I appreciated that this book addressed some modern day problems but I think this one was kind of slow and I wish I enjoyed it more.

I loved the world, love the concepts around race and gender, but ultimately the writing felt a little more 'tell' rather than 'show,' which is what I prefer from a fantasy book.

Creating a fresh and compelling fantasy world is a formidable task and yet, "Where the Rain Cannot Reach" rises to this challenge with an enchanting world of faeries, elves, dwarves, and more, crafted with a depth and breadth that feels both vast and intimately detailed.

The world-building here is a standout achievement, as our ignorance mirrors that of the untraveled protagonist, making the world feel expansive and full of unexplored potential. The author demonstrates a keen command of this realm, revealing just enough to pique interest without overwhelming the reader, ensuring there's fertile ground for future installments.

The characters, seen through the lens of our protagonist, are where this debut truly shines. Each character is multifaceted, fitting seamlessly into this rich world and feeling more than mere archetypes. Their personal lives, though glimpsed only briefly, are rich and engaging, sparking curiosity and investment. This careful crafting of characters and the cultures they inhabit is evident and deeply compelling.

The narrative is an exciting journey, blending prophecy, war, magic, fate, and family in intriguing ways. However, some aspects of the writing hold the novel back at times, the prose is overly expository and feels more like hand-holding than storytelling. Additionally, some plot points and character decisions seem driven more by the needs of the plot than by natural character development. This can make the story feel constructed, with characters sometimes acting inconsistently or conveniently to advance the plot rather than in ways that feel true to their established personalities.

Despite these flaws, the story's earnestness and the author's devotion to the characters and world-building shine through offering a rich and immersive experience. The promise of future installments, where these elements might be refined, adds to the anticipation and enjoyment.

A particularly delightful aspect is the use of gender-neutral pronouns and the incorporation of various languages, skillfully woven into the narrative through character interactions. This adds a refreshing layer of authenticity and inclusivity to the world.

Tair, the protagonist, may not immediately endear herself to every reader. Initially coming across as a bit bratty, her journey and evolving morals gradually reveal a more nuanced character, which is a testament to the author's skill. The story's themes of belonging and identity resonate deeply, and the inclusion of diverse races and gender fluidity is both heartwarming and timely.

In conclusion, "Where the Rain Cannot Reach" is a solid debut that combines strong world-building, engaging characters, and an intriguing plot. While the writing sometimes falters and the plot can feel overly orchestrated, the novel's heart and potential make it a worthwhile read. This is a soft four stars, with the hope that future installments will bring more natural storytelling and deeper character development.

For those who love fantasy, this book offers a delightful escape into a world that feels both foreign and familiar, whimsical yet grounded.

Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for this advanced copy. Sadly, I didn’t finish this book. I made it 30% several times and just could not connect to the story.

I thought this sounded like such an interesting premise, but no matter how many times I opened the book, I just couldn’t get into. Just not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I’m so sad about this one. I was super excited to read it, but it archived before I could. This was when I just made my acc and didn’t realize the archive date; I’d only had like two day :(. I’ll still be reading it regardless.

I received this book for free for an honest unbiased review from Netgalley.

I wish more books were this well written. Characters were witty and the setting fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review! Where the Rain Cannot Reach, is an inspired debut novel! This story explores the themes of belonging, loneliness, and identity. I enjoyed the world-building, and I adored Brown's vision. Initially, I struggled with the writing style, but that isn't a bad thing, it just took some time to get used to. Overall, I think that the novel was great and I can't wait to see what Brown produces in the future.

2.75/5 stars! I wanted to like this book. The cover was pretty and the premise was interesting. But man the pacing was a slog. There would be random occurrences of action and then an absolute drag to get to the next point in the story where anything was happening. That being said, I really enjoyed the ending. So if you're patient, there's eventually a payoff.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

2.75/5 stars! I wanted to like this book. The cover was pretty and the premise was interesting. But man the pacing was a slog. There would be random occurrences of action and then an absolute drag to get to the next point in the story where anything was happening. That being said, I really enjoyed the ending. So if you're patient, there's eventually a payoff.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

I loved the diversity between the races and gender fluidity. Non-binary being such a normal thing in this book is heartwarming to see.

Seeing Tair grow and go through challenges between her family and destiny kept me turning the page. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book!

