Until We Shatter is a brilliant standalone adult fantasy that is so beautifully written that it makes my mouth water.

Look, I'm a sucker for a found family trope, it's in all of my favourite novels and I think it always will be. I think the struggles with the guilt and loyalty were excellently portrayed and you felt the exact reason why she felt these things.

The magic system was unique enough that it didn't sound repetitive of any other books which is refreshing especially within a fantasy genre that has repeated tropes. The Hues and the Shades were a really interesting concept and definitely something that I wish for Kate Dylan to expand on.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodderscape for this eARC in return for an honest review!

Thank you so much for this ARC! This book has a few plot holes that need to be mended. The quitting is beautiful but the plot needs some work. Chase is flat, but over all a decent MMC.

To be fair, the beginning was difficult for me... there was too much information in the first few pages so I set myself the goal of reading one chapter a day because I didn't necessarily feel "in the story" (so to speak). A few times I really needed a notebook and a pen to be able to write down hues' powers in the first few chapters, and when I came across the comprehensive list with all the explanations of the powers and so on, I really started making diagrams that I can look at along the way. Basically, the whole concept of shades and hues combined with superpowers is a very complex one that made me turn back the pages several times to find explanations that I had a hard time remembering.

The universe itself is very well designed, Isitar is presented very well and I had no problems visualizing the places, but I would have liked more mentions about the other places, not just a few words from Chase (I understand that the action takes place exclusively in Isitar, but this is my subjective opinion).

In the construction of the characters I noticed some "injustices" if I can call them that. More precisely, I didn't feel that I could get close to any of them because I couldn't find out much about their beliefs, their traits, how they relate to different situations. The information we had was, for the most part, superficial. In principle, I am referring to Magdalena. I see her name in almost every chapter and yet everything I know about her is insufficient to make me empathize with her situation. The only two characters that are presented more clearly and in more detail are Cemmy and Chase. Cemmy is the ultimate pick me girl (I'm sorry but I can't help but see her that way) and many times I was so amused by her actions because I saw this pattern.

The love story didn't surprise me either, if it did not exist, it would have been the same for me. The fact that all this attraction develops in less than 7 days seems to me, to be honest, unrealistic and failed to put little hearts in my eyes when I got to the enemies to lovers part.

All in all, I really liked the concept and the whole universe that was woven with special mastery by the author. If it wasn't for this new idea around which the story was created, I probably would never have managed to finish the book.

3.5 stars!

This was such a good read! The magic system is just SO cool.

The characters are nicely written, and our main girl was specifically enjoyable to read about. The romance was just about enough, but I’d have liked a little more! While this felt like a well paced and sized read, if it was a little longer I think the info dumping at the beginning wouldn’t have been such a harsh learning curve, and the romance would have had a little more time to shine.

The writing was arguably one of my favourite parts of this book, incredibly easy to read but not simplistic in the slightest. The plot was gripping, a perfect execution of a heist! Well paced, easy milestones for us to follow along with and VERY cool plot twists (that I did not fully see coming!)

My only complaint is that it feels unfinished! There are SO many more things I’d have wanted to explore (especially after the heist was finished and we could explore other things that popped up during the book). I know theres going to be another book that connects to this one…but I just needed a little more!!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eArc :’)

Unfortunately, I did not like this book very much. It had potential but that potential has never been unleashed. The main character is honestly irritating at best, insufferable at worst. The other characters are not developed enough for me to talk about them — though Novi was the most promising character. There was a great possibility to get a sapphic romance but we got a bland heterosexual romance instead, with absolutely no chemistry between the two characters. (It also felt like insta-love because everything — the plot — happens in a week.) The universe and plot were interesting but a bit too messy and confusing at times. And they were quite superficial. And I was not a fan of the ending.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

A fantasy heist featuring a gang of misfits in a city on the brink of civil war. The writing style is good but the rest of the book is lacking. An overly complicated magic system that took up half the book trying to explain, main characters with little to no chemistry, and a heist that achieved exactly nothing. Not for me.

Thank you to the publisher for the earc!

I had high expectations for this book, and I hate to say that I was extremely disappointed. The premise sounds amazing, a world divided by the magic in your blood, a girl turned to thief to survive, an impossible heist and a bit of enemies to lovers.

The book is a little more than 300 pages, and it took me a week to read it. It was a struggle. I was waiting for something exciting to happen, but I was at 75% and still nothing?! I mean a lot of things happened, but it was quite boring. The actual heist takes place in the last few chapters of the book, up till that point, I’d say they are preparing for it, but that would be a lie.

