THE RAVEN AND THE DOVE was exactly the type of magical, escapist fantasy I'd been craving! With lyrical prose, compelling characters, and twists that shatter both dreams and expectations, don't be surprised if you start to see this title everywhere. What a brilliant, beautiful gem of a story.

The Raven and the Dove by Kaitlyn Davis, 506 pages. Kaitlyn Davis, 2020. $22. CENTERING ME
Language: PG (13 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Lyana is Princess of the House of Peace, born with the dove wings of her kingdom and with healing magic she hides from everyone. Rafe is visiting the House of Peace when a dragon attacks, suffering wounds no one should be able to recover from. Risking her secret to save the raven-winged stranger, Lyana hides Rafe in a cave until he’s healed, unaware of the secrets he, too, is hiding.
Davis weaves subplots and motives together in a way that begs readers to turn the next page. However, I was disconnected from the story by inconsistencies, annoyance with characters, and passages that dragged. The ending ties the subplots together enough for a sense of satisfaction while still leaving tantalizing questions that lead to the sequel. I am ensnared by the whispers that tell me I need to know what happens next, but I know I’ll get over it because I didn’t love the story enough to read more. The mature content rating is for innuendo, and the violence rating is for self harm, battle gore, and attempted murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Picked up this book because of the cover. Read and kept reading because of the DRAMA. The FANTASY SETTING. The star-crossed lovers/main characters with WINGS. The ANGST.

Ugh, I have not recovered from reading The Raven and the Dove.

If you're looking for a book to jerk your heart around and leave you wanting more, look no further. I was a wreck (and still am), in the best of ways, after reading this book.

I have tried and tried to read this book but it hasn’t been able to capture my attention what do ever and now 37% into the book I think I’m ready to DNF it, maybe not forever but for the foreseeable future
Maybe someday if I do read it I’ll come and update the rating and review here.

I liked the writing style and the lore revealed so far has me intrigued but the neither the characters nor the plot seems to intrigue me enough to wanna keep on reading

And if I were to rate it depending on how much I’ve read so far I would rate it a 3 stars, pretty average

Such a fun and entertaining read! I honestly struggled putting this one down & got completely swept away on the characters journey. Definitely a series I would want to continue with.

Absolutely reminded me of Tristan and Isolde and it was so sweet and heartbreaking! Amazing world building, vivid descriptions made it easy to get lost in my mental images.

I know, I know- took me long enough. But I just want to say, I’m genuinely kicking myself for taking soooo long to read this phenomenal book. There are certain components of a fantasy that will instantly hook me and make me obsessed with a book. And this book had all of them but to a point where I was just IN AWE. Like- ALL THE AWE, ALL THE FEELS.

Just to start off- THE WORLD WHAT??? The world building in this book was literally top tier, it is unlike any other fantasy world I’ve read about, it is u like anything I could even begin to fathom- just utter brilliance.

And the writing- WOW. I am in love with Kaitlyn’s writing and will definitely be purchasing any and every book she writes in the future.

As for the characters and the story- all I can say is, I don’t think I’ve been this emotionally invested in a fictional set of characters like this before… like EVER and that’s saying a lot.

Anyways, I’m off to start book two because that ending was not ok *screams*.

I read this book a while back from Netgalley. Thank you netgalley for providing me an e-arc.

Even though this review is very late, I really enjoyed the book and I am planning on reading it again soon so I can continue on with the series. From what I remember the ending was a lot, in a good way.

This story takes place in a world where there are people that live under the clouds that have magical abilities and then there are people that live above the clouds that do not have magical abilities but, they do have wings. Above the clouds the people live on floating islands in different clans. Each clan has a different wing type; owl, raven, dove etc. We mainly follow Princess Lyana, her friend (I forget her name), Rafe and Prince Lysander. This story was so much more than I was expecting, there was romance, friendship, beautiful scenery and shocking betrayals.

I went into this book with high expectations. I'm a fan of the yin and yang theme and Tristan and Isolde.

When I first started The Raven and the Dove, I was very confused. I started having more and more questions as I continued to read. Some points, I was trying to rush the plot to get my questions answered, which can sometimes be ok and sometimes not ok.

I did have all my questions answered, so I'm satisfied, but not entirely.

Did I find some of the book predictable? Yes, but it was still a wonderful book that i did enjoy. The characters where sometimes questionable to me, and I'm still not sure how I feel about them. I found the MC annoying at times and wanted more of the side characters and to see how they ended up.

I will read the next book, but it might wait on my TBR for a while.

This was a nice retelling of the classic tale, but I'm just not that into love triangles or multiple POVs. Generally, very well done and I would recommend it to be stocked in the store.