This book was a digital edition gifted to me for a review via Netgalley. These views are my own and unbiased. Thanks to Netgalley for my copy.
A high fantasy story with Tair, a human raised by Elves, as our main character. Tair is searching for a sense of belonging when her found family are uprooted and travel to the dwarf realm of Doman. The site of humankind’s previous treachery against dwarf kind, Doman reveals to Tair a history of lies about her past. Her new responsibility to the humans of Sossoa, the human nation, forces her to decide where her loyalties lie and find who she wants to be.
This was a very high fantasy novel, and that means there are some quite long descriptions of the history and landscape of this richly designed world. I loved reading those descriptions they felt unique and vividly described but might be tedious for others.
Something I adored was the use of different pronouns, it was just amazing to read! Especially in a fantasy – different races had different pronouns and gender norms and so it was so rich. Unique and believable that different cultures view them differently.
The plot was great, I especially enjoyed the travel and drawven parts of the story. They really captured my imagination. The human realm of Sossoa was strange and the contrast between the two places was fantastic, especially the end part which was actually kind of creepy.
I would say if you enjoy high-fantasy novels that are very descriptive and have a lot of in-depth world-building, you’ll love this book especially if you’re into DND! I’m super intrigued to see what will happen in book 2, and I hope some of you pick this one up in the meantime & enjoy it as much as I did!

Nothing very noteworthy, definite struggle to continue reading….I was hoping to have some form of fantasy, but nothing. I was hoping for some good characters at least but nothing either. Huge disappointment

it could’ve been amazing if the author hadn’t written this like it was a history book. i do wanna learn about this fictional world you’ve created but diluted throughout the story, with tidbits here and there, seeing actual examples of what’s being explained in this book rather than just being plainly told. i also love the found family trope but i need to see it developed in the book, not told from the get go and supposed to love them right away. the plot and characters were enjoyable, i was intrigued and wanted to follow them in their adventures but the writing was just so difficult to read through. 3⭐️

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of Where the Rain Cannot Reach. This was such a hole some romanced wrapped up in a fantasy book.

ENGLISH

I was definitely intrigued by the summary. It was up my alley without a doubt. However, there was something about the book that just did not click with me, and I think it is my fault.

Let me explain.

For starters, the beginning was very interesting to me regarding the characters and how they start as a sort of found family from the first line. I mean, I like found families, so seeing how this already starts from that point it rather different, so it caught my attention.

My problem with this was the information dumping all over the book. The world building is amazing, very detailed. However, there are paragraphs upon paragraphs of only information about other species, politics between societies, how the geography works… I prefer when things are shown rather than told that forward. So yeah, it was thought to read for me because it is something I dislike very much.

There is another thing I was not expecting, and I usually do not like. It felt like a DND game, as if the characters were players and the narrator was the dungeon master. This something that does not work for me, I tried reading books with that structure, but it makes me a bit uncomfortable, as if I was peering at someone else's private party.

But like I said at the beginning, the characters and the start of the book is fascinating. So I tried to follow the book, not minding the issue I had with it. I enjoyed the relationships, the unfolding of the story and the secrets. There are many good things with this, and it is something different for what I'm used to. This is good because I try to go outside my comfort zone as much as I can, and doing that I found some of my favourite books.

Overall, I think this could be good for people who do not mind info dumping, enjoy very complex and detailed worlds and even like DnD sort of games. This was not for me and I really am sorry I did not like it, but I see why so many people enjoy it.

-Ele

SPANISH

Lo primero es que la sinopsis me intrigó mucho. Sin duda, el libro me interesaba. Sin embargo, hay algo que no me acaba de encajar y creo que es cosa mía.

Me explico.

Para empezar, el principio me pareció muy interesante en cuanto a los personajes y cómo empiezan como una especie de familia encontrada desde el primer punto. Es decir, me gustan las familias encontradas, así que ver cómo empieza desde ese punto es bastante diferente, por lo que me llamó la atención.

Mi problema con esto fue el vertido de información a lo largo de todo el libro. La construcción del mundo es increíble, muy detallada. Sin embargo, hay párrafos y párrafos de información sobre otras especies, política entre sociedades, cómo funciona la geografía... Prefiero que me muestren las cosas a que me las cuenten. Así que sí, me costó leerlo porque es algo que me disgusta mucho.

Hay otra cosa que no me esperaba y que no me suele gustar. Parecía un juego de DND, como si los personajes fueran jugadores y el narrador el director de la mazmorra. Esto es algo que no me funciona, he intentado leer libros con esa estructura pero me incomoda un poco, como si estuviera espiando la fiesta privada de otra persona.

Pero como dije al principio los personajes y el comienzo del libro es realmente interesante. Así que intenté seguir el libro sin importarme esas cosas que no me gustaban. Me gustaron las relaciones, el desarrollo de la historia y los secretos. Tiene muchas cosas buenas y es algo diferente a lo que estoy acostumbrada. Esto es bueno porque trato de salir de mi zona de confort tanto como puedo y haciendo eso he encontrado algunos de mis libros favoritos.

