Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this ARC!

This is a YA fantasy following Sapphire as she finds herself transported to a land that claims she is their lost princess. While learning how to fit her role as royal she meets Ashes, a shadow witch, who lives in the forest with her coven. Ashes seems to be the only one who holds answers to Sapphire’s questions about her life and her true purpose and as a romance blooms between them she is forced to make impossible choices.

So I was really excited to read this because it’s a sapphic fantasy with political intrigue and an interesting plot. However, this felt like a first draft. There were so many grammar mistakes which I don’t usually comment on but they were so incredibly noticeable in this it was almost as if this hasn’t been edited or proof read before being published. This is YA but there were so many sexual innuendos in there it made me uncomfortable to think that teenagers are reading this. The romance was unbelievable and incredibly manufactured, I actually thought Sapphire and Evera had more of a believable romance blossoming than Sapphire and Ashes.

The pacing was so off as well, the ending was rushed and so many scenes were drawn out that didn’t need to be while important scenes were rushed. The “revelations” at the end I thought were incredibly self explanatory honestly. The main character was extremely naive and unlikeable, she was constantly whining and I honestly forgot that she was eighteen because she sounded more like a fourteen year old which again is why I found the sexual innuendos uncomfortable.

I’m sorry but this was a miss for me and if this is a series I won’t be continuing. If this does sound interesting to you however it was released on 16th March so you can check it out for yourself.

Oooooohhhh damn!!!!!!!! Many thanks to Penguin Random House UK and NetGalley for getting my heart torn out of my already fragile chest.
Okay but heads up: lgbtqia+ main characters, forced marriage, poor childhood, and enemies to lovers. Hit me UP!!!
This book was all about world building and character development to start of an amazing series. I am so far unknowing of sequels but it’s a great great start.
We love Saph because we all long for a place to find home and I don’t want to spoil anything but for god’s sake give the girl a break Brenna, she’s fragile.
Seriously, this is not an action packed fantasy but more a slow paced world building fantasy in which we get to learn all about the past and future of Saph’s kingdom. It’s brilliantly written and wonderfully exciting!

[RATE: 2.5/5] Okay so that was a quick and easy read, interesting overall with its myths and elemental magic, but I get an unfinished feeling and a disappointment: we're basically reading what has been said in the blurb, we don't get much more than that except those exact truth about Sapphire. And it's clearly a first book of a duology or a series because we're left with a cliffhanger marking a big (I hope) change.

All along, Sapphire was conflicted with how to act and what to do, and I feel like she went into the "I'm the princess you don't speak to me like that" way too quickly for someone like her - also her temperament was changing so much and it was bothering me. Only her relationship with Ashes were interesting to follow, I really liked the subtle changes with their feelings and their trust with every single time they met. But all the revelations about who Sapphire is and what happened gave me a "meh" feeling.

I had a constant feeling of contemplation: I was watching things happening in wait for stuff to truly happen, to have a plot twist. But that plot twist is actually the cliffhanger at the end. So if it's a one-shot it truly feels like an unfinished story. And if it's a 1st book I honestly don't think I'll be reading the next book because this is a story easily forgotten...

When Sapphire finds out she's a missing princess she's thrust into a world of court politics & elemental magic. Loved this at first but didn't end up gelling with the MC or the plot. Fell flat for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange of my honest review.

So… I was enchanted at first with the fact that it was sapphic, a fantasy and portrayed as enemies to lovers.

Well, to be honest I couldn’t finish the book. It was difficult for me to even start.

• it is classified as YA but some elements is clearly made for older (i .e : kink /fetish)
• the world building was not really understandable, or made to be understood. It took me some time to understand how the world works and what it is about.
• i felt the writing was not the best or the storyline was not portrayed as it’s best.
• chemistry fell flat, i didn’t feel something between the characters (for what I’ve read), it felt forced as the author wanted so much smth to happen between them

I’m sorry there isn’t a lot to say about the story but I couldn’t continue the book.

I’m really disappointed because i wanted to read it and enjoy it.

i finished brenna nation's debut, THESE SHATTERED LANDS. this was a story i dug my teeth into & couldn’t let go of—i highly recommend it.

set in an unraveling kingdom, two girls fall for one another & must decide whether their love is worth forsaking the world. ♡

This was a book that promised to be so much, and unfortunately for me it fell a bit short. I got just under halfway through before I realised that this one just wasn't for me and I didn't have the attachment to it to continue.

Perhaps my expectations were a little bit too high, but the writing felt very disjointed and the plots seemed to conveniently bounce around with no connections between them. We would follow some things in perfect detail, but then when a very important plot point would occur there would be no description at all and it felt like it was glossed over. It ended up reading like something I could find on wattpad and that's not really the quality I'm looking for when I pick up a published book.

The main character and her love interest didn't have any chemistry and it all felt very misplaced. I can see how this book would perhaps appeal to a younger audience and I have seen in other reviews that many people have enjoyed this novel, so perhaps it just fell short for me personally.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this advance copy in return for an honest review.

The Shattered Lands
Fantasy, YA
Brenna Nation
⭐️⭐️

I need to start this review by saying I'm conflicted. The premise itself looked interesting and I thought the sapphic representation was good but there were some issues that I couldn't avoid.

