Given by Nandi Taylor
my rating: ⭐️⭐️
Thanks so much to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Given follows Yenni, the princess of the Moonrise Islands, as she goes to school in Cresh as part of a ritual journey before she becomes queen. During her time in Cresh, she desperately tries to find a cure for her ill father. This being her main motivation throughout the story. While at Cresh, she meets Weysh, a dragon kind, and finds out she is his "Given," in other words, mate.
I desperately wanted to like this story. The premise was good and it could have played out well if it wasn't ruined by the male protagonist. I felt Weysh, the main male protaganist, was needy, annoying and unnecessary. The romance was based on insta-love (which I did not like) causing Weysh to spend the entire story pining after Yenni and making statements of love during every interaction. The author then made the mistake of Yenni being reluctant at first, instantly changing her mind and being all in after 5 pages. After their acceptance of each other, Weysh and Yenni had a high school type relationship which I found annoying being that they are suppose to be new adults. This shut the door on the romance for me. I found it immature and annoying.
The story descriptors were amazing and this is one of the reason I held on to the end of the book. The world building was average which I was ok with and was obviously inspired by Harry Potter and the idea of a magical school. The secondary characters added to the story well and played necessary parts in the plot. Yenni, as a female protagonist was a strong female lead and moved the plot along well.
However, there were some things in the plot I did not like. First, the addition of Noriago as a villain was unnecessary. It was unclear throughout the entire story why he hated Weysh. It felt like the author unnecessarily added him because she needed to cause issues for Weysh. Also, the storyline was flat. There was no clear build-up, climax, and the ending did nothing beside make it clear that Weysh and Yenni might figure things out. There was more that needed to be added to leave the reader satisfied.
Overall, I would not recommend this story to another reader and I will not read it again.
Given follows Yenni, the princess of the Moonrise Islands, as she goes to school in Cresh as part of a ritual journey before she becomes queen. During her time in Cresh, she desperately tries to find a cure for her ill father. This being her main motivation throughout the story. While at Cresh, she meets Weysh, a dragon kind, and finds out she is his "Given," in other words, mate.
I desperately wanted to like this story. The premise was good and it could have played out well if it wasn't ruined by the male protagonist. I felt Weysh, the main male protaganist, was needy, annoying and unnecessary. The romance was based on insta-love (which I did not like) causing Weysh to spend the entire story pining after Yenni and making statements of love during every interaction. The author then made the mistake of Yenni being reluctant at first, instantly changing her mind and being all in after 5 pages. After their acceptance of each other, Weysh and Yenni had a high school type relationship which I found annoying being that they are suppose to be new adults. This shut the door on the romance for me. I found it immature and annoying.
The story descriptors were amazing and this is one of the reason I held on to the end of the book. The world building was average which I was ok with and was obviously inspired by Harry Potter and the idea of a magical school. The secondary characters added to the story well and played necessary parts in the plot. Yenni, as a female protagonist was a strong female lead and moved the plot along well.
However, there were some things in the plot I did not like. First, the addition of Noriago as a villain was unnecessary. It was unclear throughout the entire story why he hated Weysh. It felt like the author unnecessarily added him because she needed to cause issues for Weysh. Also, the storyline was flat. There was no clear build-up, climax, and the ending did nothing beside make it clear that Weysh and Yenni might figure things out. There was more that needed to be added to leave the reader satisfied.
Overall, I would not recommend this story to another reader and I will not read it again.
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