I enjoyed this more than I thought, it was a fast paced, action packed ya with an intriguing premise behind the plot.

We followed our fmc Sparrow who is a member of the Thieves Guild. After being given the task of stealing a precious artefact for the controllers of the Guild called The Circle, she is betrayed by a close friend. However, this betrayal spares her life and she finds out the guildmasters real intentions behind giving her this task.
From here we follow sparrows journey away from the destruction of her homeland with her new found friends and alliances, as she travels with Raithe, the assassin originally sent to kill her, to meet his queen and find out why she is the fateless and what it means.

I enjoyed the idea of the fateless, I thought it was something more original and interesting as I haven’t read this plot idea before. The idea of having a fateless who can change others fates, who isn’t present in the weave of fates, as well as having groups such as fatechasers and the assassins etc all worked well together. The plot moved fast which I liked as it kept me gripped and wanting to know what would happen next. I enjoyed the characters also, our fmc is strong, and I enjoyed reading the friendships she made along the way and these characters were very likeable, especially Halek the fatechaser. After the ending I’m looking forward to the next book in the trilogy to see what happens.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for proving me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Fateless is a gripping young adult fantasy.

There’s a touch of romance, but it’s not the central focus—Instead, the story leans into themes of identity, survival, and resilience, creating an engaging and often tense atmosphere that kept me turning the pages.

The writing is polished and thoughtful, with vivid descriptions and a steady pace.

I was a huge fan of Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series as a teenager so I was really excited to read this book but I’ve had to DNF at 25% unfortunately.

I’ve tried to power through it but unfortunately, for a fantasy book, it’s one of the most boring I’ve ever read. Mainly it was the worldbuilding feeling really flat and undeveloped to me, particularly compared to how rich it is in her other novels.

I wasn’t really keeping up with which characters are which, and from where, or who works for who and the further in I got, the more I just got confused and lost and it didn’t feel worth continuing.

The writing style felt more mature and arguably better than it is in her previous books, yet I still found her YA voice preferable to this one.

What a great start to a new series. Fateless is a great YA novel with amazing world building, I loved every minute of it and can’t wait to continue on with Books 2 and 3 when they are released.

Our Main Character Sparrow is a Thief in the Thieves Guild in Kavos, unashamedly, she is the best there is. When one high profile job ends up turning her life upside down, we are sent on an epic journey, of discovery and adventure, with many obstacles and a few twists, Fateless had me captivated. Heading to the final chapter, I just knew there would be so much more to come and I can’t wait to find out what else is in store for Sparrow and her companions.

I was already a big fan of Julie Kagawa and was very much looking forward to starting out on a new series and it did not disappoint. I really look forward to the next book.

Rating - 3.75⭐️

Firstly, I have to say, the worldbuilding felt like the author’s strongest aspect in the book and I could tell she really wanted to portray a similar atmosphere to Assassin’s Creed since she has mentioned that she was inspired by the video game because she loved it so much. Even though I’ve never played the game, I did watch a few gameplay videos just before reading the book and I can say that Julie Kagawa’s really got that Assassin’s Creed setting down to a T. I loved visualising the setting as I was reading and reading this book felt like a cinematic experience.

Sparrow, the main protagonist grew up as a thief, who is one of the best in the thieves guild. She was taught to survive only for herself and to not care for others out of cowardice and selfishness but throughout the book she learns to trust others and become more brave to help others around her.

The plot essentially begins when she catches the eye of the higher ups in the guild and is tasked to steal a dangerous artifact from a long forgotten cursed city and the plot unfolds from there. There’s secrets, betrayal, and a journey across a post-apocalyptic world that a group of characters, who end up working together, must take.

Meanwhile, there is a subplot romance. The love interest, Raithe, an assassin, had a lot of potential but I wish he had a bit more backstory to himself. I wanted to know more about him since he was so mysterious. Although, I did think Raithe and Sparrow were cute together and I smiled and squealed most of the time but I didn’t feel invested enough with their relationship.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced YA fantasy. There were never any boring moments, and the world-building is deep, authentic, and perfectly developed throughout without ever being overwhelming. The action scenes were so well-written and engaging. The characters are lovable and well-developed with space for more development in future books, which I can't wait to read. Halek brought such light relief to dark moments, and I really want to learn more about Kysa and her story/background. The perfect balance of pacing, world-building, and character construction and development is exactly why Julie Kagawa remains one of my favourite YA authors. It was a brilliantly adventurous read, and I can't wait for Book 2.
The dialogue and Sparrow's inner monologue could be repetitive at times, and I would have loved more build up in the relationship between Sparrow and Raithe, but these did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the story at all.
I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys action-packed YA fantasy in desert settings.

