Girl With Three Eyes by Priya Ardis is a fantasy novel that feels like Harry Potter meets The Black Witch Chronicles. 16 year old Kira has what she feels is a curse, and others feel is a secret gift- or also something that may make her a bit terrifying. A third eye. Literally, a third eye on her forehead not just some metaphor for seeing more than meets the eye. When this is discovered by Lord Lyon, he takes her away from her alcoholic father and her small village, to an elite school for the highborns- all to protect his son, Trace.

A Game Once Seen Cannot Be Unseen…

The world building in this book is incredibly solid, and you have a good understanding of how the kingdom works. There is Hindu culture woven in and out of both the school and the kingdom, from the houses they are placed into to the clothing that they wear. I thoroughly enjoyed the workings of the kingdom of Raj. The book is a good meld of that age between middle grade and YA, never going too uncomfortably into the romance tropes to take away from the story. Additionally, the conflicting relationship with a family member as an addict was well done, and the way we unintentionally enable them as well as the way they truly do want to do right by the people they love- it’s just hard.

Also, without spoiling anything, the plot twist during the peak of the book genuinely made the book for me. It was honestly shocking and I didn’t expect it whatsoever- and I’ve read a lot of YA and can predict most twists! The snowboarding (skyboarding) and the tech in a more or less 18th century feeling era was an interesting concept, however, I personally didn’t love it. That’s more of a preference, though. It was well written and important to the plot, I just don’t care for “sports” plot points.

Additionally, Trace, Lord Lyon’s son, was supposed to be the same age as Kira. However, he felt more like a bratty twelve-year-old rather than a popular 16 year old boy. While I understand people being raised differently, and some privileged people seeming “brattier” than others, Trace just genuinely felt so much younger than all the other characters in the book.

Sarita and her mom, as well as the Queen, were my favorite characters in the book- as well as being incredibly well rounded side characters. I feel like that isn’t found often, and I really appreciated it.

Overall, Girl With Three Eyes was incredibly enjoyable, and I cannot wait for the next one to come out. I gotta know what happens with the Oracles!

This book was not for me. I felt that I was disconnected from the story. The book did not have a clear indication of modern day or fantasy. Or if it was a combination of both.

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!

Kira Shine has a gift, she just doesn't know it. Kira has a third eye in the middle of her forehead, but she believes it is useless until she wakes a boy from a coma and finds that she does indeed have some sort of powers. Her third eye allows her to sense the feelings and intents of people in three word snippets.

As a result of this new found power, Kira is whisked away to the country's capital. She's living with a "highborn" family and going to the Royal School. She's asked by the man who has taken her in to be a secret bodyguard for his son. Like a lot of stories lately, the school has "four houses" that students are assigned to. While in school, she makes new friends, and saves a few lives in the process!

The story definitely had some fun twists from the normal. There's a new sport we're all introduced to that appears to be a cross between jousting, flying, and snowboard! It sounds super fun and interesting, and I wish that I could participate.

This book would make a great movie.

I feel like the story ended on a cliffhanger, and now I can't wait to see if there's a sequel!

**I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.**

3 stars

I wanted to like this book. I want to like most books that I read. However, I didn't. It wasn't that the character was a "Mary Sue" the story just didn't do it for me. It was super heavy on the sport "skyboarding." Which seems to be a mix of snowboarding, skateboarding, hoverboards and medieval jousting. There are so many pages of this sport that after a couple of chapters I started just skipping pages. It doesn't add anything to the story. It's just fluffy fillers. And I'm not that big on sports. The timing of the story was off. The first I noticed was in the very beginning. The school term went from starting in a week to the very next day with nothing in between. There's this mystical third eye that has never worked before that suddenly works now and she knows how to use it... See that Mary Sue thing I was talking about? I did like that she made a legitimate friend. Sarita was a nice addition to the story, even though they only talked about boys. But I guess since they are 16 it might be acceptable. The villain in this story was meh at best. He's this tyrannical man set on overthrowing the monarchy by killing everyone...and he somehow has followers? I don't see how that is realistic. Anyway, I wouldn't persuade people to throw this book away, but it wouldn't come to mind as a recommendation either.

First of, I’d say that I’m sure this book is for someone, but that someone wasn’t me. I finished this yesterday (18th May 2020), but I can’t really remember much about the more intricate plot and I had to look through my notes to remember the name of the main character.

We follow a young girl called Kira who, along with other women in her family, possess a third eye that makes her “see things people normally don’t see”. She manages to heal an important person and is whisked off to some sort of privet school where she meets some new friends and rivals as well as get into the school sport. A large part of the plot is that someone is set out to kill the crown prince, one of Kira’s new friends, and she wants to find out who that is and stop them.

This sounded like a fun, new sort of plot point (the third eye thing), but the story is more about sport and the murder plot than the actual development of Kira herself. It said in the description that this was a book for people who enjoy strong, female characters, but I don’t feel I got to know Kira at all from what was said about her and what she actually accomplished in the book. I found her to be like most young protagonists in the many YA-books I’ve read over the last few years.

What I did enjoy was the relatively short chapters, and I thought that the actual text read well, it was easy to understand.

I thought this book was pretty great. It was fast faced, which I love. I enjoy a strong female character and I thought Kira was that for sure. I think the writing and details were really good and I enjoyed the plot.
One thing I noticed was that in the book's description it says she is 16 but in the story it says over and over she is 14. So that kind of threw me off.. I also loved that there was a bit of sports action in the book. The ending was really good and build you up for another book.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

So, I finished this super quick which, as a fact for me, shows how much I enjoyed this book. I will get into the nitty, gritty in a moment, but this is a definite future recommendation of mine!

