As soon as I read about this book I knew it would I would be gripped with the plot, and it did not disappoint!
The world building was so well done that I felt like I was there with the characters experiencing everything for the first time with them.
The characters, Meadow in particular, were so relatable, and I enjoyed reading about her and her experiences throughout the book.
This was a great YA fantasy read and I cannot wait to see what happens next!

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. You should read it!

I really struggled to enjoy this book. I felt like it jumped from 3rd person to 1st person throughout the book and was rushed. It had amazing potential to be executed amazingly. Unfortunately I did not enjoy it.

I will not be posting on social media about this book due to my low rating.

This book was sufficient for what it was. The writing was good the characters were okay just nothing that really jumped out as unique or fresh. I loved the trials and the idea behind them. I also enjoyed all the complexity between each of her friends.

I loved this book! I was unsure at first but I soon ate it up. Reading it as a 28 year old, I knew who was the bad character. Figured it out pretty quickly. But I’d have absolutely loved this as a teenager. Will definitely be buying this book for my daughter to read when she’s older. It’s a great adventure!

Meadow is a half human half beast who lives in the human world until her birthday. When unbeknownst to her, her parents say they are going away to another land so that she can meet her grandparents for the first time. When there,she learns of the trials and forages friendships in anticipation of the trials. They choose to stick together and face the dangers together. One friend is jealous, another holds a secret, and the other is like a sister to her. Come read the beast trials to get a taste of something new. Very little romance.

The premise of this book is good, but unfortunately, the execution fell flat.

Whilst I understand that this is marketed as YA and teens, I felt that this is actually for much younger readers.

The emotional intelligence displayed in the book is very low, and the characters are all fairly one-dimensional, meaning it's hard to feel anything for them, especially as they show so little emotion themselves, especially when tragedy occurs.

What should have been a poignant moment in the book just ended up being a bit farcical with the way it was handled so callously and completely glossed over. (I'm trying not to give away spoilers.)

The ending was incredibly abrupt, as well, with very little resolution to any of the tragic events that occurred.

I will not be continuing with the series.

The beginning of the book was giving me a feeling that it’d be a Harry Potter meets Hunger Games… but I think this was meant for a much younger audience which wouldn’t have the same issues that I had while reading this.
For me, there were several issues from the very beginning and throughout the book. To list the main ones:
- how fast paced the beginning was. Meadow discovers she’s a beast and 5min later moves to a different universe altogether, accepting it all very well
- Timing was a big issue: they were supposed to spend 4 weeks training but the description and actions accounted for no more than a week
- Some things were barely explained while other interactions were thoroughly described. The feeling I had was that the author wrote so much more but had to edit the whole thing down.
- How come almost no one knew about the prophecy?
- The length of the trials is unknown - no idea how long it was supposed to be now how long it took for them to finish it
- For a 16y/o to simply sacrifice her own mother so easily felt so uncharacteristic and it was so emotionless…
- The ending was just weird. How come one is just banished right away the second they fail? How about finding a place to live, etc? Also, I would expect some kind of cliffhanger or even a suggestion to what we should expect from book two… but nothing. I felt it just ended in a super anticlimactic way.

The Beast Trials: Meadow’s Beginning by G. T. Jones
Rating: 3.5/5
Release Date: 30 July 2024

In “The Beast Trials: Meadow’s Beginning”, Meadow Woodley, a self-conscious and friendless teenager who dislikes her mundane life, discovers shortly after her sixteenth birthday that her father is a beast from a magical world called Elementa. She learns that she is also half beast and must travel to this enchanted world to compete in dangerous challenges against nearly fifty other teenagers. Despite the daunting prospect, she wonders if it could really be worse than her current life.

This book was intriguing, however, the twist felt somewhat predictable, and the ending was abrupt. The author did however do a fantastic job with the settings and world-building, and the characters were well-crafted.

Overall, it was well written and served as a good start to the series.

I look forward to the next book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Cranthorpe Miller Publishers, and the author, G. T. Jones, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This is a 4.5 star for me. The world building in this book was awesome. The characters were well written. The book as a whole was well written. This was a perfect start to a series. Can't wait for the next book.

This was an interesting book. I felt like it was greatly inspired by a mixture of Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. The twist was a bit too predictable and the ending was very sudden. I literally clicked next on my kindle multiple times before I realized that the book was actually over. While the author is very descriptive in the settings and world, I feel like the character development was lacking.