2.5⭐️. Sparrow lives in the city of Kovass where people’s lives are pre-determined by fate. There she works for the Thieves Guild, the largest institution of organised crime in Kovass, which is overseen by a secretive group called the Circle. Sparrow catches the Circle’s attention and is asked to steal a memory stone, an artefact she knows nothing about, other than being told that it can be found in the vault of a sunken, ancient metropolis that was once ruled by the renowned Deathless Kings, and is said to contain strange magics and ancient curses. While on the job, she comes across Halek, a Fatechaser, and Raithe, an assassin from another land, the three of whom end up joining forces as they find themselves battling against forces thought to be long gone.

I thought this had a really interesting premise, and I found the start intriguing. However, unfortunately, I found that my opinion started to go downhill quite quickly. It read pretty cheesy and very YA (with no complexity or subtlety to either the plot or the characters), and I didn’t love that it followed in the footsteps of so many Romantasy books by writing a 17 year old heroine and a man who’s hundreds of years old. I also didn’t think there was any romantic chemistry between the FMC and the MMC. More generally, I found that I didn’t connect to any of the characters, so while it endeavoured to create a found family, it failed to create the desired impact. Everything felt very predictable and surface level. That being said, while there are some YA books that I’ve absolutely loved, I’m not the target audience for YA and it might be a book that’s better suited for that age range alone.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC of this book.

A solid start to a new series.
This gives enough world and character building to keep me invested enough to want to pick up a future book set in this world.

I think there's a fun adventure buried in this novel, trying to get out -- ancient necromancer kings, a loom of Fate detailing everyone's lives, assassin elves... Unfortunately it's buried under boring prose that is an absolute slog to get through, and a ton of cliched tropes that most YA novels left behind a decade or more ago.

This novel has the worst info-dumping I've ever seen in YA. Like, rivalling "adult sci-fi where author must explain every piece of technology, every alien race/planet, and all the pieces of history that led to this the moment the first mention hits the page" kind of info-dumping. It kills all excitement, not to mention destroys the pacing and any tension. When the author is not info-dumping, she is Telling. The dialogue is also incredibly stilted most of the time - this is not how real people talk, more like the author is trying to give everyone quotable, philosophical sounds-bytes despite it making no sense for their backgrounds, ages, or personalities.

I'm frustrated by the heavy-handedness of the "inspirations" for this novel. There is a distinct line between "inspired by" and "ripping off", and sadly 'Fateless' speeds right past it without caring. This is literally YA Assassin's Creed with a single Prince of Persia character, a single drow from D&D, and some gauntlet runners from Metaphor Re: Fantazio to traverse the desert / dust-storms.

The necromancer plot caught my interest right from the blurb, but everything surrounding it just makes me tired. It took so much effort to read the novel that any interest was slowly crushed, and the expected excitement never came.

Is this the worst novel ever written? No. But it's also not giving anything new. You'll find better written Assassin's Creed and Prince Of Persia fanfic out there (which is basically what this is anyway). Younger YA readers (12-15) might enjoy this, but those who mainly read the upper end of YA will expect more subtext, more substance, and less cliche than what 'Fateless' provides.

Fateless was a really fast paced YA fantasy that just needed to slow itself down in places. I'm all for a fast paced read, but the speed of this one meant that the emotional hits just didn't really hit, and meant that the character development outside of our MC was almost non-existent.

But let's start with the positives. I really enjoyed reading from the POV of our MC, Sparrow. An orphan, she was raised by the guildmaster of the thieves guild, honing herself into the best thief she can become because if they kick her out, she has nowhere else to go. She almost feels beholden to the guild, so when they give her a seemingly impossible job, she knows she can't turn it down, no matter the danger she faces. She comes off a little cocky, so self-assured, but underneath all that is a desperate girl who will do what it takes to survive.

The plot itself, though incredibly fast paced, was mostly well developed. It almost reads as two books in one, with the mid-point being where I would expect the story to end, and while this super propulsion failed the story in a number of ways, it also made sure I stayed glued to the pages because there was no good point to put it down. Twist after twist, action scene after action scene, our poor characters really are put through the ringer with hardly any down time. I did feel like the world building was a little clunky in parts, and I felt bits that were kind of integral to the plot were kind of put in as throwaway comments, but I still enjoyed learning about the history of the world Sparrow inhabits.

This book just lacked a lot of development for me. Because of the pace we don't get to see those slower moments, the parts where our characters get to know one another, where we see the bonds being made or broken in some cases. There was a pretty huge betrayal and had we had more time to see the characters interact, to really feel the emotions held between the two, I think it would have had a much bigger impact than it did. Instead it was almost a bang and done kind of scene which, with how much history these characters held, felt a little disappointing. The pacing also meant that our side characters came off a little stereotypical. They never really got developed past their first introduction, smiling happy Fatechaser, beautiful dangerous assassin, kick ass warrior. Their interactions were, for the most part, purely used to help propel the story rather than build any kind of relationships between them all, and I really wish Kagawa would have just slowed the story down and given us more time to see them grow.

