Received a Netgalley ARC for an honest review. I needed to sit with this one a bit before reviewing this.

The strange thing is i did enjoy reading it but i dont think i enjoyed the story. I have been trying to figure out why.

I think it centers with the disconect in emotion. Its unclear why the light and the dark are at war and even when we dig into the history this is kind of taken as a given wich is strange to me. Then you are ambushed and need to escape wich is a good way to get instandly into the story but your dad doesnt make it.

I would be devistated! I would want to go back as soon as possible and look for him and or bug everyone i can for information. Than you lose your mom while traveling and you don't go banabas. There is to big of an emotional disconect for me in the entire story.

But like i said i did enjoy the reading.
-I liked the world building the concept was interesting though sometimes kinda unclear and filled with details that do not seem to contribute to the story. (Maybe the next book)
-I liked the technologie that was worked out in detail. Somtimes 2 much but still cool.
-I liked the relationships but again, emotionele disconects. After one meeting you have insta friends and insta enemies. No your relationships need to develop and grow emotionaly and even though some background is given. Its just information not emotion. Then they bond and again informational no first person emo. This all makes me feel disconnected.
-I enjoyed the training however would have prefered a montage instead of a day by day and did not at all like how details the sportscompetitions were. PASS but that could just be me.
-the politics and religion/believe of there origins is also very interesting.

And then we arrive in the last 30 pages and suddenly the emotions are rampent everyones unspoken unshowed feelings suddenly burst up. Wich made the story havevmore dept and make sence yet... very strange the complete twist in writing style. Why, where was this for the rest of the book?

I do think this book is worth your time someone else might not notice the same things like i do and the world building is very interesting and detailed.

Will i try book 2, yes because i think a debut author needs time to find there feet and i did like the world and would like to re-visit. I think the author made a very good attempt for his first book may his writing develope and grow. Good job!

Loved the cover of this book! It just hits for me and the plot was interesting. I do have some notes though. Unfortunately the writing was awkward. There was many points that were unnecessarily over described. Arden's voice felt too young while the narrator felt older. The author used menial tasks or traveling to flashback to exposition leaden conversations which kinda worked. A lot of dialogue tags, even if it's just two characters talking. It made the flow of the story snag. Wasn't a lot of suspense or stakes. It just felt absent with the way scenes were written unfortunately.
But if you don't mind that it was a unique concept. Also this is a debut I believe. That in itself is incredible. Mr. Finch created this clearly detailed world. You can see the vision and despite drawbacks I did find myself falling into the story to see where it went. The writing may need some work but I'm sure there's those out there that will love this story.
Thanks for the opportunity to read this arc! It was truly appreciated.

This was a strong start to the Raiders of Light series, it had that fantasy feel that I wanted and enjoyed the overall story being told. It does a great job in getting the reader hooked in this world and was glad it left me wanting to read more in this series. R. Roland Finch has a strong writing style and can’t wait for more.

I wasn't expecting this book to be so good as it was. Such a good book. R. Roland Finch did such a good job on this book. 5 stars from me.