey, I shrunk the Kids' kind of situation and that's why these ants were going to destroy everything.

Other than that, the characters were pretty likable. Even if I didn't like some in the beginning, they grew on me. I'm also wondering what's going to happen in the next book because of what went down in this one. Hope it's entertaining.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a DRC of Citadel of the Fallen in exchange for an honest review.

This book's biggest weakness is it's attempt to throw you right into the action. Don't get me wrong, normally that's a good idea. Normally you want to start off with emotions and stakes heightened to hook your audience. But when you start like that, you need to provide enough context for readers to buy into those stakes and that never really happens. This is also a multi-perspective book that jumps POVs every few pages and it really adds to the confusion. I stopped partway through to triple check that this wasn't a book in the middle of a series because I was just so, so lost the whole time. It's not exactly that there's too much going on, but more like there are too many things going on that are left too vague for the reader to fully understand. The world and characters never felt fully developed because of a lack of build up and explanation the persisted through the majority of the book and it ruined the reading experience for me.

I was super excited to read this book, and while it was good, it did fall a bit short of my expectations. I loved the way it was told, and being able to read from a multitude of different perspectives kept this entertaining. My only real problem with this was the plot, and how long it took to get going.

The Citadel of the Fallen follows a group of students who discover their home is no longer as safe as they thought. The heavily protected citadel, one of the last havens of humanity, is being threatened by the Black Tide. A deadly flow of giant ants are on their way, and more is to come.

Ok, it’s totally on me that I couldn’t get with the plot. Notice how ants are mentioned in the blurb? Yah... I guess I just totally ignored that. I really struggled to picture a civilization being threatened by ants. If it were bears, or even rabbits maybe, but not ants.

I also felt like the plot moved super slow. The Black Tide isn’t even mentioned for the first 25% and are barely confronted until about 50%. I get that this was because characters were being introduced, but it was just a bit slow for my tastes.

Speaking of characters, I really liked all of them. Because we got to read from inside their minds, I really feel like I got to know them. While Malcolm is definitely not my favorite, I think him, and the others have a lot of potential for development.

I feel like this is a fairly innovative fantasy, and that the next book has a lot of potential!

Thanks to Netgalley and JR Konkol for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review