This one was just okay for me. I didn't really enjoy it as much as some did. It sounded interesting and I love the cover! But the execution of the story left something to be desired.

This book was not for me. I did not particularly like it and ended up DNFing it thus won't be able to provide a detailed review.

The Sword and the Dagger by Robert Cochran is all about a quest between a Princess, a Knight and an assassin which was action packed and thrilling until the very end.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this title. I will review this title at a different date.

I LOVED this story. The story held my attention the entire time. The characters were well written and well paced.

While this covered and interesting time period that isn't often featured in YA releases, I struggled to engage with the style at all. The writing felt juvenile at times, before turning to a droning monotone. The characters seemed to "accidentally" stumble across every important historical event of the era happening (wow, so...lucky) and they had no discernible character arcs to speak of. Except for Conrad, who went from an abusive misogynist monster...to a "nice guy" for no discernible reason than that he learned brown people are people and women are people. I'm glad he came to this ground-breaking conclusion, but I'm missing the part where I'm supposed to congratulate him for doing the bare minimum.

The plot features quite a lot of travel, but they get kidnapped or sold into slavery a lot to spice things up. I appreciate the effort, but I just needed the writing to engage me. Not just tell me what happened. They even dropped a "you're not like the other girls" line, when Conrad assured Elaine she was beautiful and brave and "nothing like those other women" who marry mindlessly. It's like, Conrad, I view you as a worm already. No need to go the extra mile.

Overall, an intriguing premise with a prince, a princess and a Muslim assassin teaming up to cross the deserts, but a poor execution.

If you want a YA book with movie-like, swashbuckling adventure, this book with lots of killing and a bit of romance is for you.  If you want any depth of character or insight into life in the Middle East during the time of the Crusader states and the westward advances of Ghengis Khan, look elsewhere.  The portrayals of characters are stereotypical; the setting seems to be based on surface research.  And after living in this part of the world, I find myself overly critical of descriptions that don't strike me as realistic.  I wish Cochran had chosen a fantasy-setting; it would have served his story better.

The synopsis was promising, but this book fell flat and uninteresting for me. The character conflict was repetitive, started to feel unrealistic somewhere along the way (even for a fantasy book), and the plot itself just fell flat. The author didn't push the plot anywhere unexpected, which was disappointing.

This book was fast paced, based upon a historical event. Which had me extremely intrigued. It was very good and the writing was great, but some spots needed to be slowed down and given more detail.

Was accepted to review this title just days before release and was unable to read in a timely manner due to that. Will eventually read but did not have time due to bnb other review books I was given proper time before release to read.

The concept of this book intrigued me from the very moment I read the blurb. The plot was good but it was easy for me to guess. It has a potential, unfortunately it wasn't as great as my first impression thought it'd be.

Roll up, roll up for some good old-fashioned historical fun! We’re going all the way back to the Middle East during the time of the Crusades, for an adventure to the court of Genghis Khan…
This book had all the makings of a historical epic. What it turned out to be instead was something a little different. Hammering the point home on diversity and the importance of tolerance, we are drawn into an adventure involving a knight, a princess and an assassin as they attempt to reconcile their differences and save their homeland.
The premise was great, but in my opinion, it fell a little short. All three characters were strongly drawn- I particularly liked spending time with Elaine, who was definitely a Strong Independent Woman, and Hassan, who probably had the most rewarding character arc of all (Conrad, as far as I’m concerned, was a bit of a non-entity). However, the book itself dragged.
I loved seeing Conrad, Hassan and Elaine get to know each other better, but there were moments where I found myself skipping through the passages, desperate for something more interesting to happen. The gang don’t meet Genghis Khan until over halfway through! Cochran also has a rather oblique writing style (I actually thought the book was written in the 1950s until I double-checked) which makes slogging through the passages a bit of a struggle.
When we do get to meet the great man himself, the book does perk up. Cochran has clearly done a lot of research into his chosen time period, and it really shines through: the setting sings with detail, and you feel like you’re there, trekking over inhospitable mountains or (in one case) being sold into slavery. The historical note also goes into detail about the time period at the end of the book, which I found so interesting. You don’t really see many books written in this time period and reading it felt almost like an education as well as a story.
By the end, though, I felt like I’d run a marathon. The story itself was compelling, but the way it was told make it hard to read; in addition, I definitely have something to say about a character arc in which the strong independent princess who refuses to marry ends up marrying the prince anyway. That stuck in my gullet a little bit. If you want to do anything, at least have the princess fall in love with the assassin!
All in all? Intriguing, but I think this wasn’t for me.

