Review of We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies

[Shanna Meaders]

[Following is a volunteer review of "We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies" by Matthew Tysz.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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We Are Voulhire: A New Arrival Under Great Skies takes readers on a tour of a kingdom and its history, troubles, battles, wins, and losses. It’s an intelligent and fantastical tale filled with magic, friendship, and rivalry. The story and its characters are adventurous and exciting. Their interactions are believable; their dialogue and thought processes are clever, relatable, and genuine. This, along with the vibrant, well-written scenery, makes immersion into the story almost seamless. It was natural and easy to be quickly invested. The book is paced well, pushing the reader forward effortlessly and at appropriate speeds—the exciting scenes feel exciting and the calmer scenes feel easy. The POV shift can be a little disjointed, as can the storyline across chapters, but this isn’t enough to hinder enjoyment of the book. In a couple instances, eccentric names of places and some characters became distracting and confusing when more than a few were strung together. Explanation of the relationships wasn’t clear and the inclusion of at least some of the names didn’t seem to benefit the story. It’s easier here to pass over the names and continue onto the path of the storyline. These distractions where the reader is forced to step out of the story to situate are few and short-lived, and coming back into the story is easy. This is an intriguing book from the beginning that flows through action and adventure constantly without being exhausting or straining. The ending left me wanting more, both in the sense that the story wasn’t complete and in the sense that I look forward to reading the next book. Overall, the book is well-written, clever, and fun to read. I really do wish that it had more legs at the end to be a true stand-alone book—it left me wondering about too much and with a slight pang of unfulfillment—but as a part in a series it’s most successful. Taking all this into account, my rating for this book is 3 out of 5.

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We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies
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