I also felt like the romance came across as rushed and just under-developed (if I had to pick one work to sum up this book it would 100% be under-developed.) Because of the lack of slower moments, their relationship almost comes out of nowhere, especially with the depth of feelings they claim to hold. It's enemies to lovers I guess, but it's a quick and almost unbelievable shift between the two, and I just never really felt invested in it in any way.

Listen, if you enjoy fast paced stories, especially one's that focus more on the plot than the characters, I would absolutely give this one a go. It just didn't work for me, which is a shame because I loved Kagawa's Shadow of the Fox trilogy.

Fairly bog-standard fantasy novel, perhaps aimed at YA.

From the author’s liking for fantasy video games comes this story of a young thief whose life gets completely transformed by events as it becomes truly complicated. They are joined by a few interesting and well-developed characters as they embark on a mission which may well “save the world”. It is quite an easy read, the language being relatively simple and generally it’s an enjoyable story with some original features. Maybe a bit too much introspection for me. Evidently the first in a series. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. disclaimer:

2 ⭐️
A strangely paced, YA fantasy novel with a strong (but very mistrustful) FMC and a very subtle romantic subplot. Set in a dust covered city, centred initially around a thieves’ guild, this book explores themes of camaraderie, being thrown into the spotlight and Fate.
For fans of YA fantasy that doesn’t dig too deep, has an easy to hate antagonist, and a straightforward plot. For readers who don’t care too deeply for a romantic subplot, and want an easy read.

Story: 2/5
Characters: 2.5/5
Spice: 🫑 (kissing, but it is a YA novel)
Pacing: 2/5
Plot twists: 2/5
Magic system: 2/5

Sparrow is a 17yr old who has grown up in the Thieves’ Guild, she spent her life honing her talent of taking what isn’t hers. She has relied on the Guildmaster, who has become like a surrogate father, to guide her. Then one day she’s given a task to steal something extraordinary for the mysterious owners of the guild called The Circle. And this throws her into a world she never knew existed. She will lose friendships, struggle with who to trust, and find out more about herself than she thought possible. All while she is surrounded by the end of the world as she knows it.

YA is always a challenge in my mind. I think some writers rise to the challenge of writing a deep, complex story with accessibility for a younger age group. The Hunger Games games books are a perfect example of this.
I think Fateless, personally, missed this mark.
I felt like the author was dumbing a LOT down for the reader. We had a lot of telling and not showing. Plot dumps, mainly from the MMC, and even melodrama “asides” from multiple characters where they would mutter their true intentions or feelings out loud in front of the FMC for no conceivable reason apart from being a plot device.
Yes, it is a fantasy world, but i struggled to get past these moments of obvious plot dumps. It’s a real bugbear for me personally, so it did grate on me more than it might others.

I think the idea of the Fate was a good one with a lot of promise. However, I think how it was executed was confusing to the reader, was it actual or conceptual? Because Fate was set out like a religion that some bought into and others didn’t. But then further into the novel it seemed like the goddess of Fates WAS real in this world, and that there was an actual “tapestry” that everyone was sewed into etc. But it was really underdeveloped as a concept, which is why I feel it was so confusing as a reader.

I must admit, I hated the concept of the Fateless, but mainly because it was mentioned 113 times (so frequently!) and felt like it was only mentioned to annoy the FMC and the reader by telling you it’s a super important thing, but we can’t tell you about it yet… Which just meant when we got the revelation it was underwhelming and I’d already disengaged with the concept. It’s also bound to be a classic deus ex machina, where the Fateless resolves all issues purely because they are this “special” person. Which I’m just not a fan of, it degrades the character because it requires no room for them to really change or grow because everything just “works out” for them.

“ ‘(…) you need to come with me, Fateless’ (…) There was that word again. Fateless. ‘Why?’ “

And my last real frustration was the pacing of everything. It felt like suddenly there was an antagonist and there was minimal build up or world building around them. They were suddenly in the story and then the MMC plot dumped all about them. They suddenly reared their heads when they hadn’t for a while, and were just in time to create conflict at the end of the book. It felt rushed and predictable.
Similarly, the romance only developed because of forced proximity and a bit of fighting together? I don’t know, maybe this is the teenage love angle and it all happens very quickly and spontaneously (hormones and all) but it didn’t hit for me with how it developed. It was just, there.

I did enjoy some of the characterisations (although characters also conveniently “popped” into the plot), and liked how the initial task from the Guildmaster developed into something unexpected. The initial world building for the city was good, I liked the hot stifling world the author had started to build.