This is one of those titles that you will either love or hate.  Its one that although it was pretty good it also had faults.  For me, this one was a little too long and really needed more in the way of story development.  I enjoyed the characters and the setting but overall it was just missing that spark to make it an amazing read. 

It's really hard to really review this title. Because, in ways it was too long and in others it was too short.

E-ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review! 

I won't say anything about the stunning cover that made me want to read this book.
I love when authors and publishers put an effort into the aesthetic of the book as well.

Anyway, the story was very compelling and I like how over-descriptive some scenes or places were.
The characters were excellently flashed out and I found them very likeable.
I thoroughly enjoy this and would recommend!

I tried very hard to get into this book, but couldn’t. I ended up DNFing around 25%. The writing and flow or the story wasn’t working for me, and it all felt kind of flat.

This was a "nice enough" book, when I say that I mean I did enjoy it, however it just came across as a bit okay-ish?

I really enjoyed the era in which it was set, but I want to be invested in the characters and that sadly didn't happen for me.

Very interesting concept. Not my absolute favorite, but I know plenty of others who would probably enjoy this a lot more than I did.

When empires clash, 
a Princess, a Knight, and an Assassin 
embark on the quest of a lifetime 
Loved the premise and the plot. Made for an entertaining read!

Swords and princesses? Yes! Count me in! This was a good book. I felt like there could have been a little more to this and left me wanting more but I would be willing to give it 3 stars.
Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Sword and the Dagger is a lovely little introduction to the fascinating worlds of Genghis Khan, Persian empires, and the assassins of the Eagle's nest.  Although I wish I loved it more, I do eventually like the characters.  

I find Conrad to be the most fascinating character within the book, and Rashid my second favourite.  These two grew on me very  much over the course of the story.  Conrad begins as an arrogant fool, but he grows to be the Prince of Antioch he was always born to be through his experiences travelling with both Rashid and Elaine.  Rashid is the would-be assassin who begins as someone who believes only in his god and of the orders given to him, but grows to find the ways to be loyal yet true to the reality he discovers in his travels with Conrad and Elaine.  Elaine, however, felt the least developed to me and as much as I admire her for pro-feminism approach, she reads exactly as a character written for the purpose of being pro-feminist without really seeming very logical.  Elaine is smart and she doesn't like being constrained by silly bonds, however, and what irks me the most, but doesn't quite entirely offend my sensibilities, is that she does every silly thing that she knows is not appropriate for her sex and only frets over it after.  Such as leaving her safe spot during the battle between the persians and mongols, and then getting caught later--understandably she didn't want to be there, but couldn't she wait?  Or go into hiding? 
 Didn't she think what would happen to a single woman in the middle of battle?  But in saying that, she's not boring.  Still, Conrad and Rashid definitely develop more on a character level.  And I love them both!

I took  much longer to read this than I expected and this was perhaps the fault of the pacing in the beginning.  There were some interesting moments, but perhaps the arrogance of all characters made them unrelated for the beginning half.  But once the characters began the severe moments of their journey, things started to get very interesting.

In short, this was a nice little fiction in which we follow three individual of different backgrounds and personalities in a journey to recover a letter that will save the life of the betrothed Elaine and Conrad.  Both of whom are royals of the respective kingdoms of Tripoli and Antioch.  Elaine of course is unhappy with the possibility of marriage, however she is more than willing to do whatever possibly to save her life and for her kingdom.  Along the way they encounter the greats: the Old Man, the Shah of the Khwarazmid Empire, and Genghis Khan.