Thank you Netgalley for this eARC
I had a hard time processing the world building, phrases, and names at first. I was struggling to follow and remember everything . I think if I had the physical book it would have been much easier to go back to the glossary and I would have enjoyed the story more. Nonetheless, this is a strong debut epic fantasy full of rich world building and packed with action and political intrigues. I am definitely interested and I so want to get my hands on a physical copy.
Rating : 3.5 stars

This was a slow burn, enemies to lovers, slightly spicy adult fantasy that I enjoyed very much. There were some slower parts, but it always picked back up with action and on the edge of my seat reading. I love me some betrayal and forced proximity, and this book had both!

I will definitely read the next book in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free eARC in exchange for my review.

Born branded as a Marked, Kaianne trusts the system. When her brother is born brandless, her misconceptions come crashing down. Now, an orphan and with only one uneasy ally, she turns to the Carved.

What she finds is purpose, a chance for revenge, and a family as strong as the one she lost. She will stop at nothing to protect them and further their growing rebellion.

If the talented disciples from the realms' religious order cannot dissuade her, a prince certainly cannot stop her. Her once ally must either step aside, cut her down, or join her people's crusade.

The Brand Edicts were meant to bring stability, but more people are born brandless as the decades pass. The Carved are growing more combative against the realms' edicts. And like wounded animals, those in power are more dangerous than ever. It's time for a change. The question is how.

Actual rating: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Spice: 1.5/5
For those who loved the cunningness of Jude from The Cruel Prince and having a society based on two classes of people challenged by a young girl like Red Queen will love this book.

I absolutely loved, almost, everything about this book!! It was an immersive new world in which I found myself totally obsessing over and thinking about when I had to put it down for necessary breaks. Now the concept of having “Marked” and “Unmarked” (Carved in this case) people is not new, the author revamps the idea into something entirely fresh with her characters. Kaianne is a fierce girl who knows what she wants. Andreiyes is a royal with a soft spot for the Carved. And, personally, I think their paths intertwine way to late in the book. We get a glimpse of them together in the beginning of the book and their dynamic is one that many fantasy readers love- enemies (kinda) who relish in the banter between themselves. Then we get a long stretch of Master Rau and learning his story. I really did not care for him but I understand the importance his role had in the story. I honestly thought the story could have been enhanced if we had stuck with Kaianne and Andreiyes POV and learned the necessary information through them. But I digress. Once I got past his parts and on to my faves this book was something I could not put down.

The only reasons I don't give the book 5/5 is because I am terribly lazy. I know I should not complain, because this was high fantasy, but having to attempt to figure out what "Bilial", "Quint", and "Stretch" meant was dreadful. I spent a good amount of time trying to find context clues just to finish the book and realize there was a glossary with all the measure of times there for me with defintions. I also thought that as important Kaianne's backstory was it could have been condensed. I wanted more time to develop the relationship between the two main characters and I possibly think this would have opened the door for a lot more plot.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an Advance Readers Copy in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVE a slow burnnnnn! I really loved this book. The best kind of epic fantasy there is!! There were some slow parts that we a bit slow but still a fantastic read! The tragedy and heartbreak really hits hard, but wow the world building and characters!!!

Thank you NetGalley and M.T. Fontaine for access to this ARC in exchange of an honest review.

"Following the same course of failed actions will not yield you positive results."

The first half of this book was a lot of world-building, phrases, names, etc. that were very hard for me to follow and somewhat dull. However, the last half of the book had me intrigued. I do think that if I read this book physically instead of on my own phone that it probably would have been easier for me to follow along with the first half of the book and therefore possibly made my star count increase. This wasn't a bad book by any means, but for someone who is new to the fantasy genre, it was a little difficult for me at first. I am interested to see what the next book in the series does for me, however.

Carved Amidst The Shadows was intense and very dramatic but I loved every second of it. How the three different citizens, the marked, Carved, and Flawed in this world of Taelgir and specifically the realm of Isydill collide is so obvious yet dramatic. All over a long drawn-out period, I love how dramatic and inevitable the wreckage of the story was.

I was on the edge every time I continued this book.

It's narrations of a young noble lady at just twelve years old the royal prince of Isydill plus a descendant of this story worlds Gods from a special group called the Order who have gifts that can control people's lives. They all have their own distinct issues with one another that of course, I ate up. Every second was like waiting for the inevitable to happen and for that reason alone it's getting four stars.

3.8 stars

Such a unique storyline. And I fell in love with Kaianne's character. I didn't think I would love the book as much as I did! The plot was really intriguing and as I mentioned before, unique! The thing about Carved, Marked, Flawed was really interesting!

The starting was a bit confusing and slow. And the story occasionally dragged on, in my opinion. I didn't think I would be able to finish it, but I am so happy I did. And I got to know that this is the author's debut novel. I think she has done a very good job.

Thank you for the Arc but this wasn’t for me.

DNF at 22%

I tried. I really thought the story was good but alas I couldn’t get past the co fusing worldbuilding. Half the time I had to keep flipping to the glossary to know what words mean and to use an example the author chose to change the word for yesr worh Stretch. But it wasn’t explained in the text and this was only one issue I had. Please PLEASE stop replacing names we understand it makes the world more Confusing.

