Interesting new book set in the world of seraphina and dragon scale. Tess is initially very unlikable, but i thought that made her character development even more noteworthy. I definitely hope there’s a follow-up.

My apologies but I could not finish Tess of the Road; while it is well-written, I eventually gave up as nothing seemed to really be happening.

This was the type of book that I wanted to fall in love with especially with such a beautiful cover.  It just was not for me.  There was no pull for my personal interest and I couldn't read it.  While I usually love Medieval inspired stories, this just did not appeal to me.  Maybe I'm a little tired of such a setting with some other books I've started to read lately.  I do hope that somebody else finds their love for this book.

It's hard to know where even to begin with <i>Tess of the Road</i>, a flawed-but-stupendous novel set in the same world as the glorious <i>Seraphina</i>. Tess is the hero of her story in her own mind, and is selfish and horrible to the rest of the world. It feels so real-to-life that it makes for a difficult read. I'm not sure I understand why Hartman chose the story beats she did, but I was bewitched by the prose. For the time it took me to read, I lived in this world, walking the road with Tess, cheering her moments of introspection/growth and dreading as she slid backwards again. Read this if you grew up on traditional fairytales and adventure, or if you're sick of the defining trait of Strong Female Characters(TM) being "she's just not like other girls". Read this if you're wondering how YA fantasy can engage brilliantly with grief, faith, guilt, and self-definition. <i>Tess of the Road</i> will probably be a highly polarizing read, but worth picking it up and seeing if it ends up sneaking into your heart.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley.
Here is the thing I was one of the readers whom absolutely loved Seraphina but unfortunately it can’t be said about Tess of the road. 
The writing style is really similar to the one that author used in her debut novel and while I enjoyed it there, because it simply worked with Seraphina’s story, I still like it with it terse edge and lush atmosphere, the whole thing just doesn’t fit with this plot. A plot that started out great and promising but quite quickly turned into something boring and dragged out. There are a lot of underlying thing going on behind the actual events but all of this just not enough to keep me engaged. I had a really hard time to keep progress with this story even so I was quite excited for it. For such a long book there are just too little dynamic and driving things happening in it.
I really liked Tess character and not because she is a likeable one but because she is different, completely different from the usual YA characters. She is relentless, curious, has an inquiring mind and stubborn. She is a rebel in her time, acts rashly and sometimes even irrationally but that’s exactly why her character was so attracting to me. Even if usually this kind of personality would annoy me to hell. Her character development didn’t exactly went as I hoped it would go but it still was the only reason I finished the book and didn’t DNF it.
It was a shame really because I generally like the author style but I also think that this world she writes her stories in, is not complex enough to be the set for so many and such long stories. But that’s just my opinion.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review. 

Tess of the Road was not the dragon-fantasy-work that I was expecting from the author of Seraphina. I was hoping to delve deeper into the people of the Southlands, saars and political conspiracies. I sought an adventurous light but well-developed read. Instead, at a semi-torturous pedantic pace ToTR was imbued with the hero/journey archetypes of classic literature. I give it 2.5 stars for story content and reader engagement...then rounded up for prose (Rachel Hartman can write!). 

Seventeen year old Teresa, “Tess,” is a typical gothic hero-misunderstood, deeply unhappy with a tragic past.  She runs away from home and embarks on a journey (pilgrimage) seeking penance and identity. At times her self-pity over past mistakes and character flaws is overbearing but her guilt and self-doubt is strangely relatable. In this way she is a refreshing YA heroine. I’m not sure that I always liked her, but I did admire and respect her. 

The flow of the story bothered me. I generally prefer a linear plot to the odessey-esque flashbacks where the majority of the “action” occurred. In addition to stretching out and then winding back on itself ( much like a road) The various uses of “road” (road literal, road as life, road as journey, spiritual road) made the story heavy and too philosophical for my taste. Each of Tess’ encounters along her road was so brief yet compelling, I felt that I was getting robbed of the chance to really make their acquaintance.  Even so, I could appreciate the many intentional metaphors that shape Tess’ story. 

<spoiler> By making the conscious decision to “walk on” every day and every instance Tess finally reaches self actualization at the end of her 9month journey. She is reborn, no longer a child (turned 18), and finally recovering from her rape/infant’s death. She finds enlightenment, “vocation” as she termed it. </spoiler>

I asked for this book on NetGalley without knowing that it was the spin off of Seraphina, and even though it did not bother me for understanding the story, I came out disappointed.

I must say that the construction of the universe is rather well done, there are dragons in this universe, some can take the appearance of humans, others have smaller and reptilian forms, others are giant and I, who loves dragons, have been happy with it. I want to reassure those who have not read the Seraphina's duology, it is quite simple to delve into this universe, especially as the book have many similitude with the 17th century.

Tess, the heroine, is the sister of Seraphina, impulsive, she is the ugly duck of her family because of her behavior. Following an accident, she goes on the road and the book revolves around her personal journey. Tess is a character who has a thirst for knowledge, and that is a bothers in a society where women are just stooges. She is a character who also sacrificed a lot for her family and who in return did not have much recognition for what she did or lived. I think that some will find her very superficial at first, but we will discover her fragility and suffering and she becomes more human.

