This book was so easy to go into with, with uncomplicated world building and magic system, I was hooked. What a great book,

The Last Great Heir is an interesting middle grade book where two heirs are introduced in the week before they are meant to battle each other for the fate of their home, but the truth is neither are actually prepared for what is about to happen. I enjoyed Carina Finn’s writing and the characters of Rue and Merri are understandable heroines. I enjoyed reading about their discoveries of who they really are and the truth that was kept from them.
However, I did find some of the pacing off in terms of when information was revealed and then the reactions of others to that news. I feel like it could have done with a hundred or so more pages. I also wasn’t expecting this to be a series so that also may be responsible for some of the pacing issues I found.
Overall though, a solid middle grade fantasy. I’d be interested in reading more Carina Finn books.

Content Warnings:
Graphic: Disassociation, Classism

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Representations: https://trello.com/c/0g8YKmS4/129-feast-and-famine-1-the-last-great-heir-by-carina-finn

I really loved the characters!! They were super fun, the feasts were really different to the famine's so despite there being quite a lot of characters they *mostly* were pretty easy to tell apart. I mainly just mixed up the mums and the uncles but that didn't really cause that many issues tbh. The main characters had super interesting POVs and I really loved how they played off of each other and especially how their chapters contrasted. Very nice use of essentially 2 different class brackets and how the families interact with the town!!

The plot and world-building was genuinely super interesting. It felt a tad "2 warring families" generic at the start but then evolved into something really lovely! It did remind me a lot of the Witch's Duel in S1 of Owl House lol, but that might also just be my brain being too obsessed with TOH 😂 The lore though is written in a very lore-dumpy way, which <i>does</i> make sense due to how the kids learn about things and the fact they also kinda have to learn it all, but yeah it is largely just told to you. There is some really nice things around showing how the 2 families interact with the town but even then those things end up being just explicitly told to you as well. I didn't find it was as bad as other things I've read, but it did knock the quality down a little.

Another thing I absolutely loved about this is the descriptions! Food and clothes specifically were so vibrant and vivid it was fantastic! And the recipe at the end? Honestly might have to make those they sound absolutely delicious 🤤 Reading the authors note at the end to see the author is a food writer honestly didn't surprise me haha, they sure used those skills very well here!!

This was a great first instalment to a brand new children’s series. The magic system is very interesting and captivating, the story is detailed and intriguing and the names of characters were just delightful. A great read for anyone not just children. Found one typo but apart from that it was a fun little read