WENCH is an interesting book - I feel that while the plot is good overall, it was very crowded and would have flowed better if it had been written as two books.

Was this the epic fantasy of my dreams? maybe. I devoured the first half of it and the last hundred or so pages, but there were a few chapters in the middle when I felt lost and honestly just waiting for the action the kickoff.
I did truly loved Tanya, she´s a down to earth strong female lead that I am going to use as a positive way to write female characters for the rest of my life. One thing that really got me, was her anger and her bossiness, it´s so rare we get to see a girl be angry and not be judged.
The secondary characters were also a lot of fun, we do have a few pretty standard stereotypes, like the gang boss, the thief, and the corpsman, but they felt more than this. I would have loved to get more of Jana and Rollo, as they seemed interesting while not getting a lot of "screen time".
The queen was another character that deserved more time, and I feel the way we find out her backstory does her a great disservice.
Overall I did enjoy the magic system, it felt organic, and followed the rule where every action has consequences, which I do love when it comes to magic. Give me magic that comes with a price and I am hooked. The junkoff was a different type of price for the magic and it´s really innovative.
I did have the feeling, towards the middle, that the plot was all over the place. There was so much going on and actually, nothing important or that mattered to the plot. It did get better and the action started making sense again so I cannot complain. I haven´t been in a d&d campaign until now that did go completely sideways. And my favorite part about this book is how it actually felt like a big d&d campaign, fully equipped with ignoring the main quest for small side quests, completely failing at lying, and ending up fighting your way out of troubles and finding out that the side quest you did like 2 months ago was actually tied to the main quest and you might have fucked up completely, but I digress.
Overall this was such a fun read

Actual rating: 2.5/5, rounded up for the feminist vibes.

This book started with a promising premise--an orphaned tavern wench, cheated out of inheriting the tavern she rightfully deserves, setting out on a quest to petition the Queen and reclaim what's hers, only to get swept up in the affairs of some sketchy soldiers and a band of thieves. The narrative was unapologetically feminist, with a strong, smart main character, a dash of queerness, and some nice body positivity.

Unfortunately, this nice beginning quickly unraveled into a disorienting narrative, full of disparate pieces that never reconciled in any sensible way. This wasn't just fast-paced; it was outright rushed, leaving an underdeveloped world, stagnant characters, and an unsatisfying ending. Also, the whole "blood magic" element was a lot creepier than I think it was intended to sound--most of this book felt pretty light, safe for the younger side of YA, but that specific element was really unsettling to me, and it wasn't resolved well at the conclusion of the book, either.

A version of this review is forthcoming on my blog, Goodreads, and Instagram; however, as I am currently on the blog tour for this book and this is not a positive review, I will refrain from posting these thoughts until after the tour's conclusion.

I'm afraid that I was accepted to read this book on the day of its publication, and then it was achieved before I even had a chance to read any of the books so I am unable to give any form of feedback on this book.

I would like to also like to request that this doesn't happen again, please. I am fine with being denied books and I would much prefer it to being accepted on the day and then being locked out of reading the book as that has an effect on my reviewing percentage which will, in turn, affect if I can read other books in the future.

Unfortunately, I have to give the book a rating, even though I haven't read the book, so that my general website rating doesn't go down for a book I was never fairly given the chance to review.

Best of luck with the release.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.


I got approved for this one a few months ago and was very excited to pick it up. A funny epic fantasy about a tavern wench that was, I quote, "unapologetically feminist"? Sign me up! What happened, you ask? The blurb lied...

There are many things I didn't like about Wench. While the blurb promised so much, I didn't find the book funny, nor particularly feminist. It was a fantasy, sure, but I wouldn't call it epic... in any meaning of the word.

The biggest issue I had was the world building and magic system - two key elements that really shape any fantasy story. While the author clearly knew what her world was like, she didn't educate the reader at all. There is no explanation of the world, kingdom name, basic geography, or politics. Things get mentioned every now and then in an offhand way, as if the reader should already know it all. I'm not sure if the author chose this method not to fall into the trap of "telling instead of showing", but honestly I'd rather be told. I would appreciate a full scope of the world instead of having to guess things and piece them together.

I had the same issue with the magic system. Only the very basic info was given to us - nothing beyond the fact that magic is possible but creates "junkoff". Can everyone do magic? Is it learned? Are you born with it? What can it actually do? No clue. It's a fantasy novel - explain the main elements, please.