Where I'm disappointed is in the plot, I found this book an incredible length and most of the time too slow and I think that those who knew the universe we found it worse. However, I find that the book has important and appreciative feminist sides, but I came out of my reading by thinking that we were at the same place as at the beginning. The end announces a sequel and unfortunately, I do not think I will read it because of my impression of this first volume.

Amazing book. The writing is amazing and the storyline even more. I really enjoyed it and I felt really happy whilst reading it.

I picked up this book because of the cover and because "girls dresses up as a boy and runs away" is a trope that will catch my attention every time. I have not read Seraphina and so had no idea what I was getting into, but it was not necessary -- I followed along with the worldbuilding fine. There were clearly characters and references to the Seraphina novels that I would have recognized if I had read them, but not knowing them beforehand didn't detract from the story. 

Tess is a strong character, with a ton of flaws and a traumatic backstory that we don't learn the full extent of until close to the end of the book. Hartman deals excellently with issues of underage pregnancy, sex- and body-shaming parents & societies, drinking as a coping mechanism, coercive sex, coping with trauma, cultures with varying gender roles & expectations, disability, etc. Tess is loveable in her flaws and her feelings, and her attempts to dissociate herself from traumatic memories are presented realistically and relatably. When she finally does have the strength to deal with her past, there is no magical cure-all that makes everything 'all better,' but instead an acknowledgement that life & recovery & hope are things we have to work on in order to survive. 

Highly recommended, and I will definitely be going back to pick up the Seraphina duology now as well.

When I read this book, I did not know that it was a companion novel to the Seraphina duology. I also almost didn't finish this book. It was just a hard one to read. It's a "slow-burn" kind of read, or at least it was for me. I still gave it three stars because at the end of it, I was satisfied with it. But at the beginning, I was frustrated.

Tess's character drove me a little nuts. I mean, she's a little bit of a brat, but thankfully that was explained later in the book (albeit wayyy later). Tess is all over the place, rebellious, and seems to find trouble everywhere she goes. Her family has had enough of it and plan to send her off to the nunnery to have the "trouble" schooled out of her. In pure Tess character, she takes off on the road, dressed as a boy and with a quigutl (subspecies of dragon) by her side. What I did like about Tess is that she was unapologetically different. She is who she is, flaws and all, and she stands her ground.

I got past the frustration with Tess. What I could not get past, was the quigutl. I couldn't stand him/her/whatever. It was like an itch that just wouldn't go away. He was selfish, controlling, and manipulative. AND HE'S NOT EVEN THE BAD GUY.

Of course, there isn't technically a "bad guy" in the story, more like a "bad system." People are ignorant as always and scared of what they don't understand.

Now, I'll tell you the full reason as to why it got three stars. Yes, I was satisfied with the ending. Even more, there was a whole other lesson to be understood in the story that she hints at from the beginning. It was something that should be talked about. I can't really tell you what it is without revealing a major spoiler, but just understand that I was surprised by it, it wasn't at all what I had expected.

I plan on reading the Seraphina books and I'm hoping that after reading those, this book will be more to me than it is. I'm hoping to gain more understanding of this world that I threw myself into rather blindly. Do you NEED  to read the Seraphina books to read Tess of the Road? No. But I recommend it. I felt there was a lot more to the story that I missed out on.

But for now.. I'm good with how it ended. I'm okay being left wondering "what happens next." It's a satisfying end to an alright book.

The cover is what originally roped me in. I didn’t have any experience with Rachel Hartman’s previous works, but I thought I’d give TESS OF THE ROAD a shot. It wasn’t for me. I stopped reading pretty early on because I felt the story was bogged down with descriptions and the third person POV wasn’t the most exciting.

I'd heard nothing but great things about Rachel Hartman's Seraphina series and her unique take on dragons. But having not read her previous duology, I had to find out whether this was a detached new series or a continuation. Reading the first books is supposedly not necessary. I find that debatable because I endured a long time trudging through the dark in this book's fantasy world.

The first chapter was funny and weird. It was a flashback to Tess's younger stages as she tricked her sister and cousin into playing wedding. I found it amusing because I and my group of friends did the same thing in second grade: faked a wedding between my friend and a sweatshirt. (There was someone singing opera in the background and even a "priest")

I laughed at Tess's affinity for disaster, tendency to wreak havoc, and unluckiness. She was clumsy in those first pages, and I was really loving her. She was a character with a lot of potentials, and I thought I was likely going to enjoy reading about her. I was also excited about a MC in Fantasy with Tess's past. After disregarding all of her mother's rules and falling in love with a boy, she had become pregnant years before, but she hadn't kept the baby I'm not sure why. This was an interesting aspect of the novel. 

However, as the book progressed, the plot really didn't. I was reading pages and pages, great chunks of the book, but I still felt like NOTHING was happening.

