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amethystbookwyrm's review
2.0
This and my other reviews can be found at http://amethystbookwyrm.blogspot.co.uk/
Thanks to Leia Getty for giving me this book to review.
Kale mac Tadhg and Aoife of Westgate are childhood sweethearts but after a lengthy conflict, Kale is forced to choose his loyalty over his heart and breaks their engagement. However, Kale is then betrayed, taken captive and is ultimately sent on an impossible mission to slay the witch in a tower and free the land from its curse. Both Aoife and Kale’s best friend Aaron set out to rescue him but their journey is not as straight forward as they initially believed. With all their fates tied to the tower’s, will they be able to stop the curse without paying too high a price.
Tower of Obsidian is an ok historical fantasy as it was hard to get into and had a very slow pace, but did pick up a bit towards the end. It had an interesting plot, however, I did find it a bit confusing.
I did not get on well with Kale because he said he loves Aoife but if he did he would have fought a lot harder to stay engaged to her. Aoife is not much better as she is too impulsive and was so obsessed with finding Kale she did not treat her friends very well. I liked Aaron as he was kind and much more chivalrous than his noble friend. My favourite person was Fianait as she was fierce and had the most interesting POV, but about a third of the way through her story just disappeared which was disappointing.
Tower of Obsidian had potential but was let down by slow pacing and characters I found hard to connect to.
Thanks to Leia Getty for giving me this book to review.
Kale mac Tadhg and Aoife of Westgate are childhood sweethearts but after a lengthy conflict, Kale is forced to choose his loyalty over his heart and breaks their engagement. However, Kale is then betrayed, taken captive and is ultimately sent on an impossible mission to slay the witch in a tower and free the land from its curse. Both Aoife and Kale’s best friend Aaron set out to rescue him but their journey is not as straight forward as they initially believed. With all their fates tied to the tower’s, will they be able to stop the curse without paying too high a price.
Tower of Obsidian is an ok historical fantasy as it was hard to get into and had a very slow pace, but did pick up a bit towards the end. It had an interesting plot, however, I did find it a bit confusing.
I did not get on well with Kale because he said he loves Aoife but if he did he would have fought a lot harder to stay engaged to her. Aoife is not much better as she is too impulsive and was so obsessed with finding Kale she did not treat her friends very well. I liked Aaron as he was kind and much more chivalrous than his noble friend. My favourite person was Fianait as she was fierce and had the most interesting POV, but about a third of the way through her story just disappeared which was disappointing.
Tower of Obsidian had potential but was let down by slow pacing and characters I found hard to connect to.
erinarkin20's review
3.0
Tower of Obsidian by L.T. Getty is a good mix of action and mythology. It had a bit of a slow start and although at times, I found myself wanting this story to move a bit faster, I thought the story was solid.
The main characters of this book didn't really win me over or even have me rooting for them. This was mostly because of the fact that Aoife, the main character, while tough, came off as headstrong. Normally I would applaud this but she didn't really seem to think through what she was doing or even take into account how her actions would impact those around her. I will admit, she had my support when Kale ended their engagement but I wanted her to stand up for herself to him and I wasn't sure why she just cried about it without confronting him when everything she did afterward tells me she wouldn't have just let it slide.
Kale didn't win any points with me based on the way he ended their relationship. Yes, he was doing what he thought was best and “doing his duty” but that didn't mean I had to like it. It was hard to get behind the whole mission Aoife and Aaron were on and then also feel sympathy for Kale’s situation when from the beginning he made me want to kick him in the shin.
Aaron was interesting and I’m not sure how I feel about him. Aoife knew he loved her but still treated him in a way that wasn't really nice and he pretty much took whatever she threw at him with no complaints. There is a bit of a twist toward the end of the book that made things interesting but his feelings for Naguset kind of came out of nowhere considering I thought he loved Aoife. I did like how he was the one to make things happen and in the end, was happy.
I do wish we would have gotten more of Aoife’s sister’s story. Fianait was an interesting character and I wanted to know more about her and her relationship with the group outside the city. There was no real explanation of how she came across the group and what happened with them once everyone was safe and back where they needed to be.
I thought Getty did a good job of weaving in the mythology of the witch in the tower with the story of Aoife and Aaron attempting to save Kale. It was a piece of the story that I thought made things interesting and while I wanted to see how the overall story ended up, I thought the story of the dragons, the witch, and her protector were what kept me turning the pages.
Hopefully this doesn't come across as a negative review. I thought there were some areas where editing was needed but the idea is original which is what first drew me to the book. If you are looking for a story that has some action, mythology, and takes you back in time, you might want to check this one out.
Thank you to the author for the review copy.
The main characters of this book didn't really win me over or even have me rooting for them. This was mostly because of the fact that Aoife, the main character, while tough, came off as headstrong. Normally I would applaud this but she didn't really seem to think through what she was doing or even take into account how her actions would impact those around her. I will admit, she had my support when Kale ended their engagement but I wanted her to stand up for herself to him and I wasn't sure why she just cried about it without confronting him when everything she did afterward tells me she wouldn't have just let it slide.
Kale didn't win any points with me based on the way he ended their relationship. Yes, he was doing what he thought was best and “doing his duty” but that didn't mean I had to like it. It was hard to get behind the whole mission Aoife and Aaron were on and then also feel sympathy for Kale’s situation when from the beginning he made me want to kick him in the shin.
