This is a lovely fantasy book, however I found the language quite difficult to read. I enjoyed the world building to a certain degree however it found that it did loose my interest and wasn’t as gripping as the blurb had indicated.

Alaris by Fanny Vergne is an immersive fantasy novel that blends magic, adventure, and complex character dynamics. Following the tragic separation of twins Lucine and Solehan after a catastrophic event, the story unfolds in a world where destiny and curses collide. Lucine embarks on a journey filled with danger and unexpected alliances, while Solehan faces his own dark temptations. Vergne crafts a richly detailed world, drawing readers into a tale of love, betrayal, and self-discovery. With its compelling mix of heroism, villainy, and intricate relationships, Alaris is a captivating read for fans of epic fantasy.

The author knows how to set a scene to make you feel like you are right there with the characters. The book was very descriptive and can take a while to get into it due to all the details, but it is worth it if you like high fantasy and the idea of twins pushed against each other on the opposite sides of a war.

As I said above it can take a while to get into the book due to the amount of world-building done at the beginning and it is quite slow paced, so I put the book down a lot. However, the characters were intersting and the world itself was so vibrant and vivid in my mind. I especially enjoyed the various creatures our MCs encountered like the elaphoras which were these deer-like creatures with wings made of leaves.

Thank you to the author for the e-copy of this book and this is my honest opinion.

This book was really fun! Full of adventure, it reads like a D&D campaign and I loved that.

3.5 ⭐️

DNF at 5%
I found the blurb for this book quite intriguing and was looking forward to reading it, but I’ve now had to stop at chapter 5. The writing style is just absolutely not my thing. It appears that the author’s native language is not English, but that she wrote this book and then translated it herself, as the French version was published earlier, which is commendable. So I will definitely be checking out the French version, since I am really interested in the story, and hopefully that will be more up my alley.

**Book Review: *Alaris* by Fanny Vergne**

In her debut fantasy novel, *Alaris*, Fanny Vergne crafts an enchanting tale that beautifully balances the themes of heroism and villainy through the lives of twin druids, Lucine and Solehan. Set against the backdrop of the mysterious Astral Forest, the narrative unfolds with an intriguing premise: a druidic ceremony gone awry leads to a devastating curse that shatters the twins’ destinies and propels them into separate, perilous journeys.

Vergne’s world-building is nothing short of extraordinary. Drawing inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons, she creates an immersive landscape filled with rich details and a unique magic system that captivates the imagination. The blend of familiar fantasy tropes—such as found family and enemies to lovers—feels fresh in her hands, as she takes these concepts and twists them to reveal deeper complexities.

Lucine’s adventure is a compelling exploration of self-discovery. Thrust into a world teeming with dangers and vibrant characters, she navigates friendships and alliances that challenge her perceptions and reveal her strength. Meanwhile, Solehan's journey presents a darker, more nuanced perspective, as he grapples with his desires and the sinister influence of the malevolent being that has captured him. Vergne’s ability to weave these two parallel narratives enhances the tension and emotional depth of the story, inviting readers to invest in both characters’ fates.

The cast of supporting characters is equally vibrant, each contributing to the overarching themes of loyalty, love, and redemption. Their differing motivations and backgrounds enrich the narrative, creating a tapestry of relationships that propel the quest to find Solehan before it’s too late.

What truly sets *Alaris* apart is Vergne’s insightful approach to character evolution. As Solehan navigates the thin line between hero and villain, readers are treated to a thought-provoking examination of what it means to confront one's inner darkness. The exploration of morality in the face of temptation adds layers to the narrative, inviting readers to reflect on their own definitions of good and evil.

Overall, *Alaris* is an impressive debut that promises to resonate with fantasy lovers seeking a story filled with heart, adventure, and intricate world-building. Fanny Vergne has crafted a captivating tale that invites readers into a realm of magic and mystery, leaving them eagerly anticipating her next adventure. This book is a must-read for anyone who enjoys a blend of fantasy, rich character development, and a quest that challenges the boundaries of heroism and villainy.

I am not the intended audience for this book. I picked it up hoping that it would be suitable for my daughter. Being D&D inspired I thought it might have interested her. We tackled the book together as she is dyslexic, unfortunately the language used did not capture her interest and we did not finish it. We both agree that the cover is fabulous but the story itself was to difficult for her reading level.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Beware of possible spoilers.

As someone who plays WoW and knows about D&D, I was really excited to get the chance to read this book. Fantasy novels and RPGs are as similar as they are different. There's just a different vibe, I think, and this book really captured that RPG vibe. The world feels expansive.