En general, creo que esto podría ser bueno para las personas a las que no les importa el volcado de información, disfrutan de mundos muy complejos y detallados e incluso les gustan los juegos tipo DND. No era para mí y siento mucho que no me gustara, pero entiendo por qué tanta gente lo disfruta.

-Ele

1 STAR

I am very sad to say that I did not have a good time with this book...

While this book had a lot of potential, it feels like I read a high fantasy with at least 500 pages missing. For a book that has so many different species, a huge world, different cultures and languages, and so much more, it is very disappointing in the world building aspect of it. To me, this book very much feels like an idea in the making and not a finished product. Also, I am very disappointed at how the magic system was handled. Since the MC knows nothing, neither do the readers. This is a fantasy book filled with magic, and I know nothing about it...

I did very much like the queernormativity in this book. It is very much the core of this whole world, and it makes this book amazingly diverse in a very natural way. I am a big fan of languages in books, and this book had quite a few of them. Unfortunately, because of the general lack of world building, the languages did not manage to elevate this book.

The plot and the flow of the book are very inconsistent. It is fun to use the "character knows nothing and so the reader knows nothing" plot device every now and then, but after the seventh "wtf is going on here?!", it gets boring and annoying. Not once while reading this did I wonder if I had a faulty copy of the book and if my chapters got jumbled or were straight up missing... Also, the ending is so rushed, undervelming, and very much makes no sense. I ended this book, and the only thoughts in my head were - what? how? and why?

I do not care about the characters at all. They are superficial, and there is no character development. We are told there is, but it is nowhere to be seen. And the relationships are just there, with no buildup.

The writing style is not bad per se, but it is very detached most of the time, with moments of connection to the characters, and the change between the two doesn't really make sense. I very much feel like the author is still searching for the writing style that works for them. They have potential, but they are not quite there yet.


CONCLUSION

This was not a book for me. I didn't enjoy it, and I didn't have fun reading it. While this book has potential, it was not executed properly. If it were edited and more developed, this book could be a very good high fantasy...
There are good reviews for this book, and what doesn't work for me might work for you. I personally don't recommend this book, but for every book, I believe you should give it a try and see for yourself.




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

Thank you to NetGalley and Atmosphere Press for the ARC.

Overview: epic fantasy with a lot of potential that just fell furstratingly flat for me.

Some things worked for me in this book, and I want to address those first.
-Queernormativity: Brown uses the fantasy genre so well to show other ways of being and possibilities for identity, gender, love, and family that aren't confined to the binary. This is added to the story intentionally and elevates the worldbuilding.
-Language-building: This is a subset of the worldbuilding in the book. I found a lot of parallels to how Tolkien's stories integrate languages and linguistic/cultural diversity.
-Atmosphere: I felt very drawn in whenever we had scenes in nature; Brown describes those very beautifully.
-Imaginative-ity (?): I think that Brown has so much potential to add to the epic/high fantasy genre and introduce a fresh and unique perspective while also using elements that readers of the genre are familiar with.
-Found/unconventional family (though the actual family was underdeveloped and the whole "mate" thing did not work for me at all.)

What didn't work for me:
-The characters
-The main character (Tair)
-The plot structure
-The pacing and time
-The dialogue and Tair's inner dialogue
-Tair's moral conflicts and circular character growth
-The main conflict
-The "chosen one" trope
-Constantly refering to characters by "The _____" (insert race of character)
-Infodumping, overexplaining, showing not telling

So much was going on, yet so little was going on. Tair is constantly in the dark, and because of that, the plot is deeply linked to that, so the reader is also in the dark while also facing a barrage of information that makes it hard to distinguish what is important and why everything is happening. Tair is the "chosen one" throughout the book, and when we finally see her going on her individual journey (because she basically has no autonomy before this), she still doesn't DO ANYTHING. We find out why she was so important all along, even though it doesn't make sense, and when we do find out and she confronts the Big Bads, the payoff in the last ten percent or so of the book is both over- and underwhelming.

I saw another reviewer describe this as a solid second draft, and I fully echo that sentiment. Does Brown and this series have potential? Yes, absolutely. I want them to keep on going and keep showing how fantasy is the perfect vehicle for imaginative queernormativity. Will I continue to read this series? Absolutely not. I can see myself picking up Brown's work in the future outside of this series, but I was tired out by this book and don't particularly want to read the next installments.

This was really really hard to get into. I felt like this book could have been a lot shorter as found much of the info dumping and side storylines a little unnecessary and it didn’t add anything to the overall story. I found relationship between a certain two characters a little odd in the way it developed. Personally I found the MC rather annoying and could not buy into her story at all.