The characters were okay at best. I was interested in the religion (faith I think she called it) but it was also confusing. I was unsure if they loved forever (there was mention of them loving centuries) and yet they are human. Once again this went unexplained for too long.

This book does remind me of JLA from blood and ash but told better. Still confusing worldbuilding and someone gets stabbed (badly) but it up and walking within a week and that is just not believable.

I’m sorry but this wasn’t my cup Of tea

This book was really interesting. The world and characters were lively and felt real. I really enjoyed the writing style, but there were unnecessarily long paragraphs over explaining certain aspects of this book.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc.

I was not able to finish this book, I stopped 50% through the story.

However the writing style is very interesting, and the story itself makes you want to learn more.

What made me stop were the long passages of descriptions... I enjoyed the beginning of the story, it was lively. But once we went past the 25-30% mark, it became very slow.

The multiple POVs aren't necessarily always interesting and can get confusing.

I would like to come back to this story another time to see where it goes from the middle of the book to the end.

This book was a really strong debut, and it absolutely gave me Game of Thrones + Arya Stark vibes, (which I am so on board with)! You’ll love this book if you enjoy epic fantasies with:
✨An opinionated female lead
✨Complex world building
✨Politics & corruption
✨Found family
✨Slow burn romance
✨Multiple strong main characters

It’s so well written and the character development is top notch, and I recommend reading it when you can totally focus and immerse yourself in all the details of the world building. This is definitely a book with an intricate plot and multiple main characters that give different perspectives on the story. I love that there was a pronunciation guide and several maps at the start to help understand the world building, too.

I did have a hard time getting into it at first because I struggled with the names, history, etc—but it got easier as I read more. Overall this was a strong debut and I think I’ll read the next book when it comes out!

Could not actually read this book as it was archived before I had a chance to download the book onto my kindle.

First off, I want to say thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! The idea behind this book - where being "marked" meant to be protected/loyal while being "carved" is a sign of a traitor. One of the main characters turns to the Carved to seek revenge for the family lost due to the murder of her flawed brother. This book overall was a great debut (I did not realize this at first - that is how great it is!), with a unique idea/great execution. My only complaint is the info dump at the beginning of the book was overwhelming at first. It makes sense later, but it did make it a bit difficult to get into the story until the pacing picked up and occasionally it was a bit hard to follow what was happening in the book.

*Check the trigger warnings*

I tried on multiple occasions to read this book, but it just was not for me. I did not like the character interactions. I found the dialogue to be very wordy which made it difficult to maintain interest. There were also several instances that were a little too cringy for me. Ultimately, I dnf'd this book. I love the cover and I think it had a lot of potentially, but it fell short for me.

*A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This whole book was very well written and full of amazing world building and interesting characters. The plot was intriguing and it kept my attention from start to finish. It was impossible not to feel sad for Kaianne after everything she went through and the tragedy that struck her whole family.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I genuinely struggled with this book and at times became outright annoyed. The plot reads like a fantastic story; however, the reality just didn’t match up. I found the two main protagonists bland and annoying, and the master is outright creepy with his obsession with his ward. I, unfortunately, had a DNF with this one.

Carved Amidst the Shadows is an extraordinary, coming of age epic fantasy novel.

What attracted me to this book was the actual blurb:

To Be a Marked means to be loyal and protected

To Be a Carved is to be the vilest of Traitors

Born branded as a Marked, Kaianne trusts the system.

When her brother is born Brandless, her misconceptions come crashing down.

Now an orphan and with only one uneasy ally, she turns to the Carved.

Between the blurb and the characters, Fontaine takes her readers on a journey filled with a magical delights, rich history and tenacious word-building.

I did find myself wanting to skip pages when It got boring, however I was able to refrain. I did see where this information became pertinent,

Thankfully I didn’t skip any pages.

The book overall was fantastic once you got used to the first person narrative and the time jump.

Totally looking forward to the next installment.

BRING ON BOOK 2 PLEASE!!!

GREAT JOB FONTAINE!!!

Thank you NetGalley/M.T. Fontaine/Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op/ For this eARC in exchange for my honest review. My opinions are of my own volition.

Carved Amidst the Shadows was extremely slow and confusing - I almost DNF'd it about halfway through.
The book started to pick up for me once the two main characters reunited.
I wish there would have been more action and romance.

I am unsure if I would read a sequel or not.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The divide between the Marked and the Carved is bigger than ever. What would it take to bring both sides together and create a better system? We see Kaianne embark on a journey to eliminate this divide and stop unnecessary killings. Who will stand in her way and who will help her?

-Super confusing world-building/lots of names that I need to remember--waiting for a time jump (27%)
-I didn't hate the beginning massacre, but kinda dragged on
-Gets soooo confusing the FMC has two names and she doesn’t go by one for the longest time
-She is too developed of an internal monologue for being 12
-I think the prince was intended to be morally grey but just feels more blah grey instead? Just not as complex a character as I would have wanted out of the (presumably) MMC
-I want to DNF this book so bad, but to give an honest review, I need to read it all the way
-Update: at 52% I DNFed


I thought this book had good potential but wowza... the whole time I was just waiting for the time jump but then I think it happened? That's the issue, I was so confused not only with the names but the locations, the time, and how all of it contextually fit together. I just don't get most of what happened. I think this would have been better as the first half is its own book and then when the time jump happens, make that another book.