At the same time-and as odd as it sounds-it felt like it was lacking world building? You would be dropped into a spot, given information about the character and their people, and then just move on. So it never really felt like you were there long enough to truly soak it all in.

I also struggled a bit with the writing style. It was often repetitive. A lot could have been cut to shorten the book or use that space to expand on the characters and their emotions. Oftentimes, I felt like I was being told things were happening or how people were feeling instead of experiencing it. Not to mention, there were times when it would switch from third person limited to third person omniscient, which threw me at a few points.

While the characters are individually interesting, they sometimes didn't get the time they needed. Relationships seemed to move too fast, despite most of them not getting together until the end. Or the pairing lacked chemistry. I tried to like the ships, but I honestly don't think they did much for me. However, I did like the characters as whole and loved how diverse the cast was.

If you're into RPG games and you want a fun fantasy, this one should definitely be on your list. The magic, the traveling...it all made me want to dive right back into WoW all over again.

Rating 4.25

I picked up this book because I really love the cover and the blurb intrigued me.
I also really like that there's some pages of art in the book. Appeals my eyes.

This book contains so much heavy fantasy, a cool world with a variety of amazing creatures.
It has a unique storyline, something I have never read before.

Some keywords to describe the theme of the book: high fantasy, slowburn enemies to lovers, descriptive storytelling, D&D campaign vibes, Hell's Paradise anime vibes, variety of interesting characters, LGBTQIA+, multiple povs, magic.

When I started reading this, I had a hard time getting into it because of the 3rd person and the author's writing style. It was very descriptive (a bit too much at times) and formal, especially in the beginning, which created distance between me and the story. I could not connect with the characters. This did get better throughout the book which made me care and empathise for our beautiful heroic characters Lucine, Talyvien, Shael and Calixte. I truely enjoyed reading about all of them and the development of their relationships.

I love that the story displays both the heroic and the more villainous side of the story. It has the perfect amount of different pov's. It has some really great scenes that made those pov's intertwine with each other. <spoiler> Like how Lucine and Solehan see eachother - not sure if it is real or not. That was so cool. </spoiler> There were also beautiful descriptions of the scenery but it was a bit too much at times which got me distracted while reading.
It has some really good plottwists and the adventure just kept coming. Loved it!
The ending was captivating but a bit too rushed in my opinion.

Overall I truely enjoyed this unique story with its rollercoaster of epic events. I would give it 5 star based on the idea of the story but the writingstyle wasn't fully doing it for me.

Thank you for this beautiful read Fanny Vergne!

Interesting story!

I found the story enjoyable for the most part. Some sections seemed to drag on and on. I enjoyed the cast of characters. I think my favorite was Calixte, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.

I pray for this book to be hyped because I absolutely loved it.. This is a high fantasy of my dreams, Lucine and Solehan are both great characters and yeah they are indeed young and barely know anything about life until they are forced to be separated. and each one have their own journey to fulfill, I did enjoyed the other characters and different perspectives, personally to me it did bring more interest to the book.. An assassin and a paladin, a good Alaris( yeah read it to know what it means) and a bad one, goddesses and queer.. The books is definitly queer which made everything a lot better.. I'm in love

This book was such a fun read and a definite page turner. There was a diverse array of characters. The adventure throughout this book was enticing and I couldn’t wait to read on. Amazing world building. I loved this story.

Cute and extremely fun read. I needed this pick me up after several attempts at other books. Good Solid read.

I picked this up on Netgalley as READ NOW and I am glad I did,

It’s been a while since I read a YA fantasy, and Alaris was a fun return to the genre for me. There’s a great adventure in a rich world of magic, assassins, separated twins, a strong FMC, and queer / gender fluid characters in the found family group of adventurers

Intriguing that this book was originally written in French and then translated by the author herself. I was conscious of that in the first chapter, but forgot about it as I got into the story! I wonder if “aho” has a specific significance in French (Google suggests no, but it asked if I was looking for the Japanese meaning instead haha). I snickered every time the horse (called Aho) came up because I’m just that childish 😆

❀❀❀❀❀ 𝟱 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝟱 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀!
''𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝘩𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝘩𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝘩𝑜 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑠𝘩 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑠,'' 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑥𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑑. ''𝑇𝘩𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝘩𝑜, 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑑𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒.''

𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝! ₊˚⊹♡ ˎˊ˗
It took me some time to get into, but once I was past a few chapters, and met the characters, the book had all my attention. The first reason is that the book gave me a DnD and Baldur's Gate feeling and that specific cosy feeling when reading a good fantasy story. We are introduced slowly to the characters of this book with each their own ''classes'' to say it like that. Lucine and Solehan, are both druids. Talyvien, a paladin, Shael, an assassin, and Calixte, a bard. Each has its unique backstories and personalities, fears, traumas, hardships, ambitions, choices, manners, and characteristics, and I found them all to be very likeable. Because we get to experience multiple POVs, those of the characters I just mentioned, I feel like we can get to know the characters well, and It makes it easier to connect with them. I was moved by their stories, and while reading, I was constantly hoping for the best for them. I began to care about them and just wanted them to be happy. I liked the character interactions as well. There were complicated brother-sister interactions, new friendships being made, new romances being explored, and It all just felt very found family to me. What I admired as well, is the fact that the relationships that were starting were complicated. It wasn't easy. And it showed. But the characters chose for each other even though that all, cared for each other, and I loved that so much. That their love was strong showed a lot.

''𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤, 𝑆𝘩𝑎𝑒𝑙, 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡𝘩 𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝘩𝑜𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑣𝑢𝑙𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦. 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑜𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑,'' 𝘩𝑒 𝑤𝘩𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝘩𝑒𝑟. ''𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓. 𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝘩𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑠𝘩𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑠, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝘩𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑔𝘩𝑡.'' - ''𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝐼'𝑚 𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝘩𝑜 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡,'' 𝘩𝑒 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑑.

''𝑆𝘩𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝘩𝑒𝑟 𝑛𝑖𝑔𝘩𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑠.''

The characters had so much depth and character growth. They learned realistic lessons the reader can learn from as well.

''𝑂𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒! 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑡𝘩 𝑖𝑡!''

''𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤, 𝑖𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝘩𝑢𝑟𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑤𝘩𝑖𝑙𝑒!''

Then there was also the creative worldbuilding, which is immersive and slowly wraps around the reader and the characters. It didn't feel overwhelming or confusing in any way to me. And I found the magic system to be very interesting. The story itself truly felt like a journey. It progressed slowly, naturally, and I liked that. I was captivated by it and at some point, I couldn't stop reading, because I wanted to know the ending (speaking of the ending...my heart broke, I had to read two pages aloud to my boyfriend because I just had to share how sad yet beautiful It was, but the epilogue made me happy? Ahh, oh my goodness). And the author did a beautiful job of representing the LGBTQIA+ community. And, also, the writing style was so beautiful and enchanting! I sometimes read a sentence twice because It just beautifully sounded so good and fantasy-esque if that makes any sense :')

So, overall, I really really enjoyed Alaris and I don't have much negative to say about it. I think you'd like this if you'd like a thrilling fantasy adventure with a strong focus on character connections, diverse characters, and a unique magic system, and if you are eager to embark on an epic quest with a group of adventurers as they navigate love, friendship, and self-discovery, with beautiful writing style, multiple POV's and a DnD/Baldur's Gate feeling.

''𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑟 𝐼 𝘩𝑎𝑣𝑒. 𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝘩𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠𝘩 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑡.''

Thanks NetGalley. This was an epic fantasy that was a definite page turner. The world building was great. The characters were diverse and captivating. The progression of the story was evenly paced. I really enjoyed this story.

Alaris was such a fun read! It felt like I was reading a dungeons and dragons campaign with a diverse set of characters and multiple plot lines and points of view.

I loved every character for all kinds of different reasons, and I found myself rooting for each one. And the slow burn was slowwwww burning! It was so frustrating in the best way!

I just had a lot of fun with this one. There’s lots of representation, and just all around good vibes!

4⭐️

I received an ARC copy for an honest review of the book. I want to start by saying thank you to Fanny Vergne for allowing me to read the ARC copy!
This was the first book I’ve read from this author and I definitely enjoyed reading something a bit different to my normal go to’s!
- includes;
*slow burn enemies to lovers
*twins
*interesting magic system
*DnD style fantasy adventure
*multiple POV

This book was well written, if a bit formal at times. There’s great world building which really helps delve into the adventure!

If ur looking for a fantasy with the same vibes as dungeons and dragons and the legend of vox machina this is literally the perfect book to read. Filled with so much diversity, angst, romance and best part being the FOUND FAMILY. Found family in folklore/fantasies are always top tier. This book truly filled all my desires.

I didn’t finish this but I enjoyed what I read, I made it to 30%. I like the story and the setting was great, I think it’s a really great concept. What I struggled with was the writing style, it was a bit dense and felt a little like reading a textbook. I can definitely see the D&D inspiration and I liked all the characters it was just a bit hard for me to read. I need to build up my brain power before trying again