The premise of a female executioner was very fascinating but the story fell a little flat. It was also too insta-love for me. I enjoyed Joss’s character but Aric, the MMC, felt under developed. For a fantasy novel, the world building could’ve been more fleshed out. The plot is pretty straightforward so far but I’m intrigued to see if the story will take any unexpected turns in the next book.

The research that went into understanding the history and context for the characters really show through with the thoughtful explanations and events that take place in the story.
I liked the dynamic between the leading characters Alric and Joss.

There are a few weaknesses to the story, pacing is slow at the start and then exponentially speeds up with the last 50 pages. Additionally, it seems to need editing. Character perspectives should never change in the same chapter for obvious reasons. The story also conclusion makes me left wanting.

I'm going to be honest here: I started this book and then stopped after about a dozen or so pages. I'm really getting tired of these "wow look at this girl doing a MAN'S job, isn't that so shocking?!" stories. Can't we just have the girl doing the job without everyone pointing out that she's subverting gender expectations?

I wish I could give more insight than that, but I stopped reading when that theme started cropping up and completely forgot about the book afterward.

I thought this was a unique and nicely written story! It’s pretty far removed from my usual type of book but I still found it enjoyable. I appreciated the work the author did in researching certain historical elements and the effort she put into building this world. I do love a slow burn and that’s definitely what we have here. I’m invested enough in the story to be eager to read the next book, which I suppose is the mark of an effective cliffhanger.

"Hate is so much easier. But Kindness? That takes courage."

I absolutely loved the idea of the book. Joss is an executor. She comes from a long line of executors. There is no escaping this life, if she can't kill after her third attempt, she is killed. Aric is an assassin, who after failing to kill his latest target, was left for dead. That was until Joss discovered him.

I had mixed feelings with this book, in the beginning I was reading quickly and getting into the story. But by midway, I found the pacing to be off and a struggle, but this could have just been me. Everything picked up again around 80% when more was happening and there was more action involved. I think the story would work better as a longer story rather than a trilogy 'All the dark souls' felt more like a prologue, the opening chapters to the world that could be more.

Also for me personally, I would like the chapters to have names of who's point of view we were reading from or when it changes meet way to gave the characters name there. Most of the time I knew who's perspective I was reading from but a couple of times I didn't realise it switched.

I did enjoy the amount of research that went into medieval executions as these were some of my favourite scenes of the book. Saying all this I still can't wait to read more to see what happens to Joss and Aric.

"He ran when it was easy. You stayed when it was hard. That says a lot about the both of you."

*thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The world building is so well researched.
You can see that the author obviously spent a long time building this medieval universe—all axes and blood and hope—but we did end up with a mini info dump on each page.
And I found that a little boring, because as the book progressed, nothing was happening.
Perhaps it’s just because it was so short (barely 200 pages) that when I finished it, I immediately thought “that’s it??” Not because I was so immersed and didn’t want to leave, but because it felt like a prologue in a longer book.
But I tend to enjoy longer books so perhaps that’s on me.
In this case though, I really feel like it would have benefited from being longer.
I didn’t have enough time to connect to the characters, the ending felt too rushed, and the pacing was off.
It went from a very slow pace with not much happening, to action action action in the last few chapters.
And it was so abrupt—and a little predictable.
The characters and their interactions felt very flat and one dimensional most of the time—another thing I think would have improved if the book was longer.
I liked Joss, loved Henrik, and disliked Aric...so how much I cared really just depended on which of the characters was at the forefront
And while this book is marketing as a ‘fantasy romance’, there was no chemistry, nothing that made me care about them.
All the Dark Souls took me much longer to read than normal, but I can’t really blame that on the book (I keep reading too many books at once)
All in all, I really wish it had been longer because I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if it had been.

i received a free digital copy of this book from netgalley’s Read Now shelf and all opinions are my own.
(my full review is linked below)

Finally something different you don’t see very often. The premise of the woman executioner was great. You can tell the author did a lot of research and the details of history are great. I felt like this book was lacking. The storyline was great, the writing was great, the buildup was great and then it just ends. I think this book should have been longer to actually finish the story. It left me wanting more but also not sure if I want to continue.

What I liked
-evocative writing style that helped me as a reader become fully immersed
-Having the choice for main character be a female executioner felt unique for the genre
-Complex characters
-Setting shows a decent amount of research went into this work
What didn't work for me as well
-The book felt too short for the story it was telling
-Pacing felt very rushed for the last quarter of the book
who I would recommend this book for
Readers looking for a fast paced novel with a unique setting and well researched historical references will be pleased by All the Dark Soul by A, M. Dunnewin.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.4 ⭐

This book was hard to rate but I believe 3 stars is a good qualification. I enjoyed the read. The writing was great, and I quite liked how descriptive it was, it made it easy to envision the scenes in my head.

I liked the premise of this story. A woman executioner? That's not something you find often. Besides, you can see that the author made a lot of research because the historical details are on point. I found it fascinating to read about such a complex character. Someone who kills and tortures in the name of the law but it's seen as a monster by the citizens. I want to read more about Joss, I didn't get enough of her past and her family's history.