The book starts with info-dumping, but I was still really confused about everything. The magic system was too confusing and overcomplicated (and based on a few reviews I’ve skimmed through I’m not the only one who felt this). I still have so many questions, and I know I’ll never get answers to them. We got too much information at once, so the relevant ones got buried under all the unnecessary stuff. Or they weren’t even written down.

There are so many lies and half truths in this book, it was a challenge to keep up with them. Cemmy and Chase constantly deceived each other, and then they were surprised why the other doesn’t trust them. Like, seriously?

Except Cemmy and Chase all the other characters felt like a plot device. They were only present because their magic was needed, and that’s all. We did get backstories, that’s true, but for me those weren't enough to feel anything for them. Also, Cemmy kept saying how familiar Chase was, but up until the revelation I didn’t realize why. Because I don’t remember getting a description of the other character.

The only good point was the deaf and sign language rep. I absolutely loved that.

Honestly, this book feels like the author wanted much more than they were capable of. Creating a whole new fantasy world with a proper magic system is challenging, and in this case it wasn’t done right.

Magically teenagers whose very existence is outlawed must band together to stop the Church from destroying all magic—including their lives—by completing an impossible heist.

I did not really understand the magic system in this book. I get the concept of different colors having different powers and each color being passed down to their children, and I also understood that each color when “diluted” with non-magical blood would create a half-magic baby called a hue. But I don’t really know what the grey is, how it is used, why it is constantly killing people, what phasing does, how the full shades powers differ from the hues, what happens if two hues of different color have a child (or is everyone practicing eugenics?), or even really the power structure between the council and the church. The villain was a comic book supervillain.

All of that would be fine because I don’t actually think a high-action heist novel needs to get too far in the weeds about the magic system. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel connected with a lot of the characters. Most of the found family characters fell flat for me because we don’t see when they first meet or when it is functioning as an actual found family; instead, it’s snippets of a family already deeply wounded by the shattering of one of their own and the secret (sort of, it wasn’t much of a revelation) that the FMC was keeping about it all along. I also didn’t really want the FMC and the MMC to end up together. If you enjoy the characters of this character-driven book, I think it’d be a fun read. Character age, themes, and content wise this felt YA appropriate.

I got the eARC from NetGalley so thank you to them!
I really love the unique magic system of this world! It was a bit confusing at times, but really cool! Although I had fun reading this, there was one major thing that stopped me from fully enjoying the book: the character relationships were really weak. The main group is supposed to be a found family but they barely even interacted with each other. <spoiler>When Eve died I barely felt anything</spoiler> and Ezzo never seemed to care about Novi or Cemilla. I heard the author is writing a companion novel in this world which is great because I wanted more of the magic and world to be explored and the story with these characters wrapped up perfectly

I don't have a lot of good to say about this book unfortunately. I found a lot of it rather contrived, the main character incredibly annoying, and also I called two of the big twists more than a hundred pages before each was revealed. I'm just glad to be done reading this.

I really struggled with the first half of this book, because it felt like a very basic fantasy YA book. The main character uses her powers to steal to take care of her sick mother and gets caught and forced to help out with a heist. As we go along some more is revealed such as abilities related to the different colors of magic, and also her previous relationship with a teammate and new feelings with Chase. There is a twist towards the end that I liked, but it's not one that you'll never see coming. Overall if you like books like six of crows and a tempest of tea, I'd recommend.

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

One of the things I did loved reading in this book was the depth and complexity of the relationships between the characters. It got me on my feelings more than once, and I say that as the highest compliment, because lately it hasn’t been easy for a book to do so.
But, to be honest, the pacing of the book was not for me. It did grab my attention the last 20% of the story, and that is why I rated it 3 stars, but I didn’t enjoyed the magic system very much and the thinking process of the characters was too teenagery. Overall, I was underwhelmed and it was difficult for me to get through the book and not DNF it.

The story throws you right into the action. The female main character is about to break into the governors house to steal something so she can buy medicine for her dying mother. She really gives you the impression of being a loyal person who would do anything for the people she loves until she betrays her friends the moment she gets into a bad situation. But while it hits the fan we get info dump after info dump about colours and hues and magical powers connected to them and the only way to not be confused at any new detail is to just not think about it. I dnf’d after 50 pages because the book couldn’t manage to pull me in and didn’t spark any interest in the characters. This also seemed like a younger YA even though the mc is 19.