There were some quite obvious kinks, which made me uncomfortable at times because this book is marketed as YA. While I don't mind some spice, I'm not sure certain things were appropriate for 12+ year olds (knife play, "good girl" praise kink, begging, choking etc).

The plot also features some reverse racism. It's based on the Witches who are white/silver skinned, have had their history destroyed, face discrimination and the ruling royalty are Black.

The FMC, Sapphire, was well written and I liked the introductions to the other characters too.

The magic was interesting and I liked the duels. I'd like to explore the magic system more.

Please check the TWs/CWs for this book.

Edit: after posting this review I found out that this book was originally meant to be spicier and then changed to YA, but obviously things were missed.

*Thank you to @Netgalley and the publishers for providing this ARC. This is my own opinion and an honest review, which I am leaving voluntarily*

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Penguin for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

I loved the idea of this book but unfortunately it fell short for me, I didn't feel involved with the characters and although the world building was interesting it still felt flat. This was a DNF at 40%.

This review is in exchange for a free
ARC I received from Netgalley.

This is definitely a YA novel. By that I mean that it is written young. There are twists and turns, but all of them are predictable and simply written. It is, however, not a bad book.

Sapphire is 18 years of age, orphaned, and raised in a land of destitution. She is plagued by nightmares and is in charge of providing extra food for the other children at the Home. One night when chasing a nightmare she is transported to a land that has plenty. She learns she is a long lost princess with the power to control water, but struggles to manage the guilt of living with so much when her friends are left at the home and deciding if she can trust this newfound family. There is also a beautiful witch that she cannot help but be drawn to.

I loved that the main character, and so many others were brown. I also loved that the main love interest was another woman. I thought the writing was fine and the pace of the story was good.

Overall, I would recommend this book,
and I will buy a copy of this book for my daughter (preteen) when it comes out.

I've long followed Brenna on social media, so it was great to get an ARC of her debut novel. This YA fantasy romance is an excellent mix of political intrigue, suspense, a lost princess/chosen one, and enemies to lovers between a princess and a witch.

The main character's immaturity and naïveté served a purpose in the book, but it infuriated me at times. That being said, Ashes and Sapphire are super well-written enemies to lovers and a “touch her and I’ll hurt you” vibe. I also loved her friendships with Evers and Kaian. They balanced out each other and helped the MC with some of her impulsivity.

A really great YA romance and fantasy and start to this new world.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for approving me for an ARC!

There's potential but it didn't keep my attention as I didn't care for the characters.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

uhm i think i got a different book than everyone else...

i found out about the shattered lands through the author's tik tok account and if there's one thing to congratulate, it's the marketing campaign. because what was advertised and what i got, were NOT the same.

first and foremost, and i'm not sure if it had last minute changes, but from what i knew this was going to be sort of like a new-adult type book. however, this is VERY YA, and while that is totally fine i love a bit of ya, the overtly sexual kink aspect still remained?? the amount of sexual innuendoes, the very clear sub/dom relationship, kink coded scenes (knife to throat), and pet names meant i spent much of the time with a grimace on my face because it felt young. even though the age of the main character was freshly 18, i felt as though i was reading from the point of view of a 13/14 year old. this was mainly due to the writing which i'll get onto in a second, bare with me.

the second thing that irked me was the repetition. the constant 3's of everything for dramatisation. the issue with this was there were SO MANY that it lost all and any dramatic effect and just got really tiresome. events also got boring, every new chapter started the exact same way and each sentence was the same but with different colours essentially.

the third issue was the actual writing. yes it is a ya novel, kink issue aside, and no i'm not expecting the work to be the most poetical, metaphorical literature, but i do at least expect it to be written well. this... this was not. it followed the very simple convention of 'she did this. she felt this about it. then she did this. she felt this. she wanted to do this. she didn't do that.' the language choice was basic and put it at the lower end of ya. god i was soooooooooo bored. it took me too fucking long to read it (should have just dnf'ed I KNOW.)

the dialogue was stunted and awkward, especially when it was between the main character and the love interest. there was NOTHING there. a cringefest if you ask me.

i do think that sapphire was a pretty three dimensional character despite everything, with insecurities and wants that were accurately portrayed but i couldn't tell you one thing about the plot. i think my brain has removed it from my memory, deeming it a slight waste of space.

i'm sure a lot of younger people (14+) could enjoy this but the kink aspect should have been removed as soon as they decided to target a lower-aged audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year but unfortunately for me it fell short. I struggled to connect with the MC as her decisions and motivations were never fully explored. There were also quite a lot of repetitive scenes and interactions with other characters.

The romance at the centre of the book sadly lacked depth for me - the two characters have an instant infatuation that you don’t get to see build, which was disappointing as this was the main driver of the plot.

Finally there are some problematic elements - a ‘reverse racism’ trope (POC monarchy suppressing white, ‘silver skinned’ witches), and some scenes that appeared too adult for the YA age bracket. There seems to be a praise kink going on which is uncomfortable given the target audience.