If those two were done better (I'm not even saying done right), it could've been a 3 star. But on top of all of this the cast of characters was just too big and hence they weren't really developed at all. The relationships felt forced, I kept forgetting who was meant to be who because their personalities bled into one... I have nothing good to say about Tanya, or any other characters whose names I already forgot.

I think the efforts were definitely there, and people who care more about the plot in a vaguely fantastical setting would enjoy it a lot more than me. Ultimately Wench didn't work for me, sadly, as I looked forward to what seemed like a new and fresh fantasy.

I was provided a copy of Wench in order to read it and conduct an in-depth interview with the author. Please see the completed interview below.

1. Wench is your second novel, following your 2018 young adult debut, The Accidental Bad Girl. How does Tanya differ from or how is she similar to the protagonist in your first book, Kendall? Do you find there are any notable or interesting commonalities in the characters you’re drawn to write (or read) about?

What an interesting question! I’d honestly never thought about it before. The biggest difference between them is how they relate to people. Kendall thrives on personal connections and being part of a group, but struggles with her sense of self. Whereas Tanya knows exactly who she is (or thinks she does), but has no idea how to, or even why she should, form intimate connections with others. But, now that you ask, one really notable commonality between Kendall and Tanya is that they both start their stories from the same place: explicitly cast out of their respective comfort zones. And I think I am always going to be drawn to writing characters who are challenged in that way, especially when writing YA. So much of coming of age, and adulthood, is navigating choppy, unfamiliar waters, and I like finding different ways to dramatize that.



2. One of the many things that excited me about Wench is that it seems to defy strict genre classification, as it includes an intriguing kaleidoscope of fantasy, historical fiction and contemporary elements set against the familiar structure of a quest narrative. Similarly, the world that Tanya inhabits and travels through is rich with detail that made it easy to imagine and fascinating to explore. Are there are particular people, places or things that acted as inspiration for this story? Was it difficult to shift from writing contemporary fiction to something more fantastical in nature?

Wench was influenced by a lifetime of reading fantasy, but the two most direct influences were, 1) Terry Pratchett, and 2) the Dragonlance books, which, if you’re not familiar with them, take place in the Dungeons & Dragons world. I also played D&D in high school. Terry Pratchett is just one of my favorite writers. His characters are so rich and Discworld is a miraculous invention – I love both how expansive and specific it’s able to be; how ridiculous and how banal. It’s brilliant. Dragonlance – I adored that series as a tween, but a lot of Wench comes from what frustrated me as a reader about that world and its characters; what left me grasping as a fantasy reader in general. As for changing genres….look, if I could stick with one genre, I would 🙂 Sadly, my brain doesn’t work like that, though sometimes I wish it would. I’m coming to terms with being a genre magpie.



3. Both of your published novels have been written for a young adult audience. What are some of your favourite things about writing for this age group? Are there any particular challenges about writing for this target audience?

Love this question. One of my favorite things about writing for young adults is the elasticity. Young readers aren’t as bound by conventional expectations of genre, voice, tone, even conceptual frameworks. It’s one reason the YA market is so exciting, even as an adult reader: wild invention, incongruous genre mash-ups, and messy, visceral voices are par for the course. The hardest part is in making the voice authentic to the age group – because they will notice if you don’t. I also, and this is something I’m musing on this month for perhaps obvious reasons, often think that there’s a lot about the world that this generation of teens understands better than I do. And I neither want to talk down to them nor disappoint them, ever.


4. Over the course of her travels throughout the novel, Tanya is given the chance to experience a life very different from the one she led in Griffin’s Port. As the book states, “She had known hardship and she had known, if not ‘plenty’, then certainly ‘more than sufficient’, and she was satisfied with the latter.” Tanya is therefore understandably critical of the absurdity and wastefulness of the excessive wealth and privilege she encounters on her journey and is upset by the the disparity between the locales she visits and their inhabitants. “She found no evidence of any functional difference between her and the count’s sister. Yet Louisa lived in a soaring tower and Tanya had to fight for the right to live in her cramped attic.” I was excited to discover what appeared to be a conscious and deliberate deconstruction of capitalism and financial and social classes as we currently recognize them in this and other passages in the novel. Can you speak a little about this aspect of the story? Is there more freedom in exploring complex, timely and important contemporary issues like this in a more fantastical setting?

