Oath Taker (Kingdom of Runes, #1)

by Audrey Grey

[Sarah]

My thoughts are all over with this book but overall it was just frustrating to read. I read through as a combination of the Kindle Unlimited ebook and audiobook. The narrator did a pretty good job but couldn't save it for me. It's an interesting concept with a good premise but much more time should have been spent developing the worldbuilding and magic system (how does Haven's magic work? What are the limits? Why can she use magic to create clothes by just thinking about it when she needed to use runes earlier? Is the dark magic more sentient with the little voice? Why isn't it the same for light magic, just with the opposite impulses? etc.)

I understand Haven is 17 but she makes stupid decisions and plans to (and actively does) deceive/steal from/abandon her traveling companions and then in the VERY NEXT SCENE wonders why the other characters don't trust her.

The blurb spoils the entire point of this first book too. The first 75% is spent with Haven suddenly developing magic with no explanation (explained away as her magic appearing at "the right time"). But as a reader you knew it was coming since the blurb tells you outright she can use both dark/light magic. That could have been a much greater point of tension had we not known about it from the outset, and would have made the point that Bell only channeled Haven's magic a bigger reveal.

The supposed romantic interest(s?) comes up out of nowhere through a 3rd party character drawing attention to it in one of the last chapters. I would have never known this character supposedly had feelings for Haven had it been brought up in a conversation with him. Not to mention the infodumps throughout and the overall problem this book has of telling, rather than showing.

What really irritated me was the ending. It didn't end in a cliffhanger, it was just straight up unfinished. Haven finally gets an offer to start formally training with her magic and a deadline by which she has to save Bell and the book just...ends there. To me if you're going to have an overarching storyline in a series that's great, but each book should have a self-contained arc as well to serve a purpose and this didn't have that. There are a few plot points revealed that seem like they'll play an important role in following books, but I won't be continuing to find out.