I was so excited to read this but unfortunately I was disappointed. I couldn’t connect with the min character so it was hard to make myself care enough to be invested in the story. On the other hand it was beautifully written, I just wish the rest of the book lived up to my expectations

Thank you to Penguin Random House & Netgalley for this advance copy.

The Shattered Lands was a gorgeous lyrical fantasy, I love fantasy in general, and a sapphic romantasy is just elite - I love it! I was so gripped by the plot and romance in this one, despite sometimes finding the events of the novel a bit predictable. But alas, still fun!

Ashes, this Shadow Witch, was the salvation she had been seeking.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.
First of all I would like to say that if this book wasn't sapphic and the author's debut novel it would have gotten a lower rating.
Second of all the cover is stunning.
Third of all I feel rather sad that one of my most anticipated reads of 2023 disappointed me.
I think the idea itself could have been written a lot better and the plot should've been worked out (if that's how you say it) a little more.
Fortunately for this book, I have a soft spot for sapphics so I will let some stuff slide and give it this rating.
I expect progress from the author in the future.

WHY DID THIS FEEL LIKE AN UNEDITED FIRST DRAFT???? Ugh. The writing was veeeeery bad, like BAD bad. The copy I was send seemed to be a finished copy so I'm surprised. I know I'm very annoying as a French speaker when it comes to repetitions but even for English readers this must've been awful. The Black representation throughout this book was very weird and was uncomfortable to read. It also felt like this book didn't know what age group it wanted to be, because it's clearly a YA book but so many scene felt so sexual, which isn't inherently a bad thing but it had those very kinky/BDSM vibes that also gave me the icks. The characters were fine I guess but yeah, it was a baaaaaaad book. 1.5 stars

I will be coming back to this book when I am in the right head space: for now I was not able to finish it unfortunately.

"The Shattered Lands" by Brenna Nation is an enemies to lovers sapphic fantasy which follows Sapphire, a young woman who magically is transported from her dark, dangerous world into Eriobis, where it is found she is the lost child of the King and Queen.

The book is fun, but I did feel I read a lot of tropes and things I had read in other books. This kind of broke the book for me. It felt like I was reading a pastiche and a book written with a sort of blueprint as to what this book should be, but it didn't click for me. Which is why I think I didn't get the big shock in the end, and I don't feel inclined to read the next book.
I got this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and I read it a while back, but life and my diagnosis kind of took me out of the reading and reviewing schedule but I am trying to feel less ashamed about that failure (and not see it as a failure) and just tick off the books I haven't managed to do Tiktok videos for by doing an instagram post for now and writing the review for Goodreads. I don't know if the authors are reading this but I am really sorry for taking so long to post about it and not finding the ability yet to do the video.

I really enjoyed The Shattered Lands by Brenna Nation!
My favourite thing about this book was definitely the two main characters, Sapphire and Ashes.
It was also really well written and I really liked the magic and world.
I definitely hope there will be a sequel as that ending hurt!
I really do highly recommend this book!

I really wanted to love this. I'd have killed for more f/f fantasies when I was 15.

In the end, this felt like a harsh reminder of why I gave up looking for good f/f fantasies at that age. I found Sapphire quite grating to read; I had no idea what she actually wanted. The whole book was grating to read. The writing style is a little juvenile and really needed another round of edits. Others have mentioned the odd reverse racism plot and the glaring similarity to another YA fantasy novel, so I won't go into depth, but overall I can't say I was a fan.

I think YA can be better than this and it frustrates me when books are sold as a package of tropes and representation but don't actually contain any heart.

Two stars. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I put this book on my want-to-read list in April 2022. So I was really looking forward to it. It had all the markers of a good YA fantasy, and I should’ve loved it. But I didn’t.

While the idea is great and the mystery of the novel will draw readers in, it wasn’t executed particularly well. There was a lot of repetition and scenes that went on for just a bit too long to keep interest, or scenes that weren’t needed at all.

Sapphire isn’t all that likeable (although I’m not sure she’s meant to be. Her main personality traits are to be suspicious and to question the intentions anyone and everyone). But I did want to see how she ended up in her predicament and if her suspicions were founded.

The romance felt very adult for a young adult novel. That should have been edited to be more appropriate for the intended audience.

Again, good idea. Would have benefited for a few more rounds of editing.

I was so invested in the mystery at the start of this, wanting to know why Sapphire went to sleep in an orphanage at one side of a magical border and woke up at the other, to be told she was really the long lost Princess. But as the story continued, the answers were a lot more boring that I was expecting, and the characters quickly grated on my nerves.

Sapphire is quite difficult to like. We're told she's a hunter, but after she leaves the orphanage this is never shown again. When she does arrive, she quickly latches on to a girl who works in the castle (whose name escapes me) and repeatedly tells us that they're friends. I never saw them as friends, I saw a girl who felt obligated to help the royal heir in case she gets pissy.

A lot of the plot is Sapphire leaving the castle at night, travelling to see Ashes, a forest witch or something, having some sort of weird heated argument as flirting, then going back again in a huff only to do the same the next night. As this book read younger, their scenes together ended up feeling quite jarring, bordering on an adult romance.

The big reveal was... to be honest, quite messy and I left feeling confused as to what actually happened in Sapphire's history. Towards the end, Sapphire got really very overdramatic, pretty much screeching and throwing herself around on every page, which made it quite difficult to work out what was actually going on with the plot. I was so glad to finish this and have no interest at all in continuing the series.