I’m so glad that this aspect of the novel came through for you. I’ll be honest and say that it wasn’t initially deliberate; meaning, I didn’t go in saying, “I want to write a fantasy novel that deconstructs capitalism.” But I’m also a news junkie and started this book in 2018. Income inequality, the limitations and dangers of late stage capitalism, the way greed has blocked any effective reckoning about climate change: these were all things very much on mind as I was writing it, and ended up hugely influencing the direction of the story. I don’t think I have any answers, but I think a lot about power, especially political power, and who gets to wield it, when, and on behalf of whom. Writing fiction in general is a great way to ask questions. Dealing with contemporary issues in fantasy, and science fiction, settings has a long tradition. I think it’s because adding a level of abstraction allows for people to see contemporary issues in clearer ways, and often from angles they otherwise wouldn’t have.



5. Early in the novel, Tanya comes into possession of a magical feathered quill that has the ability to move matter, promising her and anyone who holds it untold power. For each character, including Tanya herself, the quill represents something different. For Commander Rees, the quill represents duty fulfilled. For Tomcat and his gang, it means limitless riches in stolen treasure. For the queen, it means freedom from the metaphorical cage in which she’s been trapped. For Tanya, it means the return of her beloved tavern, The Smiling Snake, and so much more. If you gained possession of the quill, do you think you would use it and, if so, what do you think you would use it for? If not, why?

Here’s the thing: I’d be terrible at using that quill. I am not nearly as organized as Tanya. I’m the girl who had mandatory backpack checks in middle school; my locker was frequently mistaken for a lost and found. I would give it to top-flight climate change activists and let them fix the world. Or maybe Dolly Parton. I trust Dolly Parton. We can all get together on Dolly Parton, can’t we? 🙂



6. One of the elements in Wench that I was moved by and found relevant, particularly in a world increasingly obsessed with the idea of productivity and monetization, was the ongoing conversation about the idea of ‘usefulness’. Tanya states several times that she likes to be ‘useful’ and struggles to believe she’s worthy of personal connection like friendship or romantic love without serving or otherwise proving ‘useful’ to those around her. I thought the novel ultimately provided an affirming message to young readers that it is not what they do or accomplish that makes them valuable, but simply who they are. What do you hope readers will take from the novel?

This question is very close to my heart. More than anything else, I knew going in that this feeling of needing to be useful was what the book was going to be about. It’s very personal to me. I constantly feel like I have to justify my existence; that I need to repeatedly earn the love of my friends and family. So, yes, I hope this book holds an affirming message for readers who feel unworthy in and of themselves. It’s a complex question, what we owe each other. Can you tell that The Good Place was one of my favorite shows of the decade?



7. Tanya shows immense bravery and determination on her quest from her humble beginnings in Griffin’s Port to the grandeur of the Glacier and is accompanied by a spirited and colourful group of companions along the way. How do you think you would fare on a similar quest and who would you choose to accompany you on this journey?

I, like Tanya, am not an outdoorswoman, so I would probably be very uncomfortable on any given quest. On the other hand, when I say I’m going to do something, I usually find a way to do it. And I am blessed to have a very tight-knit core of ride-or-die friends who all have a wide range of skills and talents. I think we’d be OK! Which is nice to think about, so, thank you for asking Jen.

I received an eARC of this copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book had so much promise and potential, the overall storyline was pretty great, and I did enjoy the journey. It's a feminist adventure with all sorts of adventure and a very headstrong MC.

The couple things that threw me off were the pacing of the story and the flow, a few times I felt like it was being whipped around almost and I felt like it kept me from getting super sucked into the book like I tend to do with Fantasy.

If you enjoy a magic, fantasy world with a pretty fantastic MC and a great journey to prove herself, I would give this book a shot.

I wanted to love this book but I just didn't. The concept of the fantasy world was cool, but I didn't really like the characters and found the story overly confusing for the most part. While twists and turns in a plot are fun, this wasn't so much twists and turns as a zigzag.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
From the description, I thought this would be a book I enjoyed. But somewhere along the way, it became too convoluted or something and I just struggled through it.

This book was a struggle to get through. I really did not enjoy reading it, even though it ticks so many of my boxes (fantasy, magic, strong female lead). I didn’t like any of the characters, the ending is...a major let down, and the author didn’t seem like they could make up their mind about what they wanted this story to be.

