Posts Tagged: YA

I received this book for free from Feiwel & Friends in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

An eighteen-year-old chieftain's daughter must find a way to kill her village’s oppressive deity if she ever wants to return home in Warrior of the Wild, the Viking-inspired YA standalone fantasy from Tricia Levenseller, author of Daughter of the Pirate King. 

How do you kill a god?

As her father's chosen heir, eighteen-year-old Rasmira has trained her whole life to become a warrior and lead her village. But when her coming-of-age trial is sabotaged and she fails the test, her father banishes her to the monster-filled wilderness with an impossible quest: To win back her honor, she must kill the oppressive god who claims tribute from the villages each year or die trying.

I really enjoyed Tricia Levenseller’s Daughter of the Pirate King duology and I had no doubt that I would at least like Warrior of the Wild. And I did! But overall Warrior of the Wild doesn’t hold a candle to the Daughter of the Pirate King books. It’s a fast, entertaining read but it is the kind of book that if you looked at it too closely, it kind of just falls apart. Everything about the plot line almost feels too easy. I love a fast paced book but this might have just been a LITTLE too fast.

Warrior of the Wild follows a privileged village leader’s daughter as she is exiled from her village and has to embark on a quest that involves killing an oppressive, abusive God to redeem herself to her people. Once exiled, she is left to fend for herself in the wild with no almost no resources but somehow, she makes friends anyway. Friends who were also exiled from their village and also given impossible tasks to redeem their honor. Alone, there is no way they could accomplish their tasks, but together they just might be able to find a way back home.

Okay so for starters, the god that our dear MC Rasmira has to kill? He is a joke. I really wished he was better developed as a villain instead of just reading as straight up comical. After their first interaction, he “sweeps his cape behind him before disappearing into the mountain” like some sort of Disney villain.

Soren, the love interest, is also incredibly annoying. He is indebted to Rasmira for saving his life so he follows her around relentlessly even when she tells him not to. When she tells him she isn’t really interested, he continues pushing at her even going so far as to kiss her. Of course, all of this is eventually brushed under the rug when Rasmira decides she likes him back but HONESTLY, it didn’t make him any less creepy/irritating to me. Rasmira is stubborn and does need help even when she thinks she doesn’t but there were ways Soren could have done that without being a total stalker.

Clearly, I wasn’t a fan of the romance. Aside from Soren being a creep, the romance was also very underdeveloped with Rasmira not being interested for more than half of the book and then suddenly realizing she was in love with Soren. It felt like insta-love even though the book took place over the course of three months.

With all the negative stuff I’ve said so far, I am starting to wonder if my rating is even justified but the truth is that even though all these things bugged me a LOT while I was reading the book, I didn’t even dislike the book as I read it? It was quick and entertaining. Plus, I love a good survival story (and would love to read more of them, please & thnx.)

Overall, Warrior of the Wild is unlikely to blow your mind but, as I say somewhat often, sometimes a book doesn’t need to blow your mind to be worth the read?? Sometimes you want something that is entertaining and a quick read as a palate cleanser. For those times, Warrior of the Wild is a perfect fit.

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