DNF. This was pretty awful, I only got a few chapters in before I decided I couldn't put myself through any more. First person can read a little bit self-inserty and this is no exception. Some grammatical and spelling errors. Amateurish.

I don't like to give bad reviews if I can help it, but I'd advise skipping this for something better.

I unfortunately really didn't enjoy this book and ended up DNFing it. I was confused at times and didn't enjoy the characters all that much.

This was a confusing, total load of rubbish.
Where it was supposed to be erotic it was anything but and it appears the killing was for the sake of it giving nothing to the story.
One to miss as there are for better books to read.

DNF. I have no idea what was happening in this story. The opening 'erotic' prelude was anything but. What a child was doing leading an army and killing everything in sight just did not make any sense.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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Innocence is an 11-year old military prodigy who is called to help squash a revolution in an exotic city. However, it is uncertain as to who triggered the revolt and Innocence must complete her duty while aiming for the creation of her own empire.

This had a very interesting premise. The bit about a child military prodigy particularly had me hooked.

The story starts off interesting. Innocence herself has a very strange thought process, the reason for which is revealed later. I was enjoying myself until the time came for Innocence to leave Castillia. The exploding ship was a very jarring event and not described very well.

There were a few very specific things that I did not like in this book:

1. The sentence structure was really weird sometimes. I could tell that it was written that way for dramatic effect but it was very annoying and unnecessary at some points.

2. There were some strange references. In one chapter, Innocence talks about the "metal of your soul" that is a categorisation system used by the Republic. Firstly, this system itself is really confusing and never explained sufficiently or properly and makes an appearance in dialogue at weird times. It is implied that the whole concept of this system is an invention by the Republic to deceive its people but that is never expanded upon. Secondly, and more importantly, Innocence talks about other categorisation systems before mentioning this one. These other systems include, for some inexplicable reason, the factions system from Roth's Divergent series. This book is set in the future and it doesn't make any sense to make this kind of reference.

3. Innocence's complete lack of reaction to a jarring plot twist. The twist itself seemed unnecessary because of how little impact it had on Innocence.

4. It's difficult to understand the lack of advanced technology in the setting of this book. There are huge warships and plasma rifles (albeit outlawed). However, the common public is still stuck with mobile phones. The plasma rifles should be more in use since outlawing something never seems to work. The last battle in this book is laughably chaotic due to the opposing side having the tech advantage over Innocence's army.

Overall, this was a good start to the series, with a good premise but not the best execution. I'll continue the series because the cliffhanger was fantastic, but I hope the next book is an improvement.

Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐

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Short review on Litsy

Book unavailable in Litsy's catalogue.