****I was given an advanced copy from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine via NetGalley for an honest review.****
As Callie Bates's debut novel, the premise was very promising. Kingdoms at war, a main character with magic she must keep hidden for fear of persecution, who then must run for her life or be killed. I loved everything the synopsis promised. Not only that, but the book started out really strong - it immediately grabbed my attention.
That being said, there were some issues that made this book average.
The good:
The context. Eren and Caeris are two nations at war. The Ereni king kidnaps Elanna at a young age and raised her for 14 years. Elanna remembers Caeris, but feels loyalty to Eren, as the king treated her like a daughter. So when the Ereni king is murdered, and Elanna is accused of it, she must flee to Caeris.
This is where things get less than stellar.
The bad:
Elanna meets up with people she knew from Caeris, and her feelings bounce back and forth quickly, and often without much explanation.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book continues in much the same way.
Elanna clearly has mixed feelings about her homeland and family, and still feels loyalty for Eren, so her train of thought is usually scattered and chaotic, which makes for a bumpy read.
At other times, the book was simply not that interesting, because it's mostly Elanna trying to decide what she wants to do, how she feels, and the best way to get what she wants.

Overall, I think Bates has promise, she just needs time to solidify her writing style, and craft stronger, more three-dimensional characters.

The Waking Land is a pretty standard entry into the YA fantasy pantheon of stories: there's a girl with powers she has to learn to accept and control, two possible love interests (but the reader can easily tell which one is the only choice not that far into the book), seeming betrayals, reversals of fortunes, etc.

There's nothing overtly objectionable about the story. The issue is that we've read it all before - this could have easily been a Tamora Pierce book (which is no insult, her tales are amazing).

Fantasy fans will read this book and find some enjoyment in it, but with nothing particularly noteworthy to chew on, forget about it afterwards. I would recommend The Waking Land as an additional purchase for library collections.

**3.75 stars rounded up**
I really wish we had half stars to use at least. This one was difficult for me to nail down for a rating. I don't think it's really a solid 4 stars but not 3 either so somewhere in between.

That said, I did enjoy the book. I thought the plot was unique and the world building was decent. The characters were my main issue. There is a bit of a lack of depth in some of the supporting characters that I feel could have used a little more development. However, my main problem was with Elanna. She seemed a bit... well, flaky at times. She clearly had Stockholm's in the beginning but she changed her beliefs every time someone told her something. She went from hating her father to loving him as soon as she saw him to almost indifference when he died as well as from hiding and fearing her magic to loving it with no real in between. There was also A LOT of repetition, especially in her inner monologues. She didn't want to fight in a war for her dad, she wanted to run away, then it was steward of the land and born for this over and over. This book does have its redeeming qualities tho. Despite my irritation with the characters at times, the action kept me invested in the story. I needed to know what was going to happen, will their small band of revolutionaries win or lose and at what cost? I also liked the mythology woven into the story, especially about the ancestors.

Overall, I think it's a promising start for a first novel and am looking forward to the sequel and to seeing what Ms. Bates comes up with next.

**Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!**

This book hit all the right spots for me: well-rounded world building, intriguing magic use, and a well executed revolution. It kind of has a feel of Tolkien meets the French Revolution. While there were moments when I was kind of tired of our heroine's first-person narrative, overall she grew into her role successfully and was a likable character.

I enjoyed this story. I really liked the characters, for the most part. Elanna was a bit annoying at times but the story was so interesting, I could forgive that a little. It was a little slow to start and the ending was a bit rushed, but otherwise a great read.

I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I only made it to 22%. I found Elanna to be an immature girl who lacked common sense or true initiative. I liked the secondary characters better than the heroine. I wanted to like this one given the blurbs and comparisons. Just not for me.

Oh how difficult this review is for me to write. From the first page it had my interest and you will recognize the gift of writing that author has. However, as I progressed inside the story, it felt weighty and slow and with the first hand perspective not so mature and limiting at times. I can say for many this would be a good as well as interesting story to read, though for me it just did not hold me. I was given this book in return for an honest review. Anna

Book Lovers,

This was an interesting read. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it, it is somewhere in the middle!

