I'd like to start this out with what attracted me to read this book. The raven on the cover, and then it became the book summary. I happen to LOVE ravens, they are one of my favorite birds and are far more intelligent than man gives them credit for. Add in that the summary mentioned a Raven Shifter! I opened the book and found I quickly consumed it. I had moment of laughing out loud, utter shock and just an outright WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?!? moment during my read through of this.

The story was able to paint a scene in my head along with what I was reading. The author did a great job with being able to help imagine and feel like I could be part of that action. They made me gasp and feel joy for things that happened with Lorcan. I loved the mixture of the worlds we got between Eire and Rome and the different cultures.

The time we spend with Lorcan we see him love, we see him through lose and betrayal. We find him as a slave and without his sense of self. His fights as a Gladiator after being sold and the hope he brings to others in Rome was great to be a part of. I got to a point where I just couldn't put this book down. I kept having hope, I kept disliking Cormac. I am hoping to be able to find out what happened to the rest of his home and kin.

This book actually exceeded my expectations! The speech in the book while other's I know would dislike it, I found that it made sense as the language being represented would be different, spoken differently as well as the MMC didn't know the language either so it would make sense to have it feel like it stumbled at times. I liked this. I loved getting to know the tidbits we do about his Flock and being a Raven shifter. The characters were characters I could enjoy spending my time with as well as being able to understand why they were doing the things they did. The good guys made me root for the good guys, while wanting to fight alongside Lorcan for the things that happened to him. The even better guys....... Made me internally cheer and root even louder for them. I loved the action we got and the balance between the plot and any of the romance.

I absolutely loved that this was not a FMC based book and that it was in fact a MMC. I don't commonly come across books that are just the MMC as the lead. This is his story, his love, his world. Lorcan is a strong and smart guy, and he has an interesting sense of humor. The way his speech comes off to me is definitely a distant land, a different time. He thinks so poorly of himself and that he can't be a true raven, which makes me dislike Cormac even more than I already did. I hope Lorcan get's his retribution in the long run and can save his home. I will be reading the next book! Please keep this one coming, I cannot wait to experience more with Lorcan, hoping for his return home and the swift (but not to swift just because Cormac deserves it) beat down of his cousin.

It was interesting to google a few things and find that Roman wedding ceremonies were fairly fairly similar to that which was mentioned in the book, and such and I feel like the author did some decent research. I couldn't find anything that contradicted itself or proved inaccurate in the little bit I looked. I'm going to be adding this one to my trophy bookshelf one day hopefully and am patiently waiting for the next book!

For those that are curious... There is MM in this book. There is I would say 1.5 scenes between MM, 1 towards the beginning and one midway through that doesn't actually go towards the act. The other scenes I would say it was maybe 4 or 5 between MF. In this respect they were not overly drawn out, they were present and enough to give to the story rather than take away. I love both sides of the romance that we got and I'm hoping that the other half will develop. This book does have Fated Mates so it can be fairly insta-love but they do truly start to build a connection that you get to start to see blossom.

Thank you to NetGalley and Riverdale Avenue for sending me this eARC for review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Riverdale Avenue for sending me this book for review. All opinions are my own.
Raven's Fall is a sensual, low-fantasy with the thrill and tension of Ancient Rome at it's centre. Schechter immerses the reader in this period of history through observations on societal structure and the use of Latin terminology. This was especially effective during our protagonist Lorcan's time training to be a gladiator, in which the various fighting styles are explained and described with the right amount of detail to be digestible without becoming confusing. A heartwarming family dynamic is developed between Lorcan and the other slaves which nicely contrasted the intensity of the gladiator action scenes. I particularly enjoyed his friendship with Yaroah, and would have liked to learn more about his backstory, however this might be something introduced in subsequent books in the series. I felt the build up to the romances could have been stronger as the love and connection was instant, although I appreciate this can be difficult to navigate when using the fated mates trope. That being said, once the love interests knew each other better I found their dynamics endearing and enjoyable to root for. This book does contain explicit open-door scenes making it more suitable for older audiences. The fantasy element involving ravens was appealing, and I would have enjoyed more worldbuilding with regards to the Morrigan as a goddess and how her lineage works. We were introduced to a lot of characters very quickly in the initial chapters which was confusing since they do not appear for the rest of the book, but I expect this was laying the foundations for Lorcan's family becoming more prominent characters in future installments. Nonetheless, we get to know the flock through Lorcan's reminiscing, and I enjoyed the socio-political commentary established through comparison between Eire and Ancient Rome, and the practice of using slaves as gladiators; "they hate and fear us because of what they made us".