Ugh I reallyyyyyyy wanted to love this... but I just couldn't. The writing was not well finished and felt very repetitive, from the words used to scenes - there were SO many scenes of the main character swimming to the forest. The plot was pretty confusing too - there's almost no buildup to her being transported to the kingdom, and it feels incredibly jarring to read. It all just felt very sloppy and needed some serious finetuning.

It was a struggle to connect to the characters, even the main character, as there was not much needed for character motivations to change on a whim, so you never knew what the intentions of a character were or if they were good or bad. This also meant that the ending was pretty confusing and I still don't really understand how the book ended.

I also think it's important to point out that there's a bit of a reverse racism plot going on here. The royalty are Black, and the witches, whose history has been destroyed and who are discriminated against, are white, and there's a few moments where this is brought up in regards to "lashings" etc, and it all just felt pretty iffy.

The biggest feeling I got from this book was boredom, and that is really disappointing because the cover is so gorgeous and I was so excited to read this.

the shattered lands was very clearly written for an adult audience; this is both obvious in the marketing, by the author, and in the way the characters behave and speak. despite this the book is now, upon release, marketed as a younger YA book, which to me seems absolutely inaccurate. i get the feeling that this YA label was simply chosen bc the wished target audience was adults but the writing itself was unfortunately barely that of a middle-grade. the writing felt lazy, repetitive, and overall just fell flat for me and neither the characters nor the world could make up for this.

the idea and concept behind this story has so much potential, but in my opinion it needed much more work to get to a point where even the romance would seem realistic and appealing. this romance was the one element in the book i was most excited for but there seemed to be little to no build up or chemistry between the two main characters, which is disappointing considering that this is a fantasy romance.

the publisher kindly provided this arc through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Girl, ripped from everything she thought she knew, thrown into a world where everyone expects something from her and she understands nothing. A different girl, cloaked in shadow, longing for a safe world for her family. Ancient Powers that play chess with the lives of their subjects.
And so, so much more.

This book was not bad. It had good characters, an engaging plot and great world building. The politics were engaging and the play with good vs evil was honestly surprising, with a plot twist at the very end that honestly was completely logical and still so good.

But God, I didn’t give a single fuck. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sapphic fantasy babes but I do need chemistry. And the MCs didn’t have any? Not that the romance couldn’t have been convincing. Actually, it SHOULD have been. It had all the ingredients. It just wasn’t.
And so much of this book was like that. Maybe it was the huge amount of elements or maybe just that the amount of elements that repeat themselves (nightmares, the nightly trips, library visits) made it feel like nothing new happened even though the book was generally action packed. I’m not sure. The whole thing just kind of felt like the shrug emoji.

To be honest, I think this one might just have not been for me. And that’s okay. It might be perfect for someone else.

Oh sapphire, sweet poor Sapphire. All she knows is she’s an orphan, she hunts to feed her and the other orphans although it’s barely enough and they are plagued by poverty in these lands. Once she turns 18 the visions she’s had all her life pull her into another world and nothing will ever make sense again. A lost princess, an inescapable prophecy, a mean red headed witch with a fiery attraction and then the voice in her head guiding her towards unleashing her true power..

I was super excited to read this sapphic fantasy romance, but really it just fell flat for me. The dialogue between the MC and love interest was pretty bland and sparse, and consequently the romance itself developed seemingly out of nowhere. This wouldn’t be a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but as the major climax of the book happens as a result of the MC’s feelings for the love interest, the ending felt silly and unrealistic. My biggest complaint, though, is with the MC herself. She is the typical heroine who spends her childhood living in a barren and monster-filled world as the sole provider for those she lives with. When one day she wakes up in a foreign land where magic exists and she is the long-lost princess, it seems any development or grit or survivalist quality she may have grown in her past life she must have left behind. She embodies the spoiled princess role effortlessly and to me was completely unlikeable. Overall, this wasn’t the worst debut fantasy novel I’ve read and it had a lot of potential, but I just can’t see myself having any desire to follow through with the series.

I have a lot to say about this, and it pains me that none of it is positive.
Let´s start with the fantasy aspects and world-building which, if I´m being honest, fell flat for me. It took so long for me to actually understand anything about the kingdom, the world, and even the power and magic system was hard to understand because it just wasn´t explained very well.
The writing felt very middle-grade, which confused me so much, as this is promoted as a YA but has sexual phrases and kinks (praise kink, good girl,...) in it, that I would've cut out, simply because it doesn't fit the target audience. A lot of scenes were very quick and needed more details, to understand what was happening, and it often just switched to new scenes without much context.
Though my main problem with this book is the problematic black character representation, and one scene especially stood out to me as problematic;
"Don´t speak to me like that" Sapphire (the MC) hisses.
"What are you going to do about it? Punish me? Have your guards give me a good lashing?"
(For context: the Main Character, as well as the royal family, and a lot of the high-bloods are black, while all the witches are white, pale, etc., and are heavily discriminated and poorly treated by the kingdom and monarchy. In this scene, the witch jokes the line above.)
The plot left me incredibly underwhelmed and I felt bored most of the time. The characters mostly had no interesting features or traits and even the ending didn´t make me care more about the book.