A fantasy debut novel, unique with a first love romance tangle with lies and politics and magic!

The book was written so well but there was a few serious issues for me, Too much inner dialog, it keeps the reader from truly fully investing by telling us but not showing us.... It is also too much to have people do things that seem completely unreasonable and unrealistic, unless you are 10 and just make silly choices... Other than that this book was amazing, because it was not the cookie cutter plot. It had enough momentum to push the reader through. It was a bit hard to get through the last part of the book for me, as it seemed to not really hold my attention, but I did complete the book. I am 46, maybe it is just for a younger set. I would put age group at about 8 to 16. This is the correct age group for this book, but I did enjoy it, and the author really has a lot of talent, as this is just her first book and you can see it! I will look for more from her, and to watch her grow as an author will be a true pleasure. Let her know I am personally rooting for her, and to not give up! As soon as I can review on Amazon I will do so!

This has been compared with Uprooted by Naomi Novik as well as author Sarah J. Maas. I liked this book, however, I enjoyed the other two authors stories far more. This for me had a feeling of paint by numbers. Step one, step two, etc. It didn't flow seamlessly. Also, due to sexual content, I wouldn't recommend for those under "new adult" age. That is my personal opinion. Plenty of magic, political intrigue, fighting action and romance. This was enjoyable but didn't capture my heart.

This novel was an interesting read. The author writes in first person point of view for the main character, who has a destiny she is not ready to accept. This novel contains romance, magic, betrayal, hope, action, and adventure.
Lady Elanna Valtai is taken as a child from her home in Caeris due to her father plotting to put the "false-king" on the throne and begin a rebellion. El begins to see the king of Eren as a father, since he treats her better than his own daughter. However, appearances can be deceiving and people see only what they want to see. Eren has been abusing its people for too long. When the king is murdered, El is blamed and she must flee. However, she does not want to return to Caeris. She was brainwashed by the king and his tutors, which makes her appear rather obtuse at times.
She meets Jahan, a man that represents another kingdom, who can get the black ships to aid with the rebellion. He also discovers El's secret ability about magic that she has desperately tried to hid since people believe magic is evil. However, El cannot trust Jahan, for she does not know where his true allegiance lies. Jahan has his own magical abilities that he also hides to avoid the witch hunters.
When El returns to Caeris, she is torn between her past and her destiny. She needs to use her magic to save her people, but she does not understand it completely and needs to look into the past to discover how to save the people of Caeris and Eren. However, the new queen of Eren wants El dead. El will need to work with new allies in order to save the land. However, they are betrayers, even though they hide among friends. El and others know what they need to fight for. However, can they succeed even though they are completely outmatched?

First, let me say that I adore the cover. It's beautiful and serves the story well.
Bates' debut novel is a fantasy rife with magic, love, rebellion, and friendships. It's fairly fast-paced.
My only quibble with the book is that I would have loved more character development, especially some of the secondary characters.
The main character is very young, and this book will easily be a YA crossover.
Fantasy lovers, this one is for you.

Lady Elanna is just what the land ordered to bring her people back to freedom and out of tyranny. Problem is that she fights her calling and has been indoctrinated into believing that the King who raised her was a fair and just leader. Once she returns to her homeland, everything she's known since age five begins to crumble and she learns that not everything is as it appeared. Soon she is faced with the decision to stand with her adopted land of Eren or fight with her people and for the freedom of Caeris. On top of all that, her blood and present awaken the gods and spirits of old and bind her to the land. This is a riveting read and a great epic fantasy. Will definitely purchase for my library for my fantasy-loving patrons. It's also a great crossover read for older YAs.