The characters were very cliched. It's like the author was trying to make her book as feminist as possible, but could only work from template "feminist" characters. Tanya is...strong, can take care of herself most of the time, fights for what she wants, but she's also...a bit annoying. She doesn't come off as likeable, like the author probably intended. She seems very whiny at times and she doesn't appear to grow at all throughout the course of the book. She just keeps making the same choices over and over, with each new situation. Jana is also annoying. She is supposed to be the "badass, warrior girl," but she just comes off as...flat, unfeeling, and really unlikeable. Like Tanya, she doesn't appear to grow at all either. The rest of the characters aren't really worth mentioning because they are all as equally flat and uninteresting.

The story itself is probably the biggest let down. I was expecting a totally cool, action-oriented adventure, and I got that, BUT. It's all over the place. It's like the author couldn't make up her mind what she wanted the story to be, so it has everything, unfiltered. First it's a take-back-what's-mine story, then it's a rule-the-world-with-power story, then it's a fight-the-evil-magic-users story, and throughout the later half of the novel there's a minor love story thrown in for good measure. All of this just ends up being a novel that travels with whiplash-like twists and turns but reads with starts and stutters. It's really sluggish for most of the time, despite the constant scene changes, new characters popping up, and new quests being started. I really struggled to keep reading because I had absolutely no interest after getting through the first 50 pages. I really wanted to quit it after just the first third, but I soldiered on because I received this as an advanced reader copy. Without that duty, I would have DNF-ed it almost right away.

The romance line is just thrown in there out of nowhere. I mean, Tanya "feels" things for characters at the beginning, but the author chooses to just move on and so I thought, "Okay, no romance, which is fine because not every YA needs romance. This could actually be the ONE refreshing thing about this book." But no, all of a sudden, the author throws in not one but two potential romances for our main character in the last 1/3rd of the book, out of nowhere. And an addition side-romance for good measure. It's like she had a checklist and down at the bottom saw she'd written "Add a romance" and she was like, "Oh yeah, Tanya needs to fall for someone," and she spun a wheel and it landed on a character and she was like, "Cool, but I think there needs to be a love-triangle. That's what YA readers love, right?" So she spun it again and chose another one. I will say that it was nice seeing a potentially bisexual character in Tanya, but really this decision seemed entirely thrown in and not really deeply considered. It didn't go anywhere and the characters are so flat that it just felt like they were paper-cut outs being pushed together, while the author says, "Now kiss." It just didn't work at all. It also felt really second-thought and unearned.

Last, the writing is... not good. It's very juvenile at times, very tell instead of show. The author, through Tanya, feels the need to walk the reader through every "discovery" with lots of exposition and not enough just showing us the world. Tanya reads like a petulant child most of the time instead of the teenager (?) she's supposed to be. Most of the characters are written without any depth. You see them exactly as what they are right from the get-go and nothing changes as the book progresses. Even the action scenes are just...not very interesting. I was continually frustrated by the lack of depth to the story.

Ultimately, I didn't hate the book, but I really didn't enjoy reading it and I would have put it down, personally. I won't not recommend it, but I think it would have to be a really special circumstance for me to suggest this to a reader. There are so many better adventure-fantasy books out there, with better written feminist agendas.

Thank you to TBR & Beyond Tours & Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange of an honest review for the Wench promotional tour.

I loved the idea of the author writing a story about a character like a tavern wench who’s usually just a side character and not given much attention and how she made her the main character in her story is just amazing! I also love that she’s queer and plus sized! Plus the cover was so cute!!

The premise was interesting and it started off on an exciting note but as we go through the first half, the pacing felt inconsistent and the plot all over the place. I felt that the author squeezed in too much adventures for Tanya for me to keep up with. And I couldn’t get attached to most of the characters because of how fleeting their interactions were with Tanya. Just when I thought there was potential for something more with a character, the story moves on along with Tanya’s emotions. With that said, I found it hard to connect with the other characters.

I loved the fantasy elements and the medievalesque setting! The magic system was easy to follow as well with its set of rules.

Overall, I enjoyed Wench and reading about Tanya’s adventures and I highly recommend this to those who are looking for a story with a strong, relatable female lead, feminist themes, fun adventures, LGBTQ representation and body positivity!

Wench by Maxine Kaplan
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 384
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Warnings: A lot of the magic in the book necessitates forms of personal harm.

Quick Look (out of five):
Plot Rating: 4
Character Rating: 3
Romance Rating: 2
World-Building Rating: 4
Writing Style Rating: 3
Recommended?: Sure! This book was super fun and a very fast read.

