This was a perfectly enjoyable fantasy read, but somehow it just didn't make it past enjoyable. It haD a lot of things I like in a fantasy book, in terms of the types of character, alternating POV with characters' stories converging, but it just didn't grab me.

It took me a while to get into the story, but once I did I felt like the story moved along pretty well.
I don't think this is planned to be a series, and the ending was satisfying enough for that.l, so I would recommend it if you're after a quick YA fantasy hit without the commitment of a multi-book series.
I gave this one 2.5 stars.

You know when you start a book, and you don't like the characters, and nothing pulls you into the plot to keep your attention--then that it probably isn't the book for you. This is exactly my experience with Wings Unseen.

Being a sucker for great book covers, I naturally picked this up. Seeing a three-headed bird beast, in combination with an alluring title, and an action-packed synopsis, I was ready to be swept away into a new fantasy world.

As we take a step into the world of the warring nations of Medua and Lansera, one thing is immediately apparent: Vesperi is a not a nice person. Detestable, more like. So detestable, in fact, that I couldn't get the bad taste out of my mouth that she left there. Here's why. She'd always resort to sexual manipulation to get what she wanted. It was in her internal and external machinations, and she was downright crude. Here's a few examples:

"Too old to make bedding him fun but not man enough to beat her badly."

"She had more pressing matters to attend to than pondering what advantage untying his breeches might bring."

There were more. But I just...don't want to waste my time taking down quotes from a book that I know I won't be finishing.

I liked the fact that the book worked from different point-of-views. I'm assuming that a three-headed bird will show up somewhere, somehow. The animal-like-creature-human-things referenced in the first chapter were...curious, to say the least. I really wish I could have had an opportunity to go further into this book, but Vesperi made that impossible for me.

Vulgarity: There wasn't any swearing, but derogatory language used specifically towards women.
Sexual Content: I believe I missed the memo where it is suddenly deemed as "OK" to use explicit language in YA books. This book definitely crosses some lines for me (examples provided above), including the word, "cock." This is probably another one of those mislabeled "YA books" that should be NA.
Violence: Minimal.

I will not be assigning a star review as I did not finish reading this book.

A big thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!

The author clearly is very passionate about the world that she's built - you can tell in the writing that she knows the rules of the universe she's created. There are are enough elements of "otherness" (objects and creatures that do not exist in our world) to speak to strong world building. That being said, she fluctuates between "fiction", "YA" and "children's" to such degrees that I couldn't get a grasp as to what the target audience was, if any.

This is the first book in years that I was unable to finish. Halfway through the book, I didn't care about the characters or the predictable plot enough to look forward to reading it, and the fact that the book was still "unread" filled me with dread instead of excitement.

I really really enjoyed this book. I read it in one sitting while flying from coast to coast. It was pretty enjoyable. I loved the characters and the way the story flowed. It was super intriguing. Really excited for what this author has next!

DNF
I'm not going to lie I really didn't try that hard with this book. But if a book can't even remotely grab me within the first few chapters then it's just not going to happen.
The first chapter was kind of interesting but nothing really attention grabbing. I was basically skimming and that's not a good sign.
Even the attempts at building suspense, making the reader question what is happening failed with me. I didn't really care what Serra's brother did to make him a traitor.
Chapter two the POV was kind of confusing and it wasn't until the end of the chapter that it was clear who's POV the chapter was being written from, yes it says who under the chapter number but a reader should be able to know who's POV it is without that.
Maybe it's my own fault for requesting this arc before I knew more. I mean it's definitely partly at fault at least, but I don't fancy wasting too much time on a book I'm not really interested in.

Combine "And I Darken" by Kiersten White and "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir and you get Wings Unseen by Rebecca Gomez Farrell.

Wings Unseen got off to a slow start with a first chapter that almost made me put the book down. However, I am glad I kept reading. I loved watching how a character that repulsed me on the first page transformed into someone I was rooting for, and she was just one of many fascinating characters.

Characters were one of many things I liked about this book.

The juxtaposition of two opposite realms was a fascinating way to explore gender roles, the relationship between the people and the government, and what people can come to accept as normal.

The world was exquisitely developed and describe with language that was beautiful and readable.

