Strangeling (Children of the Broken Dawn Book 1), by Kira Hagen:

I received an ARC of this novel for an honest review. I enjoyed reading the beginning and the worldbuilding. The three main Characters were engaging especially Aisling. The military changling's relationship with his command is not fully explained. I wish there was more about the biological mechanisms for the Change in character's genetics due to Alien technology.

Likewise, I was confused by why the changes and social structures of the mutated being would reflect the archetypes of myth and legend. I expect the author will continue explaining this in the next six books of the series.

The publisher compares the writing's style and comedy to Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. I picked up the book hoping for more comedy. I was disappointed.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It’s fantasy/science fiction and focuses on three main characters. I don’t want to give too much away so I will just say that I really enjoyed the story and am excited to read the next one.
I have given it 3 stars because I found the book very difficult to get into at the beginning. I think sometimes fantasy can be very difficult to take in with so much world building in the opening chapters and with getting all the background information you sometimes forget what is actually happening with the story but I’m glad I stuck with it as I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next!

Lovely book, exceptional sense of place. As a Minnesotan, loved to see such care in the depiction of various places in the state and how they have changed with the addition of Elsecomers and radiance. Great pace, easy to read. Believable characterization of our three main POVs. Great world-building here that opens up a lot of territory for future books to expand on. Cannot wait to learn more about how the Change affects people the way it does...hoping future books will dive a bit more technically into these things (and showcase Aisling using her studies!). Greatly enjoyed the first ~2/3rds of novel but found the back third meandered a bit and lost the plot to advance some character development and establish some world background...bit of an info dump at times through this section but the last few chapters drew me back. Throughout, I found some of the characters' horniness/sexual fantasizing slightly distracting from action at hand, especially as there was very little action for majority of novel. Though this was not a huge focus of the narrative and didn't dampen my investment in the novel as a whole Overall, I would recommend this book mainly for its wonderful sense of place and depiction of an altered MN landscape, truly fascinating system of magic/biology/technology, and light-hearted, fast pace. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for future installments to see how this series continues to grow!

Strange but interesting read. Multiple POVs could get confusing, but overall it was an entertaining read. Seemed a little bit rushed as the book started to end and very so often felt a little repetitive. Overall I liked the dystopian world.

I had just signed up with Netgalley to start checking out ARC's when this book popped up. The cover immediately drew me in and when I read the description, I thought eh ok why not. It had a few reviews on Amazon and they were all postive, so I added it to my list and figured I'd get to it eventually.

As soon as I finally started reading, I was immediately drawn in. This sci-fi fantasy is told from the point of view of 3 different characters and I was immediately taken with all of them, especially Aisling who turned out to be an awesome bad ass.

An alien race of elven/fae have come to the planet and taken over Earth. Their arrival causes absolute chaos by knocking out a lot of our technology and also causes something called the Change which turns humans into different mythical creatures that can go into a ravenous hunger. Most are either imprisoned or killed after their change.

The world building and history that is going into this series is great and a wonderful setup for future books. The author states at the end of the book that this will be a 7 book series and this was a wonderful start to draw people in. I love all the characters, especially the banter and references they make to pop culture, which is usually sci-fi or fantasy related. (Very nerdy in the best way)

I am truly a devoted fan and I can't wait for the next book. The ending had me squealing in frustration and I am clamoring for more!!! I feel like this whole series is going to be a roller coaster of emotion and I'm here for it. This debut novel by Kira Hagen hit the ball out of the park and I am recommending this to anyone I can because I think this series deserves all the recognition it can get.

A well written complex blend of sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian and horror. The reader must pay attention while reading so as to not miss important plot moves. Rich characters. Although at times it can get alittle confusing with so much going on, stay focused and you will be glad you did. Thanks #netgalley and #BooksGoSocial for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

I had never heard of this author before and to be honest requested this book solely based on the absolutely GORGEOUS art. It reminded me of the deer in Annihilation and this book is kind of the same- a mix of fantasy with sci-fi. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into with a new author but it sounded compelling and boy was I right!

This book is SO GOOD. It is COMPLEX and A LOT is going on here, so you're going to have to really take your time with this one. Kira's descriptions of magic were breath-taking and VERY reminiscent of Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale. You ACTUALLY feel that you are being transported into the magic of the trees between worlds.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would but I did need to read a little bit slower than usual to keep track of everything. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy/sci-fi and "weird" books in general. I'm looking forward to book #2! Solid 4 out of 5 stars.

3.75 changed Stars

It was a very fun book.
The writing style (+ all the specific vocabulary) made it quite hard for me to get into the book in the beginning. Oftentimes I had to read sentences several times to understand what the author meant - and sometimes failed (granted English is not my native language, but I've been speaking fluently for more than 25 years...).
But the story was the perfect mix of Celtic and Norse mythologies and sci-fi. There's faes, monsters, mutants, and aliens, magic and starships. There are tons of Star Trek and Star Wars references, LOTR, Buffy the vampire slayer, a bit of American Gods, some Hunger games, and probably a lot of other stuff I didn't realize or didn't get.
The MCs are totally wild and chaotic and also very sweet. They're sad and broken but not hopeless. They're fighting for the people they love.
Because it mixes so many different things the lore and storylines are VERY complicated. It was often too much for my taste (some of the stuff started to make sense to me only toward the end of the book), but I suppose it's normal given that's a first book in a long series and I loved the book anyway.
I can't wait for the next book, to know what happens next. Hopefully, with all the world building done and the intrigues set up, the other books will be easier to follow.

PS: I must say however that I'm very disapointed by the "So Lorcan did" moves the author pulled.

This book was weird!
But it was kinda great.
This is a dystopia, sci-fantasy with a side of horror and a TON of various lore references. It a wild ride from start to finish.
I did have a few critiques:
1. There a ton of info dumping in the back half of this novel. Which flowed really well in this story. EXCEPT, there is three POVS in this novel and there were several instances where we were getting information we had just learned in one POV rehashed in another.
2. Sometimes the POC characters came off a little stereotyped. There was like an in universe explanation for this but still kinda weird.

Anyways: this book was a wild ride. I looking forward to seeing what the author does with the rest of this series and I will be keeping an eye out for book two.

Ps. The MCs of this are disaster bisexuals and it was a vibe.

I thought the cover was beautiful and absolutely drew me in. Unfortunately the plot was very generic and just didn’t flow for me

Strangeling by Kira Haven isn't for the casual reader-- there is a lot going on in this story--from characters, world building and relationships.
This is a science fiction/fantasy/urban fantasy mash up told from the perspective of three characters, Arthur, Aisling, and Connor. Or as the description says, "Space opera and mythology dance the forbidden polka in a geek-filled wasteland. A dystopian future grows from roots in Celtic and Norse mythology. And the most hilarious hot mess of a bisexual love triangle in epic dystopian urban science fantasy begins!"
There is a lot going on maybe too much at times or at least so much that you may need a score card.
That being said, it also felt to me like not much was resolved, possibly because this is the first in a seven book series according to the author.
Thank you to #NetGalley, #BooksGoSocial, and Kira Haven for the ARC of #Strangeling.

This book introduce you to a breathtaking world of fantasy.. I really LOVED this book.. The story is very engaging.. The dystopian worl description is fantastic.. The character interaction.. And the love triangle offcourse..mind blowing... And the plot - ELITE

Cant wait for the next arc