I've honestly had my eye on this book for a while, and finally decided to pick it up. As the book started I thought to myself, wait... is this a Tristan &amp; Isolde retelling? When I looked up the summary, I discovered I was. I don't know why I love this story so much, it's so tragic and includes one of my least favorite tropes - Love Triangles. But my goodness, was this book amazing. First, there is the amazing retelling aspect of Tristan &amp; Isolde. It was so well done and I loved how she weaved it into her story. Then there were the avian's.. well that's what they call themselves anyways. This was done so well and there were so many aspects about the characters of this book. They all have wings of different colors and it just seems so beautiful. It was very noticeable during the ceremony and it is just something I would have loved to physically see. And then there are also dragons? I mean... as soon as you add dragons, you know it's going to be epic. The pacing of this book just flew and I enjoyed it so much. Davis weaved such a intricate story with so many subplots that all worked together. And now that I finished the first book, I need to know what happens next. </p>

I absolutely love these characters. Absolutely all of them. Typically when there is a love triangle, I'm not a fan of one of the suitors but I really like Rafe and Xander. They both have amazing qualities about them and it's hard to choose which one but I'm a first kind of girl so I'm definitely rooting more for Rafe. But I really want Xander to find happiness and it does seem like Lyana and him would be a good match too! And then there is Lyana. I absolutely adored her character. She was so much fun and true and honest. Even though she had her own secrets, it was her personality that was always so open. And Cassi. Oh, I knew from the beginning I was going to feel sorry for her character and I definitely am. I cannot wait to continue their story and see what happens to them!

Final Thoughts

Overall, The Raven and the Dove by Kaitlyn Davis was a phenomenal read. I can't believe I had it on my TBR for this long and haven't picked it up yet. I'm trying really hard to make it through all of my review copies but I just want to throw everything aside and pick up the next book in this series. I absolute loved this retelling of Tristan &amp; Isolde and how Davis made it her own story. The characters having wings with a world below them was so interesting too and I can't wait to find out more about this in the later books. There were so many amazing details throughout the story that it was so easy to paint a beautiful picture for every scene. These characters are my babies now and I just want them all to be happy. I loved following each character and felt like they had enough time in their designated sections through their perspective. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy fantast and magic and dragons! But this is a retelling of one of the most famous love triangles there is so be prepared to find it hard to choose which one is for Lyana!

I have to admit, I got this book when it was on Read Now, started reading it and then had to put it down for uni work and then never came back to it. That was over a year ago... whoops. Having now read The Raven and the Dove, I wished I had come back to it sooner!

The book follows four main characters, who each get their own POV: Lyana, Rafe, Xander and Cassi. Out of all of them, I liked Lyana the best. While there's not a lot that sets her apart from a lot of other female protagonists (she shares the same compassion for others and recklessness), she still made for an excellent lead. I was really thankful that The Raven and the Dove was written so that you can actually tell the POVs apart. Too often, books with multiple POVs (regardless of if they're in first or third person) end up just being confusing and you can't tell the narrators apart, and I'm glad that wasn't the case here.

While I wish there had been more worldbuilding, the concept of the world itself was amazing and what drew me to this book in the first place. I loved the whole seven royal houses in different settings idea. It reminded me a little of that brief scene in Maleficent: MIstress of Evil, where she's flying over all the Dark Fae habitats.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Raven and the Dove and will definitely be continuing with this series when I can.

Really enjoyed it! The romance was chef’s kiss! The retelling of Tristan and Isolde appears so beautifully in this story, Definitely a thing I do not see often in YA!
Definitely recommend

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. For as much as I read, I can say that the even though target audience of this book will definitely enjoy it, it just didn’t strike a chord for me.

While I loved that this is a Tristan and Isolde retelling, I did feel very confused by it at many points and some details I felt weren't extremely well formed like the parental details and resulting offspring and mating specifics.

Ultimately this just wasn't for me

I really enjoyed this book! The world building is fantastic and loved the characters! I am so looking forward to reading the next book!

this book was not for me. The plot moved incredibly slow and I couldn't get into it. It felt like it was in the very young end of YA and I couldn't enjoy or get through it. That being said, I can see how younger readers would very much enjoy it. I think the plot is intriguing and I can see how others would really like it.

I was given an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The cover of this book really pulled me in. The coloring is gorgeous and the polar opposites theme of the raven and the dove was really aesthetically pleasing. Honestly the book was a bit hard to get into at the beginning, but the pacing and world building were alright. The problem I had was with the characters. They were pretty one dimensional and not really enjoyable. Overall I had bits of the book I enjoyed but I probably won't continue this series.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a huge letdown for me. I thought this was going to be one of the best fantasy books I've read. Unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be.

I have had a difficult time with fantasy lately, and i found it a bit hard to continue reading. The book is great, I just don't think it was the right time for me to read it. I managed to get 60% through, and I liked what I was reading, but the slump got in the way. I will for sure try to read it again because it seems too good to just forget about.