Once I got past the first quarter of the book, the pace picked up and suspense made me want to keep reading. The romance subplot was not what I expected, and near the middle of the book, when combined with the pacing the way the writer alternated between pov’s, made me want to cry, yell, or throw the book across the room.

Even though I wanted the characters to take different paths, but the end, the author convinced me they had made the right choice, and the emotions I experienced mid book were probably just a smidgen of what the characters would feel were this real.

Overall, it was worth read, and I would reccomend it to anyone who likes epic fantasy and has patience for a book that burns slowly.

I was given an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

In the end, I loved this book and give it high marks. It is very creative and the story was fresh and new. The characters were believable and likeable. It is an epic 'good versus evil' story and would be interesting for both young and adult readers. I would buy this book again. It is in the genre of "The Hunger Games" or "The Maze Runner" or the "Legend" series. But new and different. Anyone who enjoyed those series will really enjoy this book!

My one criticism of the book was that the story did not flow as well in the beginning of the book. I found that the author's idiom of naming every animal and plant a new and exotic name detracted from the book. Once the body of the story started, I no longer had problems with this.

It was a great read and I look forward to reading new books by the author!

How to summarize this?.........

Welcome to Lansera and Medua. These two places used to be one before they were separated, putting the bad people in Medua and the nice ones in Lansera.
Veseri lives in Medua. She’s the daughter of Lord Sewyll. As a woman in Medua, she has no rights. She basically belongs to her father and should be spending her days in the kitchen with all the other women.
But Vesperi doesn’t like to keep her mouth shut and do what’s expected of her, and her father, to keep her out of his hair gives her “some freedom”. It actually helps that Veseri can reduce someone to ashes with just a wave of her fingers; though no one but her knows it.
In Lansera, the prince, Janto, is about to get married to Serra but first, he has to go do his Murat (some kind of weird ritual thing that make boys grow into men I guess?).
As she waits for her betrothed to come back from his Murat, Serra is asked to go to a convent of sorts, where she finds out she has a weird ass destiny.
Our three characters turn out to be linked in more ways than one and have to find a way to get along to save the world and shit.

I mostly enjoyed this. I had A LOT of trouble getting into it but once I was, I had a great time and flew through the chapters.
The characters were well painted and even if it took me some time to get attached to both Serra and Janto, they grew on me.
At first, I was living for the Vesperi chapters who I immediately fell for. But I found them to be too rare and short.
There were a couple clichés but they didn’t really bother me.
What did bother me was that the romance was central to the story but seemed rushed; like it was just an afterthought. I didn’t really feel what the characters were supposed to feel…

All in all, a classic-ish story set in an interesting but enraging world with loveable characters.

2.5 stars

Why was Janto part of the threeheads? I never fully understood what his purpose was. To me it came across that he was supposed to be the brain behind the quest, and Serra and Vesperi were the tools. I actually could have done without Janto, and have the two girls be even more at the forefront, showing how badass they are.

The switch from marriage between Janto and Serra, to falling out of love, wasn't fully convincing to me. The love between them felt to real to fall apart like that. And their interest to shift to others.

While well written, I just wasn't fully convinced by the story and characters.

It is so difficult to find intelligent writing today - especially in the young adult genre. The majority of what I read in YA could easily be classified as Intermediate Reading with the lower vocabulary choices. Imagine my surprise and delight to find a YA title that leans more toward adult.

I have been an avid fan of fantasy books for as long as I can remember and I rather enjoyed this story. The characters are engaging and the author's attention to detail in building her world shows. A definite recommend.

The beginning of the book failed to pull me in. I just couldn't get into the book, even though I tried. It just...didn't work with me.

Reading that blurb, I was very interested in this book. A multi-POV fantasy novel set in a different world with a unique belief system and an ancient prophecy that involves the protagonists – that is a concept I am fond of. But you know why I gave this book 2 stars? Because it disappointed me in all the points that I judge fantasy books on. It took me 10 days(!) to finish this 320 page book, which I felt was a lie because this felt like reading 600+ pages to me. I kid you not, I checked TWICE to confirm that it is indeed 320 pages (since I have an e-copy to read). Even 600 page novels haven’t dragged on as much as this one has, and I hate it.