Wench follows Tanya, a barmaid on a quest to petition the Queen and Council for the property rights to the bar her guardian owned before his death. She begins by joining a troupe of guardsmen heading to the capital. Her journey is sidetracked when she is captured by a crime ring who are after the strange magical feather that fell into Tanya’s possession. As Tanya attempts to reach the palace, she is swept up in a dangerous and thrilling magic. Tanya is forced to contend with the allure of power and control, and ultimately she must decide who and what she wants to be. The world seems inspired by both traditional fantasy and role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. Intimate knowledge of these is not required at all to understand or enjoy the book; there are nods to both of these types of fantasy that add extra depth for readers familiar with these fantasy styles.

Tanya is a fascinating character to follow. Unlike so many fantasy heroes, Tanya is down-to-earth and mundane. She can best be described as buxom and clearly uses this to her advantage when necessary. I appreciate that Tanya is sturdy, despite being incredibly short, as this is exactly how I would expect a good barmaid to be built. It also means she can join the (somewhat limited) pantheon of well-written plus-size heroines. Her skills as a barmaid and innkeeper are unparalleled, but regularly overlooked as they are subtler than the talents of traditional thieves and fighters. Tanya is unfailingly logical and organized and often blunt to a fault. I love her character arc, and the choices she makes as the story progresses have fascinating undercurrents.

Tanya makes two close friends on her travels. The first is Greer, a guardsman who is part of the patrol that is escorting Tanya to the capital until bandits attack. Greer is kind and sensible, but unluckily cursed with the ability to fall in with the absolute worst commanders in the militia. Greer registers as a fun character from his first introduction in the novel, but really becomes an interesting character in the second half of the novel. The second friend is Jana, a thief and member of the criminal ring that captures Tanya. Jana resembles Tanya in a lot of ways – she’s a young woman who can only rely on herself and carves a path for herself in the world against steep odds – and their interactions help set them up as mirrors of each other. Tanya flirts with both Greer and Janna in an offhand way, and both flirt back.

Tanya finds the Queen of the kingdom of Lode unsettling in an indefinable way. There is very little known about the Queen outside of the fact that she never leaves her palace located in a magical glacier. She is a scientist of sorts who creates magical inventions in her laboratory. As more is revealed about the Queen, she becomes increasingly unsettling and even a little scary. I find her backstory intriguing, especially in the ways it makes her current mindset towards ruling and power seem almost reasonable.

The fantasy world is extremely well-built. It is vaguely medieval in nature; there is a Queen, guardsmen who patrol the kingdom as a police force, criminals, and a lot of regular townsfolk. Most towns are not magical and have the same basic amenities like blacksmiths and taverns. The town of Bloodstone, however, is a strange place controlled by a demon and its cultish followers. The Town acts as a safe haven for criminals, but it still runs on the same essential industries as any other town. The magic system in the novel has clear rules, and the costs of magic are physical and obvious: every act of magic creates some kind of nature-based magical occurrence elsewhere (this excess magic is called junkoff). Magic becomes something that is fun for magicians to play around with, but is incredibly inconvenient for the everyday person. Tanya views magic as unnecessary and something that ordinary people only experience the downside of.

SPOILERS

I love Tanya’s unsettling descent into blood magic and her work with the Queen. It is such an interesting choice by the author to have Tanya nearly become a villain. She starts using blood magic on accident and does not even realize what she is doing as she continues to use the powers of the feather. Before joining forces with the Queen, Tanya uses the feather and blood magic to get herself out of dangerous situations. Occasionally, she thinks about how much good she could do by using the feather to clean up the junkoff magic that wreaks havoc on ordinary people. However, her circumstances throughout the first half of the novel make it important to use the feather only when absolutely necessary. This changes dramatically when the Queen offers (commands) Tanya to take a job as her secretary where she will use the feather to manipulate all of Lode’s resources for ‘good’. The job leads to Tanya essentially working as the right-hand woman to a power-hungry, controlling authoritarian. The beauty of this character arc is how natural it feels and how familiar. Tanya represents every annoyed and underappreciated customer service worker who knows that if everyone just did what they were told, things would run smoother. Her logical mindset blinds her to the cost of this control on the citizens – and on Tanya herself. Add Tanya’s survivalist mentality to this problem, and suddenly she is spiraling towards a very dark existence. Tanya is so used to having to take care of herself that she does not recognize when other people attempt to help her or steer her towards better choices. These tendencies nearly destroy Tanya and the kingdom, leading to a reality check for Tanya that saves her from her near-villain-hood. It is just so interesting following Tanya through an arc that transforms her from ordinary citizen to all-powerful authoritarian force and then back to ordinary citizen. There is something very powerful in Tanya ultimately turning away from power and opening her own bar and inn. She recognizes the importance of doing the undervalued work of everyday life.

