I can't remember requesting this one but found it in my Netgalley folder so decided to give it a chance. It's somewhere between a fantasy and a dystopian about a girl who discovers she possess a forbidden magical gift of singing that has special healing powers. She's the daughter of a governor or some higher up politician so she has a slight advantage over some of the characters. She starts off as rather naive and comes across as kind of preachy in her ideals and it gets very annoying very quickly. Most of the side female characters especially her former best friend seem almost comically evil. Apart from a few who wind up being allies. There's sinister going on from the leaders, an underground rebellion, betrayal, developing friendships and a do or die competition, and some revelations.
Problem I had with this novel was it was just okay. I can't say there was anything outstanding about it, I found the main character annoying, the plot bland and predictable. Not a series I am interested in continuing.

I loved the cover for this book and it is what really drew me in. The story overall is good; I was very interested because of what was written about the book but to be honest, this was not really my cup of tea. It was nicely put together and the plot was there, but I felt like it could have been better written at parts. However, this was a fantastic idea and I am glad to have read it.

I wasn’t able to get into this book at all. The premise of the book was promising, but I seems that the author did not deliver. Parts of it were very predictable.

From the very start, I wasn’t able to get into this book. The premise was promising, but I felt that the author did not deliver. Parts of it were very cliche and predictable. There was nothing really special about this book that made me want to continue reading the series.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really tough review for me to write because I was constantly torn between loving and hating this book.
I think this is the type of book that could have used another round of editing with a more critical eye, because a lot of the issues that I had would easily be fix-able.

What I loved: The idea of this world is phenomenal and right up my alley: climate change caused most of the world to be flooded, once citizens turn 18 they have to go to a floating city built of domes and tunnels connecting the domes on the rough seas. Within this city, everything is controlled, you sleep in assigned quaters, do your assigned job, and pretty much better follow all the rules. In this world, we are following our main character, who has a secret power that is forbidden (possibly because only women have these powers) navigating friendships in the new life and training for the ultimate tournament where the winner gets a wish granted.
The world building is a lot of fun, I admire this set up and the overall plot idea.

Sadly the characters decisions and the continuity of the plot had a lot of confusing points that either did not make sense or were hard to follow. Without going into spoilers I can say that at last every other chapter, I was really getting annoyed by decisions or by how the story was jumping around.
I also did have a few issues with some writing style choices. For example I am not a fan of the writer telling me what to think/question. I truly believe it is an authors job to make me connect things by hinting towards it. I do not like that after very clearly hinting towards it, when the author then adds several questions in a row like "Was there a connection?"

Overall I really want to get into the sequel to hear how the story develops, but I did decide that I only would want to do that in a buddy read where I can bitch about the annoying parts together. Sorry, but this is how annoying bits become fun for me and I can deal with it when I really want to see how the story progresses.

Honestly this just wasn't my kind of book. I had a lot of trouble getting through it and didn't even finish it. Nothing against the book, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

*I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

The concept of this book sounded interesting, but the book itself fell flat for me. Brynna, the main character, lacked much personality--she felt more like a plot device than a character. Throughout the book (and based on the descriptions of the two sequels), it seems as if the author wanted to see how many different situations she could put Brynna into. It just didn't work for me.

Other characters were pretty bland, too. Brynna's mother existed as a way to tell readers how the world got to be in its current state and to cryptically tell Brynna about singers. Jarryd was a connection to the rebels. Calia was the mean girl who caused everything bad to happen. Ruby was the reason Brynna got to compete (because it made complete sense . . . ?). Kaaluk is supposed to be a love interest (see second book description), but he's hardly there.

The world building was also somewhat weak. Most of the time, it was done through conversations with Brynna's mother or other characters. It would usually start out with something like, "We've talked about this. You remember that . . . " If I had been Brynna in those conversations, I would have been very impatient about having something re-explained to me in detail. And then I had questions about the floating cities. How exactly do they work? Are they affected by storms? Is there something that keeps everything inside the domes from rocking with the waves? How were they built? How do natural features (waterfalls, underground water tunnels, mountains, ravines, etc.) exist inside of them? Other than that, we know that women are oppressed--their job choices are limited, their forced to wear jubas (long dresses that restrict their movements and have hoods to cover their heads), etc. I'm not sure how society went from where it is now to that point--it's hard to believe women today would allow that to happen. Unless, I suppose, the characters of the story are from a place where women don't have a lot of rights already.

Notes: May have been a little swearing.

3.5

I felt that in some parts the book fell kind of flat, it wasn't impactful and felt kinda "meh. But, I thoroughly enjoyed this book (as a casual read), i had a good time reading this throughout 2019. The world building is great, the concept of futuristic world with floating cities is rather interesting (i.e. it's f***ing cool).

The Last Singer is cool in my books and i think you should read it too. (Do it.)

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley, thanks for the free book. (All opinions are my own)
I felt the storyline for this book was strong in the beginning and intriguing, I was very excited to delve into this book, however there were many moments where I didn’t feel connected to the main character at all. So it was hard to continue reading. Another reviewer stated “maybe because of the tell don’t show writing” I couldn’t figure how to put that into words but she did wonderfully and I must say I agree, I felt a lot of times characters would just spew out a lot of info at once rather than showing through details so due to that it was hard to feel apart of the story. Unfortunately I could not finish this book, I lost interest very quickly. Hope the best to other readers!

