REVIEW: Savages (Chronicles of Warshard #2) by Katherine Bogle

Savages by Katherine Bogle
Series: Chronicles of Warshard #2
Published by Patchwork Press on 11th April 2017
Pages: 300
Source: *Received from Publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Daughter of Chief Ruin, Breen is one of the most fearsome warriors in the Southern Delica Tribe, but nothing can stop the Emperor from reaping the Savage Lands for soldiers. 

When her village is attacked, Breen is taken from her home and her family to the Seaburn Academy, where southern savages are broken and chained into a life of service to the Empire. Through the beatings and torture, Drakkone, one of the few Seaburn-born soldiers, brings solace to her days and gives her hope for the future.

Once freed of the Academy dungeons, Breen is sentenced to daily training between her plots for escape. But one night of unexpected passion turns into a problem bigger than either of them could have imagined. 

Breen and Drakkone must risk capture and flee the city or death might be a blessing compared to eternal imprisonment.
Going into this sequel, I did not realise until two thirds of the way through that this happened before the first novel, and this really threw me off. I was really enjoying this, but I started to get rather bored half-way through, and with a huge time jump added to the mix, the flow of the novel just seemed to disappear, and so the timescale within this novel was just lost as weeks, months and even years kept being skipped throughout.

I do not want to give too much of a summary of this as it will spoil the first book. This is about different characters to the first novel, but I want to strongly emphasise that this novel is set before the first novel, and in all honesty, I wish I had read this one first, and then the first book. It is about Breen whom is captured by the Seaburn army, and her journey and struggle as they try to turn her into another of their soldiers.

Our main protagonist Breen was brilliant. Breen was strong, fierce and protective, whilst being intelligent and inspiring as a teacher. Breen trained hard and was great however, I really struggled to connect with her. In full, Breen had all the qualities a reader wants to witness, but instead of progressing and growing as a character, Breen did the opposite, and became too reliant on those around her, no longer the strong, independent woman we first met. It was so disappointing. And although she had all these qualities, I found it really hard to connect with her.

Then there are the relationships formed in this novel. Everything felt far too convenient and 'insta'. There was a bad case of insta-love between Breen and Drakkone, alongside insta-friendships! In this novel it felt like there was no time for anything, so it was just all made to happen in the hope it seemed natural. Whilst the huge jumps in time throughout the novel made it very hard to witness the forming, and further the progression, of these friendships

As I have mentioned numerously throughout this review, the pace of this novel felt rather off. It went way too fast, so much so that I keep getting disorientated in how much time had passed. I think having read the first book did help in terms of the world-building as I did have a better understanding going into this of what was going on in this world. But everything just felt far too convenient, as mentioned earlier.

Like I said in the beginning of this review, only until I had read two thirds did I realise that this book is actually set before the first book, and it really threw me off. Mainly because I then had to go back to the first novel in order to reconnect with who these characters had become or where they had been originally, but that also left me feeling disappointed, because I knew exactly where this plot was going to lead and it would no longer be the surprising, dramatic and emotional ending it was suppose to be; as the reader, I was just waiting for what I knew was going to happen, and it just caused me to skip over sections in order to be done because I already knew what was happening, and so it completely left me wondering why I was bothering to read on knowing what was going to happen anyway. Although one thing one cannot dispute, is that Bogle is brilliant at writing action scenes, mainly the sword fighting scenes, as I was constantly able to envisage everything as they really put me on the edge of my seat.

Therefore I feel disappointed with this companion novel, and would much rather have read this first, and then read Haven.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Feature & Follow

FEATURE & FOLLOW #5

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY (#3)