Firstly, remember that unique fantasy world I was excited about? Well, I would have appreciated it a lot more if I knew what meant what. Within the first quarter of the novel itself, concepts, peoples and characters are dropped en masse, expecting the reader to know what they mean or who they are. And yes, I went to check whether it really was the first book of the series and I am not missing some important exposition somewhere. There is no glossary for the terms at the end, either! If you are going to introduce your own made-up words, at least give readers the courtesy of telling what they are through a glossary if not through the story. Basically, I was lost 50% of the time while reading this novel (the other 50% I was skimming through the text, but I’m getting to that soon)

The characters are, in a word, boring. Farrell tries to make them more than one-dimensional, but that effort fizzles out pretty soon. Vesperi felt like she might have some interesting POV to read through, but in second half it is mostly berating herself for becoming soft and blaming the Lanserims. Janto and Serra are yawn-inducing – honestly, if I was Vesperi, I would have smoked them into ashes a few days in. And then the plot tries a love triangle with these three, never mind that there was never any development on either side. I mean, I see how it would make sense (as a reader ruminating on the possibilities of the direction of the plot) but there is no actual plot to support it. Time jumps everywhere, so one scene Serra is nearly attacking Vesperi and a few pages later, she is comforting her. Character development, RIP, because your ghost did all that stuff in lost off-page time.

And as much as I crib about things missing from the book, I still don’t understand how this managed to be so long. It is a conundrum. I can’t distinctly remember what exactly made it so long, besides a vague recollection of some rite of passage, a bizarre initiation, some half-hearted backstory, and a ridiculous plan to take down a kingdom. The writing was also – uh, weird, is all I can say; when I try to visualize the scenes (as I often do), it became difficult to do so. The scenes were choppy, with no flow and the ending left me confused – WHAT ABOUT THE CLAREN? (I almost swore at this point) By the time the epilogue rolled around, I was like – what the heck, just end this book! Not picking up the sequel, because one confusing book was enough for me.

Wings Unseen is a debut novel by Rebecca Gomez Farrell about a kingdom that is prophecied to be saved by three heroes: a slayer, a seer, and a weapon. And, as the unlikely characters come together and submit to the pressure of destiny, a rather standard but well-executed plot unfolds.
The setting is Lansera, once huge, now split into Medua, which is dying under the tyranny of religious fanatics and oppression the likes of which you only see on the evening news. There are no doubts about morality here, Meduans are portrayed as horrible people that treat women like furniture, flay friends for fun (a good alliterative pastime is always key!), and are just evil in general.
Lanserim, though, are kind, welcoming, and would never run around and hurt you, unless it's for the prophecy.
As strange occurences fill the land three POV characters have to come together: Janto, a gentle prince; Serra, his betrothed; and Vesperi, a mean young woman, whose whole life was miserable, because everybody in Medua is miserable because Medua is evil.

This is some pretty typical genre fare with a few Chosen Ones, magical creatures (a silver stag!), and some reaaaally basic look at gender roles (Lanserim treat women the way like people, Meduans treat them like North Korean government treats North Koreans, no deep musings there). But it's written competently, it's not overly long, and the action, while surprisingly sparse, is always fun. It is quite impressive, though, just how easily Farrell does three different, distinct characters.

The problems are present as well, though.
A) The characters are varied, the POVs are barely so. Once the trio converges it gets increasingly tough to tell who is leading the chapter as everybody gets pretty equal "screen time", so it doesn't really feel vital to give each character separate chapters.
B) The fourth POV, which was so brief, inconsequential, and aimless that one would be forgiven to see it slip their mind at the end of the book. See, about halfway through we get 2-3 chapters from the perspective of some villain mook. These do nothing to humanize him, they don't progress the plot in some unique way, and they definitely didn't justify their existence. Trimming those would do wonders for the book, especially considering that his plotline could barely even be classified as such.
C) The ending is super rushed. Farrell spends about 20% of the book setting up the world with dozens of new phrases and names, as well as namechecking events that are never expanded on (not that they needed to be). Because of all this worldbuilding the start of the book feels more like a chore. This is remedied rather fast as Janto's Murat begins, but up to that point it's all quite dreary. This leads to the problematic pace at the climax, as the "big battle" takes up less space than Serra's mind-numbing adventures with the Brothers. There is barely any true lead-up as the characters just suddenly go "BTW, let's go visit this place and save the world, yeah?". This robs the climax of some gravitas and makes it seem as if the book was mean to be longer/split into two novels. Either way, unfortunate, as the climax itself is fun, if formulaic.
D) The lovestories were a tad unnecessary, honestly. Especially that of Serra, she seemed just fine without it and tacking it on as an epilogue just seems kind of disrespectful to the character.