I DNFed at 217 pages, well into the book already, but literally, the last five chapters have been a huge tangle of flashbacks, pointless descriptions, and unnecessary, extensive writing in general. I kept reading and reading but still felt like I was being told nothing important (while too many useless things instead).

While Tess of the Road is very well written (rich in synonyms for the plain old words and filled with complex sentences), the author had an inclination towards wandering off all. the. time and it was just plain boring myself to death. I could not push myself to read anything more, which is a real pity because I don't feel like I know what the story actually is about, even if I am 200 pages into the novel.

The plot was bland and fuzzy. It confused the reader and it wasn't clear where the story was going. That's the problem. It's aimless. 

Rating Report

Plot: 1/5 stars
Writing: 3/5 stars
Characters: 2/5 stars
World Building: 2/5 stars
Pacing: 1/5 stars

Overall: 2 stars, mostly because of the new vocabulary.

I enjoyed this read during the first two chapters.  Tess was scrappy, inquisitive and full of mischief.  Amazing qualities for a young main character.  I just knew her character would develop into someone worth following.  Yet, as the chapters continued her character wilted, her fire diminished.  I get it she made mistakes, and everyone seemed to dislike her for them.   I just cringed when she began to believe them.  Moving forward from the seemingly reversal of her character strengths,  I suspiciously began to wonder.  "Ok, so where are all the dragons?"  The introduction of this gender fluid lizard-ish creature/childhood friend/moral compass was a poor substitute and simply just too much for even my imagination.  DNF @35%.   At this point I could not rustle myself to pick it up again.  Maybe it gets better, maybe there are more dragons later but I ended it there.

Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman is about Tess, the rambunctious sister of Seraphina from the Seraphina books. Tess is always getting in trouble and not as well-liked as her sisters, and her parents want to put her in a nunnery. Of course, Tess runs away, and an adventure ensues.

This isn't a typical runaway adventure book, though. Tess of the Road is a slow read where Tess literally just goes from place to place, all the while haunted by her past. I thought her travels were very lackluster, but her backstory was honestly so impressive that it boosted this rating up 2 stars. She's such a unique character from what I'm used to for many reasons (which I can't really get into because this isn't out yet), but I'm obsessed. There were so many things I'd never seen before with a 16-18 year old female protagonist in young adult books. 

If you're reading this for dragons, prepare to be disappointed. There really weren't any. The ones that were there were so humanoid, which was super disappointing. 

I've also never read the original Seraphina books. I still got the gist of things though, and you can definitely read this without the originals! I'm sure I'd get more little things in the book, but nothing too important was referenced where I was like, "What the f is this???

From the winter 2018 issue of home/school/life magazine, "8 New Books for Your Winter Reading List:" Return to the kingdom of Goredd with this new book from the author of Seraphina, which focuses on one of the half-dragon heroine’s human half sisters. In a world where women are second-class citizens valued for their virtue, Tess trades life in a nunnery for an adventure of her own.

In another pre-reader review that I saw floating around on Goodreads, a reviewer argued that "Tess of the Road" had no plot. I couldn't disagree more. Though Tess's story lacked a capital-v villain and end of the world-esque stakes, "Tess of the Road" was a surprisingly refreshing look at trauma and recovery. And that should be enough. The arc of the story is the journey of a young woman's healing as she rages against the double standards of rape culture in a society where a woman's value is equated to her reproductive worth. I loved the interwoven narrative of past and present. Also, dragons. I never read "Seraphina," but I might have to give it a try if "Tess of the Road" is any indication.

Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman, is an emotional YA fantasy set in a medieval land filled with dragons. A coming-of-age tale, it is the story of a young girl who is faced with choices and challenged by adventure. What she chooses is opposite of what is expected; she is a protagonist who will forge her own, new path. 

The step-sibling of Seraphina, who starred in Hartman's previous novel, Tess of the Road returns to The Southlands but has a different focus. That focus is often a darker one, and the mood of Tess's prose is filled with bitter emotion that falls away in layers to reveal a character who shines despite her flaws. An authentic character in a fantastic world, Tess will strike an answering chord with many young readers. By the novel's end, Tess is set to move forward on a new adventure with her dragon friend Pathka - and has become a stronger young woman as a result of her enduring - and growing - independent spirit.

It's such a joy to return to the world of Seraphina, which is as complex and interesting as ever. This book is at times slow, but is extremely rewarding, and Tess is a great character. It's made me desperately want to re-read Seraphina and Shadow Scale, and I can't wait to read the sequel to this one.

There were a lot of great things about this book: the ideas, the perspective, Hartman's prose, returning to the land of Goredd . . . but unfortunately I had the same problem with Tess of the Road as I did with Shadow Scale. A lot of journey and not that much happening. I would still recommend people read the book, because I liked it, but it was just . . . really . . . dense. I found I could only get through a little bit each day and it took me a while to finish. I appreciated the way Hartman portrayed Tess, and the unflinching honesty in which she dealt with the subject matter, but the story around it was slow-going.