I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley. I am fully in the middle at 2.5 stars with how I feel about this book. I liked it but I didn’t at the same time. The plot is decent and had potential. There’s too many things that are confusing about the book for it to be good though. The magic system is interesting but extremely confusing. Magic users are called shades and are different colors based on their abilities. Their abilities aren’t clearly explained which got very confusing toward the end especially when people were using more than one color magic. To make it even more confusing there are Hues who are half shade half not and they have different yet similar abilities to the Shades. There are too many poorly explained colors to understand the magic system which makes a book where magic is a major part of it confusing.

I started out very interested in the concept of a color-based magic system, however, at the end of this book I felt like the overall premise felt too weak for my liking. This is correctly being marketed on Goodreads as "young adult" as it certainly reads like it. Heavy on the fantasy and action, almost nonexistent on the romance. Queer and Deaf representation.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC. I really enjoyed this book. The magic system based on colours was fascinating, although a little complicated at first, and the plot revolving around a heist was intriguing. The characters sometimes felt a little flat but that didn't afect the story too much cause I was already invested. I think that you should definitely give Until We Shatter a try.

This is a fun, action-packed YA fantasy. The worldbuilding is pretty immense at times, with a unique magic system, but Kate Dylan's prose keeps the reader engaged. Cemmy is an easy character to root for, and I liked the bi representation and that the friendship arc was developed as prominently as the romantic storyline.

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

Although this was one of the books i was most excited to read this year, i found it to be quite disappointing.
there was a lot of info dumping that made me feel like the author really wanted the readers to know she did her homework - which isnt bad necessarily i just think it wasnt well implemented. i wish it was sprinkled in whenever we needed the information as opposed to just paragraphs of information we dont even need for the particular scene. But the ideas were interesting which is what made me rate it 3 (enjoyment wise it would be probably 2.5). I think its also important to state that i was reading it at the same time as way of kings and i think it probably made me realise i liked it less than i would if i was reading it without comparing.

it it by no means a bad book, just didnt live up to what i feel like it set out to do.
I also followed and watched so many of the authors insta vid about this book and talking about how everyone she gave this book to is rating it high and talks about the emotional damage and i think it set up wrong expectations because i truly couldn't feel it? that being said, reading is extremely subjective and I am glad people have enjoyed the book so far!

I wouldn't mind continuing with the series but i think for me it would be only if some of my friends tell me its worth the time investment.

I love the concept in this book of the In-Between, along with the color coded magic system and the existence of a shadow reality.
Sadly I still struggled to get through this book, even though the writing style is really really good and a good heist always gets my attention.

I am all for throwing the reader in the middle of the action and trusting them to catch up with the concept and worldbuilding later. However, I need some kind of hook to reel me in - either intellectually or emotionally. And even though these hooks are there on paper (an unjust, oppressive world, personal tragedy, lives at stake, deadly secrets...), nothing has really reached me. Even the found family that is shown later felt somewhat detached (although I really appreciate the diversity and rep).

The world and magic system were super intriguing, though also somewhat too complicated for such short a book. There's orders and churches and colors and Shades and Half-Shades and typics, and I kinda lost my grip on it.

I wanted to love this book, but eventually I found myself rushing through it. I'm sure though that I will try more books by the author, because it's apparent she can write and plot like hell - just this book wasn't for me.

3/5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @hodderbooks for the eARC!

#UntilWeShatter #Netgalley #Bookstagram #Heist

𝗨𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝗪𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 • 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗗𝘆𝗹𝗮𝗻
★★★.𝟱

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁
- YA fantasy
- Heists
- Unique world building
- Bisexual MC
- Deaf side character
- Sign language rep
- Found family

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
This was such an interesting YA fantasy that worked towards an epic heist, one so epic that it’s capable of starting and winning a civil war. I liked the world building and the magic system though I think it could have been shown more straightforwardly and cohesively. From what I understand, there were typics who followed the Church, Shades with powers who follow the Council, and Hues, a byproduct of Typic/Shade procreation and one that is hunted.

The protagonist, Cemmy, is a Hue. And possibly the most emotionally angsty hue at that. I thought she was tenacious, but also really self-absorbed. She was unwilling to trust anybody, unwilling to listen to anybody, and entirely unwilling to see reason most of the time. If I had to pull off a heist with her I would genuinely double cross her because she is a liability 😂.

I liked the found family in this book however it did seem more monotone than vibrant. Cemmy hid so much from them all that I felt like the bonds were tenuous at the best of times. It’s not the first time a good book has been thwarted by a frustrating main character, and it surely won’t be the last for me. I’m glad I read it and I think many people will enjoy this.

𝗤𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀
“𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦.”