In the Battle of the Fallen, 100 years ago the gods took away the sun from humanity, as a punishment for their decisions. In that 100 years, a dark queen has risen controlling all in Mirth, everyone believes she is humanity's only hope. And one Runner Arya has believed it wholeheartedly determined to become the first female Runner to the Queen she trains exhaustively her whole life and just when her hard work pays off and she gets her prize, she meets Azriel, a Watcher, and a servant of the Gods who tells her that it's not the Queen who will save humanity but Arya herself. Will Arya be able to find the strength to bring the dawn back?
So here's the deal: I read this yesterday and felt pretty comfortable leaving a four-star review. I am still okay with it but I've determined that I have more issues with it than I originally thought. And honestly most of it I think I can chalk up to it being just too short. Personally, I think writing a shorter book has got to be a hundred times more difficult than writing a longer book, and I've said this before it takes a talented author to write something that's less than three hundred pages that feels complete. And I'm not saying Menard isn't talented, I'm just saying this book would have been served if it was longer.
This book is rushed and I mean really rushed like the characters have grabbed you by the hand and they are pulling you through the story and you get to the end and you've got whiplash. The main villain in this takes on the gods a hundred years ago and wins, I don't care how much the gods blessed Arya the fact that she is able to destroy the villain in the space of an afternoon is just too much to believe. Because it's so rushed I never once felt like the villain was really all that bad either. We are told she's done evil things but she never actually does anything evil in the book at all, I would have liked to see her character fleshed out a bit more.
Arya and Azriel have some really great one-liners. I will absolutely give the author that but sometimes they are just awful or don't fit at all. The one that really got me and I will never get it out of my head is a reference to fins in a sexual manner. Yeah, like fish fins, or maybe merpeople fins I'm not sure. And I've tried to figure out what the heck this comment was referring to but I just can't and I'm not even sure I *want* to. Actually, I know I'm sure I don't want to know. It was just a completely unnecessary comment that felt just awkward and weird. Also, this is completely nitpicky but I'm not sure why Azriel says Darling all the time but by the end of the book, I was picturing a cowboy angel. You can't convince me that Azriel isn't rocking a Stetson and some spurs.
The other thing I found to be really frustrating is that Arya starts out by saying she never notices men because she's so dedicated to her training. At the very beginning of the book she describes this man in like perfect detail and then she says something like, "But I don't notice men." By the end of the book, I had to assume that was supposed to be a smart-ass comment. And this is a wash, rinse, and repeat thing. Arya notices men. Often and in detail. Eventually, this is explained by Arya having sexual encounters to relieve stress, but not wanting to be in a relationship, this made the first comment about her not noticing men completely moot then. She obviously does and I'd have rather seen her just state that right off the bat. You can be dedicated to something and still be sexually attracted to people. And like I said, given how often she notices men I kind of feel like it was an attempt at humor. Kind of.
Alright so for what I liked. I enjoyed the world-building in this. At first, we are just dropped into Mirth with very little explanation of what is going on but as the story progresses Menard fills in the background details that are missing so we get a bigger picture of both the world and its history. I also did enjoy most of the dialogue. Arya does have some deep and meaningful speeches throughout the book and for the most part, her smart-ass game is strong. She also never wavers from her path, once her mind is made up she sticks to the course she's decided on. Azriel is an interesting love interest. He's really dedicated to Arya and I enjoyed that as well. The plot twist with Loren is obvious from the minute Arya calls him her brother, but, with this type of twist, most authors would have had Arya have a moment where she wavers from her goal. Menard did not do that and I thoroughly loved that. There's no chick flick moment here and that was so nice.
Overall, this really hits all the points it should which is why I'm giving it four stars but I just feel like if it had been a bit longer it could have been easily five stars. It's got an interesting world, with an intriguing history, and a villain that I believe should have been fleshed out more. I'm interested in seeing how the second book will go as well, honestly thought this was a stand-alone while I was reading it so I'm definitely intrigued by the fact that this is Book 1.
Thanks to NetGalley and City Owl Press for the eArc, this review has been left voluntarily.
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