Review of First Lessons

[HoneyRidley]

[Following is a volunteer review of "First Lessons" by Lina J. Potter.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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First lesson by Lina J. Potter is about Aliya, a medical student, who is in a fatal accident. Her dying wish is to Not Die, so she doesn't. Instead, she is pulled into the body of a medieval Countess and has to use her modern-day knowledge to navigate her new life as Lily.

When I saw the synopsis for this book, I was so excited to read it. I'm disappointed that it wasn't as enjoyable of a read as I was hoping. I gave this book 2.5 out of 5 stars. This story had so much potential but the addition of just a few things really brought the rating down.

First I'll say what I liked. Aliya/Lily was cognizant and cautious about the fact that she is essentially a time traveler. She starts slow, watchful, and makes a plan instead of running around telling everyone she isn’t Lily. After her watchful period, she got to work taking care of her new home. By the end of the story I kind of wanted Lily to take over the kingdom. I also enjoyed the way the author described the setting, I really got a feel for the world. It was overall good storytelling.

BUT the rampant fatphobia, casual racism, and obvious bias against poor people were so distracting and infuriating. It was so unnecessary and pulled me out of the story. Sometimes a particular opinion didn't even make sense for the people in a medieval world to think. She also introduced some really unnecessary and in one case dangerous things into the world in a very short period of time.

I also didn't like how many characters were introduced in the beginning. It was a lot to keep track of and I didn't care about them all that much. I understand that they will become more relevant later in the series, I just wish this first book could have been focused more on Aliya/Lily's point of view.

Overall it was a good story that was made bad by the author's biases. I will not be finishing the series.

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First Lessons
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