A world where singing is banned leads a strong, female character into a realm of secrets. Her recent discovery of a rare, special ability just as she is about to leave home creates the beginning to a fun fantasy story. 

The unique aspects in this book quickly brought me to the end. The world building alone with the climate change mixed with society's rules regarding a strict work ethic are just the first things I noticed. Then add in a secret sisterhood helped to peak my interest. 

But unfortunately, I felt like the book didn't live all the way up to the my expectations. The writing was easy to read, but I felt like as the story progressed, the writing began to feel a little flat. 

Overall, the unique concepts quickly reeled me in, and the dystopian world was very interesting to read about (there are a ton of stuff that happened in this world). I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

If you love stories that blend genres together, this book may be for you!

The Last Singer is a sci fi dystopian story. In the future, climate change has caused major change. The world no longer exists as it once did. Everyone must work in the floating city. It begins well but just tapered off until I lost all interest. The characters seemed generic. The setting was not well developed. The writing was okay. I skimmed through a lot of the story
Overall just an average read. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

I did not like or enjoy this book a lot which is sad as the world-building is kinda cool: the world has changed after climate change, countries as we know them no longer exist, strict rules apply for all citizens to start working in the floating city of Hypor once they turn 18. Women are limited in their job choice they are not allowed to dress as they want to.

Brynna has to leave the safety of her parent's island and start working as a translator. When she finds out that the government is trying to hide the fact that the world is in danger from the sun, she joins the rebellion. Her secret gift is her voice: she is a singer and has healing powers. But her powers must remain hidden...

So, why didn't I like this book? Climate change, feminism (or so I thought), sci-fi, power struggles, rebellions...sounds good. Yet the characters remained flat, they made decisions I could not follow, almost stereotypical (potential love interest's only feature are his green eyes, female protagonist has long hair and a secret power) and I just could not feel anything about what happened. Especially Brynna annoyed me. Furthermore, the story progresses extremely fast - one page people leave to fight, the protagonist goes to sleep, next page they are back... It lacked depth and detail.

In addition I was annoyed that the feminist world-building (only women have healing powers, there used to be a women's only sisterhood) could not really be found in the novel: "Don't let your brother's confidence overwhelm your feminine instincts." Wtf are feminine instincts? Nobody's bothered by that but me? Geeeeeez.

2 Stars. I'm sorry but this book just wasn't for me...

DNF at about 40%.
I really wanted to give this book a chance, but it just failed to interest me at all. The characters are flat as cardboard and the worldbuilding is as thin as gauze. The plot had potential to be interesting, but it's not done very well and combined with all the forced conversations and the lack of interestinv characters or places... There's just not much here to interest or excite or make me care about these people and this place at all.
Underdeveloped, is what I would call this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours for a digital review copy of this book!

I'm not entirely sure why this book and I didn't work out. The premise was quite promising: We have a futuristic society with Sci-fi elements, we have a young girl with a magical voice that she has to hide for others and we have an interesting game of chess played by the politicians to gain the ultimate power. It's quite surprising that something went wrong between me and the book and it's hard for me to pinpoint exactly what it was.

Firstly, I think the point of view didn't really work for me. A lot of world building and mythology was explained through dialogue instead of actually shown to us and I discovered that this also happened with the bigger plot. The main character is not in the centre of things and doesn't really know what's going on if the other characters don't fill her in. It feels like maybe she was simply not the right character to tell the story.

And maybe it's also because of the tell don't show writing that the characters and world never really came to live. I don't have the feeling that I know them, care for them and I can't really picture the world either. I still feel like I've been watching everything from a distance and was never really part of it.

On top of that the story itself felt a little chaotic. It was hard for me to see the clear line, to see which story was actually being told, what was important. I felt like there were so many side plots and unimportant scenes that took up a lot of time and space, that the book failed to make a true point. I understand it's only the first book in a series, but it doesn't feel like a solid base to build the rest on.

I really had hoped that this was a story I was gonna love, but it seems I was wrong. I guess that can happen sometimes. Luckily there are loads more books to read and my new favorite is very likely among those!

The synopsis sounded really good and I did enjoy this, but I found it struggled to hold my interest at times. I am still interested to see what will happen in the future of the series, but the pacing just seemed a little off at times. Character growth seemed to be lacking but hopefully that might change in future books. Enjoyable and I did like the characters, hope for more in the next books

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

The blurb was quite interesting, but I found the book to be just "okay" overall. It's a bit of a mix of dystopian, fantasy, and sci-fi. Brynna is an interesting character. Based on the title, I expected there to be a bit more of a focus on the singing than there was in the story. There were some pacing problems and lack of development with some characters. Fans of books such as Hunger Games will likely enjoy this book.

this was such an amazing read i loved every second of it. The story and plot were amazing. Overall 5 stars.

Brynna is 18 and has to go to hypor city by law. She is in a thin nightgown trying to plead her future with her father . . He says that it would look bad if a councilors daughter was excused from work duty.. she is worried about her mother's health."What do I fear ?That I won't like my job.That I won't fit in. That I'll be found out." She has a secret and is afraid but is told won't know if like job until try it and will make new friends,"You know you have special gift but others do not. Perhaps one day you can show the world,who you are but for now it must remain a secret" I loved the characters

I am a big fan of these types of books so honestly my hopes were high for this book. Turns out that I had nothing to worry about, Full of mystery, realism, rebellion and discovery, you won't be bored while reading this book. Read it now!