Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately I have been unable to get into it. DNF @ 23%.

I really wanted to love this but I really struggled with the writing style. It made it really hard for me to get into the book

Can you change fate? What would you risk in order to save the ones you love? Lovers of dark adventure, magic, and following your heart should not let this book slip away.

Can prophecy be overcome, or does striving to avoid fate merely drive you into its arms? Since the day Danny Stone's mother vanished, dreams of dark and strange places have plagued him nightly. Though years have passed, the burning pain of her disappearance still consumes him - as does his need for answers. Then one lazy summer day, Danny and his friends Katrina, Poppy, and Russell discover their parents' long-hidden secret - and their lives change forever.

They enter a fragmented, broken world of magic, blades, and blood in a quest for answers, but the mystery of what happened to Danny's mother only becomes more terrifying - and yet there is hope. But there are other, bigger threats at hand, too, as evil begins to stir and the Oracle's prophesies herald a coming darkness.

It seems that Danny's dreams were only the beginning...

Rise of the Reaper is the first book in an exciting new YA fantasy series by British author Lorna Reid. A perilous quest, filled with magic, blades, and blood. This adventure will make your pulse quicken, even as the shadows begin to stir.

I recieved this ebook from Netgalley for an honest and unbiased review.



This books jumps straight into the action from the get go. Our character's get thrown in to a magical new world that they haven't been there before. There is a vast range of character's. It can be quite confusing at first but once you get your head around them, you will be reading through this book like a bat out of hell.

Lorna's world and character building has to be some of the best I've read for along time. It's so descriptive that it will have your imagination going over time. It's not like your typical generic fantasy world. I'm never going to look at another fantasy book again. This sets a high standard.

This book does have abit of swearing in it (so if you don't like swearing then probably just skip those bits )

If you want start a new YA series then this is the best place to start. I'd highly recommend it. I would give this book a 4.5/5 also the cover is beautiful.

To be honest, this book fell short of just OK for me. The premise is great, but the execution was seriously lacking. Far too much exposition....enough to drown a reader. Combine that with slow pacing and I was praying for a life jacket to be thrown at me.

I really wanted to love this book because the concept sounded awesome, unfortunately, I had some problems with the writing as it had a lot of repetition and long descriptions which caused me to lose interest.

Awesome book. Well written with a great plot and characters. The world building is phenomenal! Lorna Reid is also creative making up a new sport called Aquattrox. We follow 4 teenagers who learn that their parents are warriors that can wield magic. Which in turn thrusts these 4 teens into coping with this info plus starting to dabble in magic themselves. I like what the book is hinting at where it may go, and I can't wait to read the next book! I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Netgalley.

Rise of the Reaper was .. more than I expected it to be. I went into this book with almost a sense of dread, the first few chapters really weren't catching my attention and I was struggling. I almost quit, but my inner book-nerd wouldn't let me. Boy am I glad I kept going. This book is captivating, with beautiful world building and relatable, 3 dimensional characters. This book is perfect for fans of SJM and LB.

This was another one of those books that I just couldn't get into. It happens sometimes. The writing was excellent. It just wasn't my style. I'll try again in a few months. See if maybe I was in a slump. .

This is a well-written fantasy but it’s just not my cup of tea.