The characters of the Queen and Madame Moreagan are fascinating foils. The Queen has been alive for over a hundred years because her advisors tried to freeze her aging as a child in order to seize control of the kingdom. She is a brilliant woman trapped by men and traditional structures who just wants to use the power she supposedly has for good. However, her idea of good is complete control of all resources and citizens, the erasure of all freedom in the name of making everything work smoothly. Madame Moreagan, in contrast, is a woman who should not have much power, but slowly gained it by working from the ground up in order to help other women. She sees that living in a town populated only by criminals left women vulnerable and the economy constantly in flux. By organizing all the women of the town to create a marketplace where they could barter essential items and support one another, Madame Moreagan created stability in a town that inherently should not have any stability or safety. Both of the Queen and Madame Moreagan were disenfranchised by men. The Queen sought freedom through complete control, while Madame Moreagan created freedom through establishing a community and investing in essential services that were overlooked. I really enjoyed seeing this juxtaposition of power for common good and the idea of investing in community rather than resources as a way to create stability.

The ending of this novel is absolutely incredible! It is not exactly fun watching as Tanya makes really dumb choices, but it certainly is entertaining. She is simply so fixated on fixing everything herself that she misinterprets her friends’ concern and incapacitates them so she can continue with her plan. I personally would never decide that blood bonding with a demon was the best course of action, but the author does an excellent job of making Tanya’s choices seem reasonable from her point of view. I also love that the apprentice magician Rollo becomes a big part of the ending. Even though he made the magic feather Tanya is wielding, Rollo is seen as a bit of a joke by Tanya and others. Tanya inadvertently does to Rollo what people have done to her for years – she undervalues his abilities and discounts him entirely. It is awesome that Rollo sweeps in and essentially holds the town of Bloodstone together and keeps the world from falling to this demon until Tanya can destroy the feather and save everyone. Like every character in the novel, I went from seeing Rollo as a novice and unimportant to recognizing just how powerful and talented he is. This ending reinforces the overarching theme of appreciating the people and skills that seem unimportant.

This book had a lot of promise, but sadly the pacing and flow were too bizarre for me. So much happened and so many characters were introduced in the first half that just as I would get accustomed to what was happening, it would go in a different direction. Overall this made the story less engaging and the characters difficult to connect with.

That being said, the world and magic of this story are fun, so it might just be that this book isn't for me. You might enjoy it if you give it a chance!

Thank you to ABRAMS Kids/ Amulet Books via Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

As a foundling, Tanya is taken in by Froud who offers her a roof and a purpose. Tanya’s purpose becomes the running of the tavern, the Smiling Snake, particularly as Froud’s health declines. But when Froud dies, Tanya finds that the Smiling Snake has not been willed to her and the Queen’s corpsmen offer a writ of ownership that takes away the tavern while all of her supplies are reappropriated. Tanya sees an opportunity to get her tavern back, but it will require traveling with the corpsmen to the capital to petition the Queen and Council. But when a magical quill enters the picture, everything that Tanya knows and planned for is blown away, and Tanya finds herself on an improbable quest that will determine her future.

The main protagonist, Tanya, was unapologetic in her desire to save herself. As a reader, this was an enjoyable trait. Tanya’s desire stems from the fact that she was abandoned in Griffin’s Port at a young age without anyone to rely on. When Tanya embarks on her quest, supporting characters work to form relationships with Tanya, which is difficult given the fact that these advances are often met with skepticism. This was a bit frustrating since Tayna is stubborn and doesn’t see their intentions as genuine until it’s almost too late. However, as a whole, Tanya was an enjoyable character to read, particularly since tavern wenches are often not protagonists able to determine their own fate. Tanya was also self-possessed and body positive, a welcome viewpoint.

As for supporting characters, they were well fleshed out and each had their own story to tell. Jana, Riley, Darrow, Greer, and Rollo all offer interesting views into Tanya’s own psyche based on how they interact with her and how they seek to find their own way forward. Additionally, like Tanya who seems to prefer the romantic company of both men and women, many of these characters are not tied into traditional heterosexual relationships, which is an area that is often overlooked in fantasy.

