Enemy's Keeper

I know I’ve found a good book when I have to negotiate with myself to do my responsibilities instead of grabbing a blanket and curling up with its story. The level of authorship and research that this book displayed was unexpected. Part of me wishes I could have read the author’s original story, but the other part is glad I didn’t have it to muddy my feelings about the characters at their current time. Already, I feel the protagonist’s struggle between the two sides she sees of others. I find myself rooting for her captor, while also understanding her loss and the obstacles that she faces. Do yourself a favor and read this story!

4.5/5⭐

(I received an ebook copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review.)

Normally, I do not find myself gravitating towards a story set in this era, and one that is more historical fiction than fantasy, however I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

First of all, I enjoyed that Heather was a normal girl in this story and we saw it from her point of view. By normal I mean that she is the type of character you would expect to see as a background character in most stories, however, the author did an amazing job at showing how Heather's life was affected by everything going off, as well as her own choices.

I liked the suspense on what would happen next, as the characters were grey; none of them were "good" or "bad", but somewhere in a realistic middle. Even Heather had "bad" thoughts about certain characters and acknowledged that in different circumstances, she may have not done what she did which is a realistic flawed that was touched on well. With the blurred lines of these boundaries, we can also understand why Heather struggles with reacting to these mixed actions, not knowing whether her choice was the right one or not.

I am anticipating the second book after the book left me on a cliffhanger!

On the other hand, I do not know much about the history behind all of this (even though I am English...) and so was confused at a couple of points because there was so much happening and I didn't understand or know any of it. But this did not take away from my enjoyment of the book.

There were also one or two typos in the story such as "Matthew stiffened her shout" which I thought should be "Matthew stiffened at her shout", or maybe that was just my brain not comprehending. However, the majority of the book was consistent.

I really enjoyed the first installment of the Enemy’s Keeper series by Kyrie Wang.

All pros and no cons in this read. Forbidden Ties flowed really well and made me want to keep reading all day. I felt well-grounded in the medieval England setting and time period while reading which is a testament to the author’s research and skill in setting the stage. The stage is smaller in this book, but I can envision how the stage will become larger and encompass more in this historical fiction series. So, that makes me incredibly excited to read the next installment.

Cliffhanger warning as well! I don’t mind a cliffhanger especially when the whole book is so enthralling like this one. Along with the cliffhanger, there are morally grey characters and mysteries surrounding some characters. This ambiguity didn’t bother me. There were enough reveals, action sequences, and scenes to satiate my curiosity.

Because I like Outlander, another thing I liked about Forbidden Ties was that there are references to healing and herbal remedies.

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy from the author, Kyrie Wang, free of charge. It was my choice to read and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.