The rest of the plot was not something new in this genre. A "lost" heir, schemes, and politics, a kingdom tangled in war, a villain working in the shadows, etc.

The book was too short for my taste. I don't mind slow-paced stories but this one had almost no action until the last few chapters. I was just getting interested in the story when I noticed there were only a couple of pages left...I guess the author was building the atmosphere, presenting the main characters and a basic rundown of what's coming next. That's okay but I would have preferred a longer novel (maybe combining the first two volumes?). The end's not abrupt but it leaves too many loose ends and there was not enough information to make any deductions.

4.5/5 stars! I loved the executioner/assassin elements of this fantasy romance and found Joss and Aric to be amazing characters. I fell deeply in love with this world and want more of these characters and this world. I haven't read this strong of a fantasy debut in a long time.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

This book is a solid 3.5 but deserved the round up to 4 rather than to be rounded down. I was intrigued by the story and enjoyed the world building. However, I do think that it took a bit too long to get to the more action-packed parts of the book. I appreciated that the world was well constructed, and the understanding of the characters and their personalities was deeper than just surface level. It just felt like we spent so much of the book learning about them and the world they live in before we learned what was going on around them.
To me by the time the book got to the part of the story that answered all the hidden hints and clues, it was over. And the whiplash I felt at the book being over was strong because it felt like the book had really just picked up the pace.
I did enjoy Joss (Jocelyn), Henrik, and even Aric. The overall story and the individual characters’ stories were well told. And I am interested to find out what happens to all of them.
I would recommend this book for someone who enjoys world building and evenly paced books. But maybe not for someone looking for romance or adventure. There are undertones of romance and mild adventure towards the last third of the book.
I received this ARC for free. I am willingly leaving a review of this story

I really loved this book! It ended without a resolution so I’ll be waiting on the follow up. Hoping for further character development next time. The only reason I didn’t rate 5⭐️ was because the author switched POV randomly within the same chapter which is usually a death sentence for me. Overall, a fantastic story!
I received this eARC from NetGalley for my unbiased opinion. Thank you!

A good written, but short book that I enjoyed very much reading. Loved the character building and the action throughout the book. Would recommend this to my friends and others :)
Thank you for the opportunity to review this book :)

All The Dark Souls follows Jocelyn - Joss - Brevyn, a female executioner and her assistent Henrik.

When they find a beaten man next to the road, they decide to take him in and heal him the best they can. He is not the first and probably won't be the last, as the executioner has a nurturing side to her. Being the towns executioner is a result of the family name, and not by choice. However, she takes her tasks seriously and wants to be as professional as she can be to ensure a quick and clean death for those sentences to death.
For this, she is named the Angel of Death by prisoners, while the townsfolk don't really want to deal with her.

While the man they found, Aric, is recovering at their home, she continues to do her job and worries that he may find out the truth of who she is eventually and flee. As so many others have. But when Aric finds some letters, trying to get a pardon from the king for being the towns executioner, he finds out that they are not so different after all. He believed her to be a healer at first, seen that she knew so much about herbs and the human anatomy. Being an assassin himself, the shock of her being a hired killer, was not that big.

However, he is currently on a mission he rather not succeeds on. As he is ordered to find the kingdoms missing prince Callan and make sure his execution proceeds as planned and nothing gets in between his death. He is to be taken care of it, if it does.

He is reminded of this mission, by the group of people who left him beaten up besides the road. The person he knows as 'The Mask' visits the cottage and tells him:

"Don't make yourself too comfortable here. You may find yourself complicating things."

And ofcourse, Joss is the one who's meant to execute a prisoner that day. She finds it strange that the prisoner is gagged, unnamed, from another jurisdiction and has direct execution orders from Wolburn.

Lord Hilcox questions the situation aswell and provides extra time for the prisoner to prove his claim, namely that he is the 'missing' prince. At the time of the execution, two days later, the scream of a pardon comes in right before the killing takes place and Joss decides to listen to her gut feeling and set the prisoner free.

She is then targeted by Aric with his crossbow and sets out to flee and fight their way to freedom.
After a while, Aric manages to shoot the prince in the shoulder while Joss and him are on horseback and he drops. Joss is telling him to flee, leaving her and Aric alone. Aric then gets a chance to quickly explain himself and the situation. For them to be free if only the prince's life would be taken. Joss counters that she would still suffer the consequences of setting him free. He leaves her and continues to search for the prince and complete the task he's been given. The stakes are too high.

The prince is in danger. They're all in danger. And in the epilogue, it becomes clear that the threat for the prince is more closely than he will expect.

I haven't read a book before mainly focused on an executioner. I find the character intriguing to be able to 'close herself off' for the deadly tasks she's been given duly because of her name. But to be so nurturing and empathetic on the other end. Next to that, she doesn't hold too much intrigue for me but she's likable. Henrik has a bit of that golden retriever effect; he is loyal to the bone, they communicate in a intimate way and he has her back completely. They each got eachothers back. When Aric shows interest in Jocelyn and Henrik picks up on it, he makes sure Aric knows that he will find out what type of executioner he would've been and he strikes through when he protects her from Aric on one occasion. I think Aric is a complex but interesting character on his own, who's in a difficult situation where there are no good choices. He makes a difficult one, to keep them all safe. One life for many to be free. I'm not entirely sure how I think about Aric and Joss' "romantic vibes", sometimes it felt like they're just deprived of love to begin with, which is why they tend to be interested in eachother and possible just a lot of it has been physical attraction.

