Godblind (The Godblind Trilogy, #1)

by Anna Stephens

[Leah]

What an outstanding read! I read fantasy, but it's usually YA fantasy, and it's few and far between, and I've yet to read a Grimdark novel, but Godblind intrigued me. And it was, in fact, a pretty brilliant start to what I've come to learn is a trilogy (isn't it a pain, when you come to the end of the book, having searched fruitlessly online and on the book itself to see if it's part of a series, to get to the end and realise... Yes, it is). It's a bit infuriating, but I'm also kind of glad there'll be more books because I was properly into the story. A few bits left me confused - I don't quite understand why the Red Gods were banished, but overall, this was a pretty intriguing read.

I will also say that before you read this, be warned there is a ton of characters to keep up with, a ton of places, just loads of information. I didn't personally find it overwhelming - I thought I might, I thought it might be too much for me to read something with so much scope, but once you get the characters straight and you start to re-visit characters, you get used to them. I would, however, have loved both a) a character list in the beginning of the book and b) a pronunciation guide, because I hate trying to pronounce a word that I have no idea how to pronounce. If you're going to write a novel with strange names/places, at least have the decency to have a pronunciation guide.

Overall, I'm stoked to read more in this series - I liked getting to know (most of the) characters, I liked the world Anna Stephens built and it kept me hooked from start to finish.