Overall, this is nothing extraordinary, but if you're a fantasy fan itching for a well-executed stand-alone novel that won't take up too much of your time - give this a try!

I DNF'd this book at about a third of the way through, unfortunately. I just didn't find it that interesting.

Unfortunately, I will not continue reading this book as it fails to hold my attention.

I feel like I am being thrown into a world that is described too quickly and with too much information thrown at the reader in too little time. Within a paragraph, multiple characters with varying relationships to each other and other characters will be introduced and there is no time for me as the reader to actually process the information I have been given.

I often found myself dreading to actually go back to this book because of it and have decided to stop reading at 18%. This is usually not something I do. I always finish a book I start, but I don't want this particular reading experience to influence the rest of my reading, so I am making the decision to stop.

I started reading Wings Unseen after coming from a high that was the previous book I've read, and I picked it up cause it's an ARC and I had to read it and submit my review before the book comes out. So it did take me a while to get into it. But once I did, man was it good.....

Once upon a time some evil men did not like the kingdom they lived in (Lansera). It was a nice kingdom and the evil men couldn't be properly evil in it so they started a war and tried to claim as much of the kingdom for themselves as possible. After a long war and many, many casulties the ruler of the nice kingdom (again, Lansera) couldn't stand to see all those people murdered so he signed a treaty with the evil men that granted them a kigdom of their own (Medua).

Now, two generations later, the evil men in Medua are planing a new way to take over Lansera for good. And it will take three unlikely heroes (Janto, Serra & Vesperi) to stop them.

So get ready for a dashing fantasy adventure full of love, regret, weird acting people of Medua, glowing ghosts, some even weirder customs, unseen wings, and quite possibly, maybe a happily ever after, but who could tell??? Guess you'll have to see for yourself

I really enjoyed this book. The story line kept me entertained. I will suggest this book to patrons of my library.

Well for a book with a really strong start, this sure did fall flat. First I was lured in by that gorgeous cover, then I read the enticing synopsis and finally I read the delectable sample chapters- I was ready to go! Unfortunately, my excitement for this was short-lived. I feel like a lot of work went into that intro… and after that… nothing much happened. And then cos nothing really happened, I got bored. And because I was bored I started to nitpick. Still the book didn’t technically do anything wrong, it just didn’t do anything right. And since I don’t want to be all hypercritical about this I’m gonna try to not let that take over this review… so for that reason this’ll probably be very short.

Like I said, in terms of plot, this was very underwhelming. Unless you’re really into hunting trips, this was very much a s-l-o-w burner. There really wasn’t sufficient drama until 70% of the way in- when the *big reveal* happened- and even that was very predictable. It took too long for things to happen, after a really strong start. By the time the plot picked up, I’d lost interest.

The world building was colourful and refreshingly different. I also thought the “three heads” was a half decent idea- yet it wasn’t clever enough to stand on its own two feet and really depended on the three main characters being compelling. However… this is what we got instead: Vesperi, the most intriguing character, but not exactly likeable; Serra, mildly sympathetic, but too bland to hold my interest; and Janto… well as far as I could tell, his sole characteristic was that he was a prince.

Then there was the romance … I didn’t buy it. Not for any of them. To be honest, this comes down to the fact that if I’m not invested in the characters, I won’t give a monkeys about the romance. So making it a love triangle didn’t really matter to me, because I didn’t care which direction it took. And (spoiler warning) really, I know I said I wouldn’t nitpick, can we please all agree that in a non-romance novel closing on a kiss is naff?

Rating: 2½/5 bananas