~ The writing was fluent, easy to follow (for a foreigner) and descriptive. The only downside to the writing would be the pace of it, it's a rather slow book that doesn't really pick up until about 60-70% in this book. Prior to that part, it tries to focus on the characters and let's you get to know them and their morals. I usually don't mind slow books but I did find myself slightly bored at times as nothing of importance happened. But in the end it did all make sense to me and I think it was needed to really understand some of the moves made.

Story wise it isn't unique; kingdom politics, a prince, a villain, a protagonist, a true friendship/relationship etc. However I do find the choice for a female executioner as a main character interesting. The worldbuilding isn't much there, but there also isn't much to do since most, if not all, of the story happens in one town. The scenes are descriptive enough to envision it in your mind. The only 'negative' I could think of was that it picked up rather slow and nothing much was happening for a big chunk of this book.

Because it did take a bit of effort to keep my interest, I'm going to keep the rating at a great 3 stars; which is still recommendable and a positive rating! Just not blown away by it.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher to provide me with this book, in exchange for an honest review.

I'm surprised because this book was really, really good. But let me start at the beginning.

The characters are likeable. More of it I could see why are they doing what they're doing cause their motivations are clearly mentioned throughout the story. Also the specific of their roles in the book! I like the fresh idea in here. There's no damsel in distress, no knight in shining armour and certainly there is no course.

The medieval like society is acceptable and I liked the atmosphere there.

I can't wait to see where it goes next!

3.5 ⭐️
I enjoyed the premise of this book and appreciated the research that went into the plot to ensure historical accuracy. Joss is a female executioner who doesn’t fit her society’s standards. First of all, she is a women and a executioner. I loved the idea of a women excelling in what was deemed a man’s profession. My biggest concerns were the structure of the book and lack of connection with the characters. There wasn’t any indication that POVs were changing and it would happen mid chapter. I also didn’t feel emotionally invested in Joss or Aric’ stories. I would like to get more of their back story and see more of their interactions.

*thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this one! Perfect for fans of Throne of Glass or Red Queen. The ending left so many loose ends, and, without giving too much away, it's the perfect segue for a sequel. Some of the wording seemed a little awkward, and I had to read it a couple times before I figured it out, but thats a small complaint given how much I loved the book. I couldn't put it down!
In the Epilogue, Dunnewin mentions inspiration from the Hangmans Diary. I read that when I was a teenager (my parents thought it was a very strange Christmas request) but once I saw that, I was definitely able to look back and see the connection.

3.5 stars.

Super short. Novella length under 200 pages.

The plot seemed interesting right off the bat. Dark and fresh. Don’t read a lot of executioner books, don’t know that there are many executioner books.

I liked Henrik. I thought his backstory was very fitting for the dynamic between him and Joss. Joss and Aric’s dynamic was kind of fun. We love a man on the mend. But where I really bought in was Muriel. GIVE ME MORE MURIEL. A woman waiting for her missing husband to return. A power play for the crown. Hereeeeee we go baby. But then the story ended and I was bummed.

This was a pinch slow to start, based on the length. Really the pacing wasn’t overly slow for a full standalone novel… got really cooking at like 120 pages and that’s where I start to decide if I’m really interested. For the record, I was just getting invested. Lotssss of description, I think that is what slowed the pace a bit for me. If I was only getting (less than) 200 pages for this part, it felt like it cut off right at the beginning of the action and then it was just done.

I have learned that this is part one in a three part series. I almost hope that this gets combined with part two. I was bummed to have only a few pages of action before it was just over, and it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I am actually interested in what happened after, it was just getting good when the story ended!

It feels like the POV changes chapter to chapter but it doesn’t fully. I wish it fully switched from Joss to Aric’s POVs and back.


*The whole “we’ve learned everything about the body to learn how to kill it and now we can heal” was a stretch. 180 dead, 150 beheadings…. I don’t think these people are really doing much with the information about the human body. Besides that claim, I actually thought the plot was very interesting.

This is a action filled, unique fantasy read about Joss, a female executioner, who also has a kind heart who one day finds Aric a man brutally left beaten on the side of the road. She decides to take him home and help him heal, however whilst he stays secrets unravel about who he is and what he was doing before Joss found him.

I loved the executioner angle it was a really interesting, unique spin on a strong-female lead and I liked reading about the world building and executioner ""laws". I did think that although this was short it sometimes was repetitive I wish some parts could have been developed more especially the relationship between Joss and Aric; however as this is going to be a series I hope this will happen in future books. This is quite dark compared to most YA fantasy books and I think it will be a big hit - I just wish it was a bit longer so themes could develop more.

This was a good book. The world building and characters were great. I was entertained with this and want to read the next two books when they come out.
I just reviewed All the Dark Souls by A. M. Dunnewin. #AlltheDarkSouls #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]