Crier's War by Nina Varela (4/5)

The resistance movement as a whole was only mentioned a couple of times even though it was supposed to be a big part of Ayla’s character. Furthermore, both Alya and Crier felt underdeveloped and their relationship felt unnatural. I think it's because we see Crier’s feelings grow, but Ayla’s came out of nowhere. Similarly, characters like Benji and Stormie who are Alya’s best friend and brother subsequently also lacked personality. They were important to the plot but as a reader, I was never connected to either of them, so their importance felt unconvincing. My biggest problem was the climax, I won’t spoil what happened, but it was honesty anticlimactic. It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be and lacked something. However, this book wasn't bad, there are some redeeming qualities, for example, this book was wonderfully written and the word choice was phenomenal. In addition, I loved the tiny snippets of history we got through the book and being able to make connections between them. When reading this I couldn’t get through the book, it took me three months to get to page 200 because it just couldn’t keep my attention. Yet after I read the other 200 pages in one day because it was such an easy read. I recommend this book to people that are fans of fantasy and enjoy queer romance. This book is also a part of a series so if you like this one there is a second book, and while it's advertised as an enemies to lovers, slow burn but it is not so be warned.