Given that the characters were well envisioned and the plot was wickedly fun, there are still a few critiques. First, the magic system was a bit unclear. The magical manipulation was straight forward, specifically when novices try to access the strands it creates an inverse reaction, called junkoff, that can be harmful. What was less clear were the magical artifacts, such as the quill and the crown. Though the novel seeks to explain these as commissioned by the Queen late in the novel, this felt underexplored. Second, the Queen also seemed to be a figure shrouded in mystery. Maxine Kaplan offers some details about the Queen, but not enough for a reader to be satisfied. Third, the conclusion of the novel felt odd and rushed. It almost seemed like there should be more since the resolution was a bit too neat. Finally, a minor point, the plot was fun if a bit twisted as points, but the nature of a quest lends itself to such a narrative, which made it work.

Overall, I enjoyed Wench and would recommend it to others, particularly if you’re looking for a quest narrative with a strong feminist angle.

I really wanted to like this book a full five stars, but there was just something a little bit lacking for me. The pacing was inconsistent, and the overall flow seemed to get out of the author's control. I loved the spark and potential for a queer relationship but felt like it could have been developed a bit more and teased out further. I think the fantasy genre needs straight forward F/F relationships and I would have loved to see that depicted a bit more in this story

The feminist themes were a delight to see in a fantasy novel in this environment and didn’t seem forced or unnatural to the characters. I really enjoyed a lot of the side characters, their personalities and their additions to the story helped this book feel more complete. The characters desire to continue after their personal goals regardless of the status quo was refreshing and admirable. The sense of adventure was built from page one and perfectly written throughout. I think this is a great debut from the author and look forward to what is next! Overall, 3 stars from me.

I wanted to love this book. The premise is fantastic and it felt like every element had a lot of promise. Unfortunately, for me, it failed to live up to that promise. The characters, the pacing, it all just felt off, never landed right.

I was looking forward to reading this book since the premise seemed interesting. However, I felt the pacing was choppy. I never connected with any of the characters and I found Tanya to be annoying. Overall, everything about this book was just okay and nothing really stood out.

If you describe the plot of "Wench" by Maxime Kaplan it sounds a lot like a "Wizard of Oz" remake. But Tanya the tavern wench is a protagonist with more agency than Dorothy in a tale with as much social commentary as Baum's novels.

The story revolves around the journey and tasks Tanya has to undertake to gain the tavern she lost when the tavern's owner died and left her with nothing. Tanya's adventure forces her to confront the type of person she is and wants to be and the people she wants to befriend or not. Tanya also discovers her own capabilities and even power, with the help of an enchanted feather.

Tanya is a very relatable main character for anyone who has had to work in food service or retail. I loved the archer character's personality and that a horse was so integral to the plot the horse was its own character. Kaplan utilized magic and magical artifacts are unlike any way I have ever seen before.

But at the end of the day, it was hard for me to really be totally enraptured in the story because it was hard to gauge the distance between the locations they were traveling between and the abruptness of some of the character's actions within the story arc.

But I think part of the problem is I am nearly 30-years-old well-traveled on my feminism journey. After reading this book my initial thought was that I wish that this book had come out 15 years ago when I was just beginning my exploration into feminism because of the message that a woman can do what they want and be successful, not what people expect of them is one I needed to hear as a teenager.

I absolutely loved the idea of this book, which was so original. However, the writing style just wasn't for me and I wasn't able to complete reading it. I found it difficult to get engaged in the story and I think this is more of a me problem than anything with the book itself. Thank you so much netgalley for the review opportunity and I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to enjoy this as much as I'd hoped.

First of all, thank you to Amulet Books and Net Galley for an eARC of this!

Wench follows Tanya, a tavern wench who has nothing but the Snake. When the Queen's Guard shows up and comandeers it, she goes with them in hopes of asking the queen for the tavern back, but is pulled into a fantastical journey full of magic.

This book wanted to be a feminist journey for a young wench who knew what she wanted from the world, but the magic wasn't full explained, and it was difficult to enjoy the character when her perosnality and motivations were kind of all over the place.

Tanya is bi and plus-sized but eve still the romance often didn't feel genuine, and she was kind of awful? I was pretty disappointed in this one. I really want to love this one!