A review by chloe_pks
Wings Unseen by Rebecca Gomez Farrell

4.0

''The Brothers had only known what could be, not what would be" - Rebecca Gomez Farrell

I think this has been one of my favourite books so far, this year. It had such a lovely blend of amazing characters, intriguing world building and a strong plot. It was a dense read, it wasn’t even 400 pages yet it took me over a week but I did enjoy it. I only had the smallest of issues with certain aspects of the books, one of which I am going to start with because it did follow me throughout the rest of the novel.

Please, Rebecca Gomez Farrell, show me a map of this wonderful and diverse world that you have created! Later in the book I did start to understand the general area of some of the major lands but it still would have helped at the beginning when we are being introduced to so many characters from many different and interesting lands. Along this same sort of line, there seemed to be a weird thing in this book where Farrell would write the name of a fantasy creature and then give no explanation or relevance, it just seemed very peculiar and unnecessary.

Right from the beginning of this book I loved all our leading trio; Vesperi, Janto and Serra were all such well-rounded and three-dimensional characters with all had their own arc’s and this was all accomplished while never slowing the pace of the plot. I just loved hanging out with them to be honest and the fact they all had their little worlds before coming together just made me become more attached to them before the climax of the plot. I think this was also because the side characters in this book were incredibly strong too, I’ve looked back and there isn’t one that I haven’t loved, they were all fun and well-rounded and I cared when

Spoiler

any of them got hurt or died

.

When it came to this triad I enjoyed how equal they all were within the plot, they all needed one another to complete the quest they had set out for. The plot really was one of my favourite aspects. I loved what they were fighting and how they manifested, I thought it was such a great idea and gave some real context as to why the people of Lansera have become like they are. I also liked how the idea of Gods and fate was handled in this book too, although I would have liked more explanation in to the God Wars that was mentioned in the book.

Didn’t like the beginning of the love triangle and I wasn’t a fan of either of the romances that became canon in the end – I’m not a big fan of fate being the defining nature of romances and I just never felt that there was any chemistry between Vesperi and Janto, it was just he had a sexy dream about her and then they were in love? Whereas he and Serra has this long build up friendship and established relationship, I just felt like there didn’t need to be a romance and I really didn’t like that the epilogue chapter, from Serra, was about her getting in Lorne’s pants? Like this whole book has been about friendships and the power of fate and it ends with Serra trying to get her leg over with a man she has just met? No thank you.

Although I’m not usually a fan of fantasy sexism, I saw why it was used in this book because it was, in fact, not seen as the norm by the larger population of the people in this fantasy world and was used by a corrupt religious order to subdue and control his people

Spoiler

and I really enjoyed that because in the end this way of thinking is the Guj's downfall.

So, while I did have little niggles throughout this book it was never even close enough to make me want to stop, I could have lived in this world and with our three main characters and their friends for longer and seen more of their creature killing, ‘I’m taking fate into my own hands’ road trip.

I received my ARC from Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Meerkat Press, and Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you very much.