A- | Stunning. What can I say? This book is absolutely stunning. From the plot to the worldbuilding, to the characters themselves, and to the writing, everything came together to create this magical book. While there were issues that populate the book, they didn’t take away from my enjoyment of this novel.
I’ve said this before, but it’s always hard to write reviews for books that I adore because I end up rambling.
Alexis contacted me and after reading the synopsis, I agreed to read and review this book. Again, I love me some fantasy and the moment I saw dragons and elves and dreams, I just leapt at the opportunity.
Title: Fall of the Elves (Elves of Asarton #1)
Author: Alexis Samson
Synopsis: Countess Tessa of Newshire has become adept at evading the eyes of a kingdom. Her marriage is one of convenience and obligation, leaving her with endless days to immerse herself in literature of the fallen elven race and the ferocious dragons that perished with them.
Soon after she possesses the body of the dead elven queen in a dream, Tessa stumbles across a creature of legend in the forest behind her estate. The dragon, reluctant to talk about her past, claims Tessa as her own and trains her in the way of the elves.
Rumours stir of ragtok—responsible for the infamous slaughter over three-hundred years ago—marching on the Four Kingdoms, leaving the countess unnerved at the parallels between her reality and that of the elves’ descent. Her thoughts and memories are weaponised by the royal family, leaving her struggling under the burden of her own mind. She is reluctantly pulled into a world of magic and monsters, and her dreams seem to be the catalyst to the end.
It is up to Tessa to figure out the mystery behind the fall of the elves, before her own people succumb to the same fate.
Publication Date: 8 November 2019
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To summarize the plot, essentially this book is about a countess named Tessa who begins to dream about life of the fallen elven queen, Zariah. It’s told in dual POV so we get to see Zariah’s thoughts as well. Dreams seem like nothing more than dreams until Tessa meets Zariah’s dragon, Rana, who agrees to train Tessa. Eventually, the countess realizes that the dreams are real and not a figment of her imagination. At the same time, the ragtok — the creatures who brought about the end of the elves in the first place — have started to come back and wreck havoc on the land. People hear about Tessa’s dreams and they basically try to use her to find out how to protect themselves. But the more Tessa dreams of Zariah, the more Tessa discovers things about herself.
Overall, the worldbuilding is coherent and well thought out, particularly when it comes to the elven side of things. There are some info dumps, although they’re minor ones at best and they’re well integrated into the story itself. It was very easy to get lost in this world and imagine myself in it.
The writing itself is very intricate and quite refreshing. Not to bring out the ol’ nostalgia, but there’s something about the writing that really reminded me of the books I used to read as a kid. It’s not overly complicated. In fact, it’s beautifully simple. Zariah and Tessa both had distinctive voices and they were both so full of life. Quite frankly, everything felt alive which is what pulled out a lot of emotion from me.
But the strength of this book lies in the characters themselves.
Tessa — without a doubt — can be immature and naive. It’s clear she’s someone who was sheltered and thinks she’s had a hard life when really, she hasn’t. She can be selfish at times, as well which can make things a bit frustrating. However, she is also a lonely person who yearns for freedom (& this yearning only grows the more she dreams of Zariah). She is the eternal dreamer — lost in her own imagination because there, she has some semblance of the freedom she yearns. She reminds me of Sisi and look, I know it’s weird to compare this literary character to a real life historical figure, but they both have that same burning desire to spread their wings and they both brood a lot. Where Sisi found comfort in literally anything but being at court in Vienna, Tessa found solace in her books and in the elves. They both crave adventure and to escape from their chains.
In a way, it’s because of this similarity to one of my favorite historical figures that I actually adored Tessa. Yes, I absolutely got frustrated with her, but that’s good! I felt a connection with Tessa.
On the same vein, I also liked Zariah. Unlike Tessa, we get to see her grow up along with Rana. Now, while I felt more connected with Tessa, I did find Zariah to be pretty interesting when she grew up. I admit that I was pretty bored with her earlier years. I understand that they were necessary to show us her relationships with those around her, particularly with Rana and Prince (eventually King) Torren. But at the same time, nothing really happened in those chapters until towards the end where more action happened. It’s only then that I sat up and paid more attention to Zariah. Overall, I liked her.
Another character I liked (& this may be a surprise) was Aidric who is the human prince. He is an a$$hole but an a$$hole who has a lot of things on his plate that would be driving him being a d!ck. It doesn’t excuse his behavior, but it also explains it. He is a prince whose kingdom is at stake while Tessa essentially whines about having to share her dreams with people. Look, Tessa, I get it, but jeez, people’s lives are at stake here. It will be interesting to see where Aidric’s character goes in the sequel.
Rana was cool, too, and it will be interesting to see what happens to her in the next book.
Still, this book has its flaws.
I was warned that this was a long book, but I have no issues with long books. I’ve read ASOIAF and I’m planning on jumping into reading the Cosmere books so I don’t fear long books. I love them 90% of the time. But the thing with long books is that if you don’t distribute the action correctly and make sure the pacing is okay, then a 500+ page book can seem VERY lengthy — too lengthy for it’s own good.
This book runs into this very issue. Despite the fact that it is an easy read, this book felt even longer than another book of similar length due to the pacing issues. Had things been better distributed and pacing been better, I would not have noticed the book’s length. There were sections in the book that I frankly question whether or not they were needed. Sure, it’s great to see relationships and bonds be shown rather than told so that we can see how things developed, but at the same time, action is needed, too. Zariah’s chapters suffered the most with this issue. Again, I totally understand the desire for us to see her life, but there were just certain sections that felt totally unnecessary and only bogged down the narrative. At the end of the day, those sections did nothing. Yes, the sandwich had a lot of meat, but was it as filling as it could be? Not really.
The side characters are another flaw that helped knock this book down to a lower grade. Aside from Aidric and Torren, everyone else was just boring. They were just there. And fine, they’re side characters so whatever, but at the same time, it came to a point where I kind of just went, “who are you again?” when some of the characters spoke.
Another thing about the characters was the fact there were no meaningful female-female relationships. Yes, Rana and Zariah are there and Zariah also had a friendship with Rela, but what about Tessa? Tessa had some sort of truce with Julia in regards to Tessa’s husband, Herlon, but something meaningful? There wasn’t much of anything.
Overall
Even so, this book has become one of my favorites for 2019. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this series.
Do I recommend it?
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is considering reading it. Yes, it’s a long book and yes, there are issues present. However, it’s a great fantasy book to get lost in for a few hours. I absolutely enjoyed reading this book.
Thank you once again Alexis for giving me this opportunity. This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.
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