I just feel like the followup job was when the story started to spiral into melodrama, plot dump and convenience to move things along. It felt like the story had lost its authenticity in the excitement to meet the “baddies” and get the plot sprinting along.

The ending was predictable, but did set the book up nicely for part two. It was very easy, with limited actual peril compared to the perceived.

Overall, this story fell flat for me. I didn’t believe the truth behind it, there was too many paragraphs of plot mixed into the dialogue and I felt like the author felt like they needed to explicitly tell the reader what was happening next. Rather than implying or letting the plot progress organically within the writing. I just don’t think the story hit what it intended.

“ ‘As long as you’re here fate can’t get me.’ ”

Thank you so much to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this ARC, all views and opinions are my own ✨

This is an original fantasy that swaps the chosen one trope for a main character that has no fate and no destiny at all! So, everything that Sparrow does is not prophesied or foretold which makes her dangerous! This epic tale has impressive world building with fantastic characters. Sparrow is an orphan and a thief, Raithe is an assassin sent to kill her, this is a fabulous start to a series, I am looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Fateless is a good YA fantasy with strong world building and some interesting characters. I enjoyed the little bit of romance, but at times the plot just didn't feel like it was progressing. I liked the book, but unfortunately just didn't love it!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Fateless delivered a gripping storyline with well-defined stakes that kept the momentum high. While the setting wasn’t the most immersive, the lore and plot were compelling enough to make up for it. The book’s exploration of fate added a unique dimension, creating a strong thematic thread that carried throughout the narrative.

The characters were a standout—I was drawn into their personal struggles, rooting for some while despising others (in the best way possible). The antagonists were particularly well-crafted, making their presence genuinely frustrating in a way that added weight to the conflict. The romance, while present, was subtle and balanced, enhancing the story without overshadowing the core fantasy elements.

More action and expanded worldbuilding could have enriched the experience further, but ultimately, the stakes were high enough to make every decision, every moment, feel impactful. The tension was palpable, keeping me invested right to the final page.

I wanted to like this so much! It had such potential but I found myself losing interest around half way and struggled through the rest. I loved the underground city, the world building and the description but there was just something about the characters that was lacking for me. I'm sure lots of people would enjoy it. So giving a solid 3*.

This is my first book by Julie Kagawa, so I didn't know what to expect going in, and unfortunately this was not an example that encourages me to read more.

First, what I liked:
- The desert world setting was so cool (or hot, rather). I have lived in desert locales, and Fateless brought me back to those years in such a good way.
- Halek and the idea of Fatechasers - indeed, the whole concept of Fate in the book was really well done, with some characters defying fate, others accepting it, and still others pruning it.
- I think it's likely that, given Fateless is meant to be the first in a series, this book built a stable foundation of the world and lore for future books. While I found it a bit of a slog at times, I'm considering this is a positive overall.

However, what I did not like:
- This book absolutely needs to be marketed as YA, not adult fantasy. Sparrow is 17 and, crucially, she acts and thinks like a 17-year-old. Depending how how the series unfolds, later installments may not be YA, but this one certainly is.
- On the above note, it's icky that Raithe is hundreds of years old and Sparrow isn't even an adult (not that it would be much better if she were 18 - hello Feysand). Also, their "connection" was not well-established before all of a sudden, everyone's commenting how cute they are and they should just get together already.
- I normally give an enormous pass on grammar, typos, and syntactical logic errors in ARCs, but there were some truly egregious ones in my ARC. The worst: misspelling the name of the land. That is basic. You invent a land? You spell it right every time.

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

Fateless is book 1 in the series.

Sparrow is a thief and works for the Guild. One day, she's given a special task to retrieve an item for them but that's when she comes across an assassin and things aren't what they seem.

The story started off really well and there was a lot of world building. There were some surprising betrayals and interesting friendships developing for Sparrow. But there were moments where there story dragged a lot and I couldn't continue reading. I expected a lot from this book as I really liked other books by Julie, so I'm hoping the next book will be better.

An exciting heist upon heist fantasy story. Julie Kagawa has said this story is set in a world inspired by Assassin's Creed and you get that sense very strongly right from the start with the evocative descriptions of Kovass city with its twin suns and the surrounding desert. Sparrow is the central character, an orphan raised by the Thieves Guild who is tasked with 2 dangerous missions that plunge her into a deadly adventure where she is the target of the Deathless King. Sparrow discovers she is the Fateless - one who is hidden from the Goddess of Fate. She and the allies and friends she makes during her escape from Kovass discover that she will be crucial to the fate of the world. I really enjoyed this first installment - it has a zingy pace, interesting plot twists and characters and a fascinating magical world. I really look forward to part 2!