****Please note that this review contains open spoilers that are protected as such on the Goodreads platform.****

At the outset, let me say that this book has a lot going for it, from its beautiful cover to an interesting magical world, to a heroine that is likable both at the start and at the finish. The first person narrative, however, limits the perspectives we have of this world to the paradigm of a teenage girl and that was a source of plot and character problems for me. Elanna is a teenage hostage, gently held by King Antoine of Eren since she was age five, as a means to force good behavior on Elanna's rebellious father. Raised outside her native duchy she forgets, as she loses touch with her land, her magical heritage. When the king is murdered, and Elanna falsely accused, she makes a run for it and finds out that the world she had been raised in by King Antoine was one based on lies. She runs to her now foreign-to-her homeland and struggles to adjust. I found this aspect of the book quite promising- her reconnection with her land, her heritage, and with parents who are very different from what she remembered or assumed. It was ripe territory for dramatic development. But the path to fulfill that promise wasn't clear. The inconsistent character development of secondary characters was a frustration (more on that below).

As I mentioned, Elanna, the protagonist, is quite likable. She kind, smart, and manages herself well through a series of reversals of fortune and a surprise betrayal (show spoiler:) [by her own mother, who, surprisingly, Elanna still loves, tries to understand and doesn't plan to kill or get revenge from. (Kudos on not following a bad parent trope here!)]. (hide spoiler) But this is where the plot muddies for me. None of the secondary characters seem to have problems with these betrayals, perceived or real, and are just willing to take this teenage girl's word that everything is 'cool,' so to speak. There is no caution generated around two important characters, when they appear to have done the Caerisian rebels great wrong. Everything is forgiven quickly, easily and multiple times. The plot, which goes from here to there to here to there in terms of action, wasn't smoothly developed. I think a better editorial hand might have been beneficial here. The same is true of the world building. I wanted a better sense of Eren and the Ereni people to understand the plight of the Caerisians. All I got is that they were awful and a pack of liars and murderers, except for Guerin, Hensey and Victoire. I'm not even one hundred percent sure why Paladis was so involved in Eren and Caeris affairs. (I do thank the publisher for the map at the start of the book, by the way. It's a helpful addition.)

Beyond the plot and world building, we have the issue of character development. A number of the relationships don't ring true due to lack of development. For instance, Sophy (the girl Elanna's parents basically adopted after Elanna is taken as a hostage by King Antoine) and Elanna have little time to explore their mutual situations. Sophy views Elanna's parents as her own and truly loves them, and Elanna feels what seems to be only fleeting resentment or jealousy over the life this young woman led in what should have been Elanna's place in this duchy. Sophy, who behaves as if she is a person of importance, has her own secrets to keep and we see none of her own resentments of a returned Elanna and what this may mean for her own situation because the book is told from Elanna's first person perspective and Elanna doesn't spend much time analysing Sophy's role as a seeming placeholder for the Duke and Duchess's hostage daughter.

(show spoiler:)
[One of the great missed opportunities of the book was the character of Loyce and her motivations for having her own father murdered. Elanna has lived among the royalty of Eren but doesn't see them accurately and we don't understand much in depth about the relationship between Loyce, Elanna and Antoine. Did Antoine love Elanna more than his own daughter, Loyce? It's implied but we don't have a fully grounded understanding of why that's the case. Obviously, Elanna is a much nicer person and we get that, but why is Loyce so horrible? I would also add that the paper thin quality of character development of Finn also bothered me. He's a "hale fellow, well met" and his father sent him off to recover a throne with a clever sorcerer whose relationship with Finn we still, even at the end, don't fully understand. Here is a character that could have made us feel much more about his abrupt denouement in the story, even if Jahan had revealed to Elanna, upon Finn's passing, the origins of their bonds of attachment. Jahan's failure to protect Finn, after his multiple flips and diversions, is barely dealt with and that failure hangs like a red flag to me because of his ability to throw aside one commitment (Finn) for another (Elanna) so quickly. It's recognized, albeit briefly, but nothing comes of this recognition. Has Jahan learned his lesson? What would this failing mean for Elanna?