DNF at 46%
Unfortunately I was disappointed by this book, after being one of my most anticipated reads of the year as a fan of fantasy. The dialogue and writing style felt awkward.

It's a bit difficult to review this book. There's things I liked, and others I didn't. I think the world building works, and the love story is ok. Also, the ending isn't too predictable.
However, the whole book suffers from too much tell, not show. I'm also not sure what to make of the reverse racism (do we really need this in this age and time?).
Overall, it was a fine read and I'm curious how the story proceeds!

I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

One of my first DNFs...

I made it roughly 70% through this book and was relieved when I went to Goodreads and saw not everybody was loving this book. While it has a nice story and had some good sapphic romance, I found myself struggling to follow along with the story. It felt choppy like jumping from one scene to the next with minimal setup, and there isn't much character development.
I also found Sapphire to come off a little spoiled/bratty at times, regardless of her humble background. I think some more detail and building from Sapphires background would have been beneficial to the storyline.
The romance between Sapphire and Ashes seems to come out of nowhere and with little backing. I felt like Sapphire started having feelings for Ashes before even really knowing her character, and the connection seemed superficial at best. Also, there are definitely some steamy scenes in this book that I think push this book beyond the YA category.
All told, this book did have some redeeming qualities. The story itself has a great concept and I found myself feeling connected to the characters as I read more. But, with how choppy the writing is at times and how difficult it can be to keep up with, I'm not likely to finish reading this.

I DNF this book, sadly I got bored of it 50 pages in and it wasn't what I wanted it to be, I was so hyped for this book and it was a little letting down in my eyes. Maybe I will try reading it again at some point but for now I am sorry.

I really liked this! I wish there was more fantasy like this when I was younger. I will definitely read more from this author!

Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for the review copy! The Shattered Lands follows Sapphire, a girl struggling to survive in an orphanage in a harsh land, who suddenly finds herself in a kingdom where she is the lost princess. She has to uncover the details behind her life and get used to magic while trying to understand this new place. There is also Ashes, a dark witch who Sapphire should stay away from, but Ashes may be the only one to help her discover the truth.

The cover drew me in immediately – it really is stunning – and I love that there is a sapphic relationship because they are definitely lacking in fantasy books. The synopsis read like classic YA to me and I’ve been missing that lately. I will say it was a quick read and I got through it in a few days. However, I really wanted to love this, but unfortunately I just didn’t. I think it has a lot of potential and the right audience would enjoy it, but there were just a few aspects I couldn’t get past that hindered my enjoyment.

The book read a little young to me, which isn’t necessarily an issue because it is YA, but it was more that the writing just didn’t feel developed. I saw another review say that this was originally written as adult and later changed, so maybe that’s why it felt off to me, but I don’t know. Although I liked the idea of the magic, a lot of the world building seemed to come in info dumps as well. I just didn’t like the way this was written but that might be personal preference.

My main issue was that the characters and the plot frustrated me. The lost princess trope is something I’ve read many times so I was excited to see how it was done in this book, but it really felt like very little happened for the entire middle part of the book. I can sometimes forgive that if I’m loving reading about the characters, but I wasn’t invested at all. Most of the book was Sapphire’s inner thoughts or conversations with the same people and I was just bored with the repetitive scenes.

I have read a lot of fantasy books, and a lot of sapphic books, and I just did not get the chemistry between Sapphire and Ashes either. It was obviously an enemies to lovers vibe but I just didn’t get that connection.

I have seen some other reviewers point out the problematic representation of Black characters in the book, so I would encourage checking out other reviews for more on this.

The end did somewhat answer questions I had and did make me wonder what will happen next, but also confused me, so ultimately I don’t think I will be picking up the sequel.

4.5 stars!

although the grammar was repetitive and the writing was weak to some extent i really loved the story and found it very easy and interesting to read! i felt the tension between the characters and Ashes is so hot that got me screaming and blushing everytime she appeared! cannot wait for more <3

I ADORED this book. Read it in one sitting and was yelling into the heavens when I realised that the story would be continued in a series. I need book two yesterday. The characters were perfect. The enemies to lovers to enemies trope was perfect. The story and magic world building was perfect. 10/10 recommend and will be counting down the days for book two.

I’m going to be honest and say I nearly DNF at the 10% mark. The speed at which Sapphire goes from the only life she’s known to this magical new world is insane. I literally felt nothing at her wanting to go back because I didn’t know why she wanted to go back. I didn’t get to see the connections she shared with the people there.

While there are some lengthy descriptions, there isn’t much motivation for me to care about anything in this universe, really, beyond how Sapphire is feeling at the time. My biggest gripe is the romance. I don’t get it. I don’t know while Sapphire liked Ashes so much and why Ashes went from basically ‘I’m the only one who can kill you’ to ‘you wonderful thing.’ Maybe it kind of makes sense for plot reasons? But even knowing the ending, I’m dissatisfied.

What I will say is that I can see potential. Such that I’d be interested to read the sequel in the hopes the writing improves.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book. Sapphic YA romance! Should be right up my alley!

Unfortunately, it took me until about a third of the way through for anything much to happen, and the next 200 pages were the same six or so characters meeting up in the same three locations to have the same conversations. This book leans pretty heavily on “chosen one” tropes, but it didn’t add much of anything new to them. It never felt like there was a world outside of the few characters we meet, or stakes beyond the destiny of the main character.

I imagine that people who love ACOTAR or Throne of Glass would enjoy this as well… it fell into that general category for me, plus is had a sarcastic witch love interest.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. [Review also posted to Amazon.]