Rise of the Reaper: The Broken Lands: Book One by Lorna Reid is a book I wanted to love, but that has greatly disappointed me. The truth is the concept really appealed to me: since Danny’s mother disappeared years ago, he’s desperate to get some answers, and for some reason he keeps having nightmares about a strange place. One day, these answers come when Danny and his friends Katrina, Poppy and Russell discover that their parents have been hiding a big secret for their whole lives: there’s a portal which can take you to another world full of magic, but also full of darkness, and that’s where they’ll have to go if they want to know what happened to Danny’s mother.
I want to make it clear that I only read up to 27% because I was getting quite bored, so the book might get better later, because the idea seemed interesting to me. However, the reasons why I didn’t like it had to do, mostly, with the writing.
To begin with, I think too many characters were introduced all at once, so I was a bit lost because it was difficult for me to remember all their names and who was whose parent, their history, the relationships between them, etc. The descriptions of places were somewhat confusing at parts too and I couldn’t exactly understand where the characters were. As for characters’ descriptions, I thought they were a little over the place and forced – let me explain: there were many instances when a character was listening to others talk and, out of the blue, the character started to describe how someone had the same grey eyes as their dad or how light reflected in someone else’s blond hair. Right after that, said character started to think about a completely unrelated thing, which left me disoriented and took me out of the story.
The characters, for what I read, were ok, but I think the author failed when trying to emphasise their problems and it turned out to be too repetitive. For example, in Danny’s case his mother’s disappearance makes him pretty irresponsible, but the problem is that they remind you he’s thinking about his mother in almost every page, especially taking into account that she disappeared five years before and not five days. This way, instead of giving depth to the character, it made him annoying.
My last complaint is about some things that I thought were a little illogical. The first one is that, after they cross the portal, are transported to another world, and one of the adults appears out of thin air and teleports them to a house, Katrina finds it difficult to believe magic exists, when she was delighted minutes ago. The second one is that, apparently, Danny’s mother wasn’t the only one to disappear that day, but one of their parents’ friends also went missing. It’d be logical to think it’s suspicious that two people who were close to each other disappeared the same day, but Danny didn’t think about this, since he didn’t even remember the other man. When his dad mentions it, he remembers how he would often visit their house, and he suddenly stopped. If he’s that obsessed with his mother’s disappearance, he would’ve investigated a little bit in the last five years or, at least, he would’ve come to the conclusion that the disappearances were connected… It’s just really unbelievable that this information takes them all by surprise, to be honest.
Despite all this, I still think it was a good concept and, for the little I could read about this other world, it was very original, so I hope the author keeps on writing and improving. Also, the reviews I read of this book were pretty positive in general, so other people might like it, but it was a disappointment for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and it was worth every moment of reading🙌

Lorna Reid is a masterful world building and has created a magical myriad of worlds within this book that I desperately want to visit! Their is detail into their humor, their favorite sports, their medicine, their animals, methods of travel and of course, the types of magic 💥

The broken lands sound like truly mystical and terrifying places to be and the descriptions are rich and vivid. I was totally engulfed and in love!

The dark pass reminded me of a twisted version of the fold/unsea in the Grisha trilogy and had the same creepy, crippling darkness that made me love it!🌌 not to mention actual ports and towns are there. Suffice to say I LOST MY SHIT 🤗

The characters would fit right in in Australia. They're snarky, sarcastic, show attitude, swear (definitely language warning for children, teens are fine) but underneath it all they all have their own flaws, quirks, beauty and personalities.

These characters are not all sunshine and roses. They fight. They argue and they are real. Lorna Reid captures several generations and different types of characters perfectly!

I was surprised how much I loved this book. It's well written and had a nice, smooth pace despite being a bit bland at the start for me. The minute they entered the other lands everything changed and I was HOOKED 😍

Read this if you're after a realistic view on what adventure into magic would be like for the everyday young adult and liked the Grisha trilogy. It ends up quite dark and twisty which I love! Not a happy fairytale read

This book is more of a 3.5.

Rise of the Reaper starts a bit confusing and, to be honest, a little bland, certainly for the smuttering of casual misogyny and the uncertain setting (where are they? I'm thinking the UK, but who knows?).
However, as the story progresses and you're transported in other realities along with the characters, you get more and more enthralled by the plot and twists and you yearn to know more about past events and the characters' parents.

Overall, this is an interesting book and I'm looking forward to see if further books will be published!

First thoughts Danny needs a slap. Straight away the quartet’s mischievousness is shown and then the parents’ reactions made me laugh. From there it’s a new world and magic. The game lost me a bit but the rest of it was good, dropping hints and raising more questions. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book.