Likewise, Denis Falconier and even Elanna's father are rendered almost colorless, all bad or good and ineffectual. It was as if all the secondary character development went into the twice-turncoat character of Lord Gilbert, at the expense of some of the other secondary characters. Bates also spent time developing Victoire as the spirit of resistance and that character is left a loose end, after having been one of Elanna's best friends.

I also have a lot of thoughts about the way the relationship between Elanna and Jahan was developed. This relationship, for all its seeming fire, was stilted and often almost childish when Elanna would interact directly with Jahan. While I can say kudos to the author for not making this a battle about marriage between these two, it was awkward to have them discussing marriage long before there was any obvious affection and clear emotional attachment beyond the normal sexual attraction between a cute guy and a pretty girl. The relationship didn't feel a "real" as I wanted it to, for a long time. There were enough things to be uncertain about in various characters' motivations in this book, and after the initial revelation that Jahan was sort of playing both sides against the middle, their relationship should have been more clear cut so that we are not left wondering as the various other unclear relationships play out.]
(hide spoiler)

All in all, this is a first novel and writers learn as they go. The book would have been stronger with a smoother, better-outlined plot and stronger character development. I feel as if the editor and publisher may not have wanted the page count to go above a certain threshold and that development of the plot and characters may have suffered because of it. In any case, this book reminded me of Patty Briggs' first novel, Masques, which she later rewrote and expanded, in its show of promise in the high fantasy genre. Bates similarly is an author who has a lot of promise. I'd definitely pick up her next book to give it a try.

Great story that kept me up all night. Want more!!

A new fantasy series for YA or older readers, The Walking Lands had quite the unique and interesting magic system! I'd love to learn more about that, and I'm looking forward to the next two books in the trilogy. (But worry not, this one didn't end on a cliffhanger. I hate it when books do that.)

While I did enjoy the story, for some people the first person POV might be an issue. I do wish the author had shown more and told less.

Recommended for people who enjoy fantasy stories and don't mind a subplot of romance.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was pitched on review sites as perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, which meant I was definitely wanted to read it. However, upon finishing the book, I don't know that I'd suggest it to someone antsy after the last Throne of Glass book.

Elanna's been held hostage by a neighboring king for 14 years and has internalized everything they've taught her about her homeland. When the king is killed, Elanna is framed for it and must escape certain death. That escape leads her to the leaders of her homeland rebellion, the people desperate to free Caeris. At first, Elanna's skeptical of their cause, but when she can no longer deny her own magic, she becomes dedicated to the cause. And because it's YA fantasy, there's a romance.

The good: I really like the concept of Caeris as a land-- semi-sentient, guarded, the shifts. I liked that Elanna was, of all things, a botanist, which ties in well to her role in Caeris.

The bad: I had a hard time getting into this, and at times, it felt SO LONG and disjointed. I couldn't work up to caring about the love interest or what would happen to Elanna, because of COURSE she'd come out all right in the end, and she wasn't engaging enough for me as a character. This felt very much like a first book, but I'll still read any sequels.

The premise of the book was well thought out, and the book itself was well-written. The problem that I had with it is that I didn't like the main character at all. I thought she was impulsive, not in a good way, and made some of the poorest choices that I have seen a character make. I didn't find that she grew throughout the story but remained rather static. I really hated that, because I felt that the secondary characters were extremely well-drawn and did grow.

The Waking Lands book was a lovely fantasy novel with great story writing. Elanna, our main character, was portrayed wonderfully and her struggle to find where she belongs was carefully written. She had so much to deal with and the way it all was portrayed was well done, I do wish there was a little more in the world building. The author knew the background and the world really well, but would love to know more about things in this world, maybe more will be shared at another time. A nice read and enjoyable!

I really really liked this book. The only reason I won't give it 5 stars is that it gets a wee bit confusing in the middle- some of the explanations for why things happen and how magic works in this world aren't fully developed. In short, I've read better (and more believable) magic systems but I did enjoy reading this book :)