What did I like?
I'm not really sure where to start. I have a page of notes about this book on my phone so here goes:
- the writing was amazing. I have never read anything from Priya before but you can sure as well know I will be now. It read well without the overuse of new language from different worlds and bombarding us with info-dumping - this didn't happen. I felt like I was reading a book, not an encyclopedia.
- the plot was fast-paced. *we all jump for joy* everyone who knows me will confirm I can't stand when a book is slow so this was a definite A+ in my eyes.
- talking about the plot, I loved the idea for this book. the premise was gripping, the characters had enough depth and dynamics that I was rooting for them and I liked where the end left off.
- kira was a great female lead. she wasn't overly "strong, I can do anything type" she knew her strengths and she used them well. she also grew a lot as a character sympathetically throughout this book which I really enjoyed reading.
- in my notes, I have referred to Trace being the moodiest insert swear word here ever but his character development in this book alone was GREAT. I really ended up liking him and even rooting for him which I didn't expect to do. I think the budding romance between Ajay and Kira was done well enough, although I felt more could have been foreshadowed to make me believe they work well together as I sort of see the dynamics between Trace and Kira better than Ajay at the moment.

My only downside was that I felt this was really short. I felt like I read this in record time (but maybe because I was so engrossed) but I was left feeling like some more fleshing out could have been done, particularly with the world-building element as I still have tonnes of questions. Even though we didn't have any dreadful info-dumps, I don't think I could describe the world Priya has created to you.

Overall, this was a good book. I think it's a decent read for anyone who wants a light fantasy/dystopian book.
4 stars!
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

So, you’re going to get 2 points of view on this book – mine, and that of the resident tween.

Mine:

This is a really cute book. It bridges Middle Grade and YA fiction wonderfully. Our characters are 14 – and very 14 at that! Think crushes about cute boys/girls rather than thinking they’re hot. There’s just enough danger and heartbreak! As a long time YA reader, yes it’s a bit derivative in parts. Our girl is definitely ‘The One’ with everything that entails, but she’s also plucky and likable.

One of the best things about this book is the way the author melds Hindu culture into the story. It adds an element that we need to see more of in YA fiction.

When I finished the book, I thought that it might be just the right book for my tween. I handed the kindle to her and asked her to read just the first page.

Well, I lost control of my Kindle until she’d finished it.



The Tween:

I loved this! It was like a Hindu Harry Potter, only the girls were the ones who handled things! It was really cool that the author used Snow Boarding (though it did remind me of Quidditch). I also loved the characters. I’d like another book, please!


So there you have it – high points from Mom and Daughter. Truly a fun read!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

First of all thank you NetGalley and Vulcan Ink Media for the e arc i received in exchange for an honest review.
Where do I begin? Maybe with my confusion. Because this book definitely confused me. To me the world was confusing. In some ways it was like ours is today but then there were elements that were not like our world today. But to me, those elements weren't explained enough, the author didn't go into enough detail.
Also the whole skyboarding thing confused me. Why call it skyboard when it was nothing but a snowboard with an engine? I don't know a lot about skiing or snowboarding so a lot of the terms used to describe the sport, where new to me and i did not know what was meant by a lot of them.
Also the characters. How old were they? The synopsis stated that Kira was 16 in the book she was "four and ten" which to me sounded like 14?
Speaking of Kira, i did not like her, or i didn't get warm with her. She was not the strong female lead i was hoping for, more a child trying to save the world (or actually her friends). Which was way to easy. Not a lot went wrong, which made the story unrealistic. Kira also acted like a child a lot of the time, which to me, 16 year olds, don't do any more, a least not to that extent.
The other characters had depth, even though all of Kira's friends were just as childish. I liked the way friends count just as much as family in this book and how the relationship between Trace an Kira developed.
The writing though, was fast paced and good. I enjoyed reading, not so much because of the story, but because the writing made me want to read.
The plot was exciting but very foreseeable.
All in all i didn't really enjoy this book, but would recommend it for younger readers (maybe 12 to 14 year olds?). Especially one who enjoy sports, because there was a lot of that in this book.

Girl With Three eyes felt like cookie cutter YA fantasy, which isn't a bad thing. Formula's are used over and over again because they work and Priya Ardis does bring her own unique twist to her world and her character's power but for whatever reason, Girl with Three Eyes felt more hollow than it's predecessors to me. I want to say it's because Kira is treated too perfectly for her to feel real, but I'm honestly not sure if its that because I've read protagonists simular to her before and found them fine.

It's definitely not a bad book and I wouldn't recommend not reading it, but I wouldn't recommend it either.

I thought this book was really great. I love a strong female protagonist and I thought Kira was awesome. One inconsistency that I noticed was that in the book's description it says she is 16 but in the book it says she is 10 and 4 years repeatedly... just something to consider. I also loved that there was a bit of sports action in the book. It made the reading quick and fun. The ending has got me hooked for the next one

Kira comes from a line of women who have a third eye. In her little village, her drunken father takes advantage of her by saying she has mystical powers to help others. At least that is until she actually wakes a general's son from a coma. The general Sir Lyon blackmails Kira into using her skills to protect his son who he fears is in danger. Will she be able to keep Sir Lyon's son and everyone else safe? Will she be able to figure out who is behind all of the danger? And will she be able to figure out exactly what her third eye is capable of?

This was a quick paced read that I could not put down. The story line was amazing - mystery, fantasy, espionage - this book had it all. It leaves you guessing who is the culprit right to the end. This is one of the best books I have read this year. I cannot wait to read more about Kira and find out what will happen next!

This book was given to me an an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in an exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way.