I received an eARC from the author. All opinions are my own.
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The only way to survive is to win.
The only way to win is to slay a dragon.
In a realm where power determines life or death, two young women are thrust into a deadly tournament where the only path to survival is to slay a dragon. Forced to participate in the brutal Gauntlet, Amalia and Dyana enter the dangerous world of the Fae. But humans aren't the only ones being forced to fight...
Dragons, once revered as Gods, are on the brink of extinction. Enslaved by the Fae and forced to fight, they've given up hope of ever seeing the skies again. As the two women train for the battle of their lives, Amalia Roth grows closer to stony yet magnetic Gauntlet head trainer Os, while her adopted younger sister Dyana finds herself falling for enigmatic Mirielle, a Gauntlet candidate from the coastal Eastlands.
Driven by fear for herself and her sister, Amalia will have to decide whether to stay in the shadows or to accept her birthright... if she can survive the dragons. The first in an explosive new series brimming with magic, danger, romance, sapphic characters, and a morally gray antiheroine, The Forgotten and The Feared is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, George RR. Martin, R.F. Kuang, John Gwynne, Samantha Shannon, and Carissa Broadbent.
The Forgotten and the Feared is a New Adult grimdark fantasy (that sometimes felt more "romantacy") book about two sister chosen for the Gauntlet, a race to the death set up by the evil fae who now control the land. Ama must protect her sister, Dyana, from death, as well as safe herself as they train and make alliances underneath the fae city.
There is... a lot to get through with this book. This book is over 600 pages, but unfortunately the information given to us was given disjointedly. The start is a bog of exposition (along with the biggest opening cliches in the world, Ama waking up), but then later on, we're given too little information, too late. The ancestry of a character is revealed and is written as if it is a large impressive moment. It's not until 20% further into the book do we get an explanation as to why a character being of that race would be impressive. Roughly a hundred pages to explain why a reveal is shocking?
Ama is everything you expect from a new adult romantacy; violent, overly possessive of the people she cares about, and horny to an extent. Her character is fine, but I'm annoyed that we got the whole "my secret plan" thing, despite her point of view being the most prevalent and being in 1st person, so we are in her head, but never being privy to those plans. Even still, her story felt the most complete.
Dyana's point of view was entirely unnecessary. She supposed to be the sunshine-y, positive force of the group, but she comes off as incompetent. She, by her own admission, cannot fight, flirt, or even sew. Add in the fact that her point of view reveals nothing new about the plot, setting, or characters, I cannot figure out why she had a point of view.
i never cared about the relationships. Ama and Os were full of insta-lust and Dyana and Mirelle were really awkward and I never saw their relationship unfold on page. It hurts even more because it's not like this book is lacking in pages. 600+ pages and a slow burn couldn't be pulled off? The relationships had to be solidified within 100 pages?
Now the actual plot? The fight to the death? Was just okay. There was a lot of training sequences where the characters are super beat up, which really escalated the violence I expected (but never truly got) from the finale. This book is also marketed as a grimdark fantasy with a lot of violence and gore. It definitely delivers on those aspects, but occasionally it felt like it circled around from "horrific" to "comedic-ly over the top."
If I had to praise this book for something… the dragons were cool. The dragons had this magic ability called "Dragonfear" that makes prey freeze so it's easier to capture them, which also applies to humans. I liked that.
I rated this book 1.5 stars. Clearly, any indie NA romantacy book isn't going to be for me, no matter how much it claims to be different. Even still, I can't recommend this book to anyone.
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