I went into this looking for a light YA fantasy novel, and to a certain extent it fulfilled this criteria. However, I really struggled feeling any kind of emotional tug whatsoever about this story, whether one way or another.

Wilona has been raised alone by her grandmother her whole life, segregated from the nearby village and believing her parents are dead. Until one evening, while picking berries, she's interrupted by guards - an event which will trigger an adventure to self discovery, and the downfall of a tyrannical ruler.

I found the writing itself rather simplistic, and the world building itself was extremely lacking in places. It's implicated that there are several different lands or continents - Winona's mother is from a different country, however most of them are never elaborated on, which I felt was a missed opportunity. We are also never really given a greater explanation to the magic system used within the world, and I felt. A little more time spent explaining things would have been beneficial.

The pacing was good, and we are quickly swept into the action. However, I felt this came at a detriment to the story at times. After just a couple of pages of introduction, we are meant to be so invested in these characters already (for example Saffron) that when they bare their soul, and speak about the horrific deeds the Necromancer king has done to them and their families, we're suppose to care. Without any real emotional depth and understanding, and a lengthier understanding of previous events, I felt I couldn't really bring myself to be that bothered.

As a main character, Wilona was able to carry the plot well. However, I had issues with her ability to just mindlessly accept everything she is told and reach the same conclusions as complete strangers after one conversation. The plot itself was also very similar to other fantasy novels - including the romance element, which came across as very cliched. As with all fantasy novels of late, this suffers the same fate as other 'trilogies' in that there also wasn't any definitive conclusion. As stated before in reviews, this is a major bugbear of mine.

That all said, this was still an entertaining read which managed to keep me engaged enough to read to the end. I'll possibly pick up the sequel.

I really, really wanted to like this one but it fell short for me. The story had a lot of promise but there were some issues I had with the editing and they kept pulling me out of the story. The pacing was also a pain point for me as there were parts that dragged for me and other parts where I felt like I missed something.

I did like the characters and thought between the king, the White Ravens, and Wilona, there is a great story here. I might check out the next book just to see what happens next but we'll see.

<b>Rating:</b> 3 stars

<i>Heir of Illaria</i> is everything you can expect from a YA fantasy book. In a new, unique fantasy world, our female protagonist has always lived her life as a normal villager until a certain event. She turns into this special snowflake and has to save the world. Oh, and of course a love interest appears as well. We can't forget the romance.

I personally am a sucker for clicheness (sometimes), which is why I <i>did</i> enjoy this first installment. However, I can see lots of people becoming annoyed while reading this book because of the predictability of the storyline.
Moreover, the characters and romance weren't the best written ones but frankly, I could oversee its flaws and still enjoy reading about them.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read but it was nothing special.