Aaron was interesting and I’m not sure how I feel about him. Aoife knew he loved her but still treated him in a way that wasn't really nice and he pretty much took whatever she threw at him with no complaints. There is a bit of a twist toward the end of the book that made things interesting but his feelings for Naguset kind of came out of nowhere considering I thought he loved Aoife. I did like how he was the one to make things happen and in the end, was happy.
I do wish we would have gotten more of Aoife’s sister’s story. Fianait was an interesting character and I wanted to know more about her and her relationship with the group outside the city. There was no real explanation of how she came across the group and what happened with them once everyone was safe and back where they needed to be.
I thought Getty did a good job of weaving in the mythology of the witch in the tower with the story of Aoife and Aaron attempting to save Kale. It was a piece of the story that I thought made things interesting and while I wanted to see how the overall story ended up, I thought the story of the dragons, the witch, and her protector were what kept me turning the pages.
Hopefully this doesn't come across as a negative review. I thought there were some areas where editing was needed but the idea is original which is what first drew me to the book. If you are looking for a story that has some action, mythology, and takes you back in time, you might want to check this one out.
Thank you to the author for the review copy.
holliereadsbooks's review
4.0
This review was first posted on Music, Books and Tea. I also received this book in exchange for an honest review.
As I’m sure a lot of you know, I’m quite picky when it comes to my fantasy books. I was a little worried when I began reading Tower of Obsidian, as a book can sound great with its summary, but then turn out to fall a little flat for me when I begin reading. Happily, that wasn’t the case for me with this book, in fact, the opposite is kind of true, the summary doesn’t sound as good as the book is!
The story opens with a fantastic prologue that had me hooked on reading the rest of the book as soon as I possibly could. I loved the plot of Tower of Obsidian, for me, it was definitely one of its strong points. The story centres around a witch in her huge black tower, who has cursed the land the tower sits upon. There are guards, who are all more than meet the eye, on each level of the tower who must be defeated before the witch, Aurore can be approached. If that had just been it, I would have said it was still a fantastic plot, but there’s still more to it than that, lots of little details that just make the story all the more interesting.
The characters were certainly a mixed bag, there were some I loved, like Naguset, Aaron and Rasheen, and others I really struggled to connect with, like Kale and Aoife. There were several points in the story that I wanted to slap Aoife for acting like such a spoiled brat, constantly trying to blackmail Aaron into doing things that she wanted him to do. I managed to look past it most of the time, but there were points where she got right on my nerves unfortunately! Tower of Obsidian had a whole host of characters, not all of them had a huge part in the story, but they all had a name, which was kind of confusing when I was trying to keep everyone in line as well as keep the plot straight in my head!
What did surprise me was that there wasn’t a huge amount of world-building in Tower of Obsidian. Most of the story takes place in Ireland and on the sea, leaving the plot to contain the majority of the fantasy elements that I’m used to reading. That wasn’t a bad thing for me, whilst world-building is a staple of most fantasy novels, it was nice to read a book that didn’t focus on that as much.
Tower of Obsidian isn’t a perfect fantasy novel, but it was a fun read, and certainly took me on an adventure that I wasn’t expecting to go on. I really enjoyed reading it, and can’t wait to see what Getty writes next.
As I’m sure a lot of you know, I’m quite picky when it comes to my fantasy books. I was a little worried when I began reading Tower of Obsidian, as a book can sound great with its summary, but then turn out to fall a little flat for me when I begin reading. Happily, that wasn’t the case for me with this book, in fact, the opposite is kind of true, the summary doesn’t sound as good as the book is!
The story opens with a fantastic prologue that had me hooked on reading the rest of the book as soon as I possibly could. I loved the plot of Tower of Obsidian, for me, it was definitely one of its strong points. The story centres around a witch in her huge black tower, who has cursed the land the tower sits upon. There are guards, who are all more than meet the eye, on each level of the tower who must be defeated before the witch, Aurore can be approached. If that had just been it, I would have said it was still a fantastic plot, but there’s still more to it than that, lots of little details that just make the story all the more interesting.
The characters were certainly a mixed bag, there were some I loved, like Naguset, Aaron and Rasheen, and others I really struggled to connect with, like Kale and Aoife. There were several points in the story that I wanted to slap Aoife for acting like such a spoiled brat, constantly trying to blackmail Aaron into doing things that she wanted him to do. I managed to look past it most of the time, but there were points where she got right on my nerves unfortunately! Tower of Obsidian had a whole host of characters, not all of them had a huge part in the story, but they all had a name, which was kind of confusing when I was trying to keep everyone in line as well as keep the plot straight in my head!
What did surprise me was that there wasn’t a huge amount of world-building in Tower of Obsidian. Most of the story takes place in Ireland and on the sea, leaving the plot to contain the majority of the fantasy elements that I’m used to reading. That wasn’t a bad thing for me, whilst world-building is a staple of most fantasy novels, it was nice to read a book that didn’t focus on that as much.
Tower of Obsidian isn’t a perfect fantasy novel, but it was a fun read, and certainly took me on an adventure that I wasn’t expecting to go on. I really enjoyed reading it, and can’t wait to see what Getty writes next.
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