The Division

by Kevin M Penelerick

[natpatreads]

A good start to a potentially epic adventure series.

Ember, Princess of the Kingdom of Raneban is living a typical "princess" life until calamity strikes and she must set out on an adventure to save her father...and potentially her world.

I was excited to start this book when I received it as an eARC from NetGalley. Magic - female protagonist - a "strange, but familiar white cat" - all up my alley. The author has provide a familiar but interesting premise to this coming-of-age story where the protagonist needs to save their world / kingdom, but does not know who to trust or where to go.

I enjoyed the imagination and world-building of this universe. The 3-kingdoms, the warring elementals, and other characters in this novel lend themselves to a great world. I did find that the pacing moved quickly in this book that I found myself losing track of a few of the characters and needing to scroll back to see who or what was happening.

I also enjoyed the characters and was provided with a great ensemble of personalities that were adventuring together. I loved the fact that Ember is constantly walking around knitting projects as she journeys. I am always listening to audiobooks / knitting / crochet / etc as I do tasks. I don't remember ever having a character just do something so practically relatable in a fantasy novel.

On the downside, I did find the writing style of this novel a struggle to read. The pacing sometimes felt rushed and I would have to take myself out of the story to reread sections that I did not understand the first time. I also wanted the characters to have more emotional growth throughout the story, but as there is plans for a series I hope that this will happen as the story continues.

Conclusion

This book was solidly in the middle for me. The world building and plot were great, and there is a great starting cast of characters that have a lot of potential. The struggle to get fully immersed into the story and the writing style made it a little less enjoyable for me. I believe it is a good start to series that has the potential to grow.