A light enjoyable read. Thought the major plot point seemed to be solved halfway through the book and the characters didn't have me forming any attachments to them.

I wanted to love it, but i did not sadly. It the characters ended up being meh and it was alot of characters comming in and out of the story that i did not care for.

Super enjoyable. I didn’t feel like any plot points were left unresolved or that I needed to read any additional books although I will.

Enjoyable fantasy filled with magic and intrigue. Brillar's skills place her in the path of a decision that will change the course of her life. Her desire to preserve life leads her to take another and to do something no one before her had done. The consequences of this action leads her down an unknown path. A great coming of age story.

Orb and Arrow sat on my Netgalley shelf for a while after I thought the synopsis sounded great: archer + magic = dream combination.

I may have set my sights a little high.

Or the synopsis wasn’t the clearest.

The story is sold to us as being about an archer freeing a mage from a device that restricts their ability to use magic. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was for that part of the story to be over within the first chapter.

I also wasn’t expecting an anti-climax showdown with the character set up as the villain less than a third into the book. I sat there, blinking, totally bemused by what was going on.

The rest of the book is separated into two parts. The middle part consists of our characters healing from their ordeals, and that is it. It didn’t hold my attention – or theirs, it seems, as they spent most of those pages’ unconscious, asleep, or thinking about food.

By this point, I was disappointed. It was flat, the characters shallow and who even knows what was going on with the pacing.

Then comes the final section of the book – which worked! You learn more about the magic, see the characters developing and events take place at a good pace, with some added tension to raise the stakes. If the entire book could have been like this, it would have been a decent read.

The plot isn’t the only thing that left me confused though. The characters did as well.

Brillar is a young archer, schooled to some degree in the magic arts. She longs to explore the world but isn’t as prepared as she should be. Brillar had potential, and you see her learn and grow. But from the very start, her arrogance makes it hard to connect to her.

Elden does have depth, and you get more of a feel of his long life and backstory. But he switches from being concerned about Brillar and wanting to train her, to eyeing her up as something more. It’s hard to identify what their relationship should be, and there isn’t enough chemistry either way to make firm decisions.

There are several secondary characters that come and go throughout the book: inn-keepers, family, small villages etc. You get to know some, but no one sticks around to make an impression.

The world-building is full of exotic creatures and intriguing landscapes. The settings were well-established. But the magic was not. Despite Brillar needing instruction – normally the excuse for some exposition – the rules of magic are never set. It seemed every problem could be overcome by magic, with no hint as to what overstepped the boundaries or where the lines are. It’s hard to immerse yourself in a world you don’t understand.

I read this in a day, so it’s not a long book. Enough worked that I was intrigued enough to keep going, but with the pacing, the characters and the magic all leaving me baffled, it disappointed me.

I recently bought a new kindle after my old one broke. For some reason I was unable to download this title from the cloud onto my kindle, therefore I will be unable to review this title. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused

this had what I was looking for in a fantasy novel, the characters were great and I really enjoyed reading this book.

ARC from NetGalley

Well. Honestly, I'm not really sure what to say. The magic system is very interesting. The settings were done very well. The characters were a bit bland. The plot was.. what was the plot? Yeah I don't know. Essentially we spend an entire book getting to know Brillar and Eldon. Nothing major really happens. I mean, things happen, but I have no idea what the overarching plot was. I was walking on this trail and found myself at the end. It was a nice enough walk, but I kind of wanted to go somewhere, you know? The writing wasn't amazing. It could use some work, but it was by no means bad. I don't regret spending my time reading this book, but I haven't been given a good enough reason to read the next one.

Such a great beginning to a fantasy series. Interesting and exciting. A lot of action as the characters move from one adventure or challenge to another. You have one character who is young, caring, and passionate, and another who is older and has seen more of the difficulty life and people create. She brings hope and he brings realism. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Ooohhh I would love to read more in the series!
A 3,5 star for me as it felt a bit unfinished but I am hopeing I will get more of the world building in the next books to come!
Thank you Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Orb and Arrow is the first in what looks to be a planned series of books of the adventures of Brillar, a young apprentice magician, and Elden, her master mage. It's dull as dishwater. I wanted to like the book - I love a fantasy adventure romp, but the plot took forever to get anywhere, then meandered about without any real purpose. The characters were irritatingly two dimensional. Brillar is a total Mary Sue - ace archer, master healer, pretty, athletic, and idealistic and Elden is a predictably world weary middle aged man. There's a half-hearted attempt at will-they-won't-they, but I didn't really care, and just plodded through to the rather contrived climax. The only redeeming feature is the interesting magic system and the description of the Wilds, the dangerous environment populated by magical creatures (which they finally get to about 60% of the way through the book after an awful lot of mucking about in a village or on the road).

I was provided a copy of the book to review by Net Galley. I have no conflicts of interest.

At twenty two, Brillar has all the skills ever: she’s an amazing shot with a bow, quick with a knife, clever with locks, and not unskilled in minor magics. She frees a bound mage named Garnelden (called Elden) and he decides to make her his apprentice as thanks. They end up taking a long road trip to confront the man who had him bound in the first place. After more than half a book, they finally enter the Wild, which seems to be like stepping out of training mode in a roleplaying game. There are golems that drop gems and giant rats that hoard treasure...it sounds like the beginning of a tabletop session.

Mutual attraction appears about as soon as Elden is able to sit a horse. Interestingly, this is despite him having a beard coming in and a mustache that nearly covers his teeth. He decides not to do anything about it, however, since Brillar seems only interested in having him in her life as a teacher. He is, apparently, a very good teacher and she learns more from a few weeks with him than she did in years of training with the Sisterhood. Of course, Brillar is pretty special herself. She’s the only person in the history of ever to remove a certain kind of magical binding, and she did it without guidance. (I told you she had all the skills ever.)

The book falls heavily into some typical fantasy tropes: everyone drinks stew and inns are ubiquitous and unnamed herbs can take care of everything from cooking and healing to destroying evil magical artifacts. There are simple folks with simple speech who have misogynistic cultures that the heroes instantly recognize as backward and work to upend. That said, it is nice that the time required for items of clothing to be manufactured is taken into account during inn stays, as well as the time it takes to travel from one place to another, and to recover from injuries without magical aid (although that last is discarded as soon as the author can get our main characters using magic).

The language is occasionally confusing because the author’s word choice sometimes doesn’t match with what’s actually going on, and it is unclear whether they actually used the word they meant to use, or if they used the word they meant to use, but are using it incorrectly. The typos, which turn up as frequently as every few pages, are similarly distracting, and since I am reading the published version, not an ARC as I usually do for NetGalley, I must assume they are there to stay. Equally off-putting are the author’s choices for indicating emphasis. A man who is introduced as a murderous madman speaks sometimes in ALL CAPS, sometimes in Italics, sometimes in bold, sometimes underlined, and sometimes in a combination of the styles. It reads as overkill and looks amateurish on the page.

On the subject of language, for all that there is in the beginning a (largely unnecessary) primer on Aelfain forms of address and a pronunciation key, it is clear that no thought went into linguistic consistency for the rest of the names, except that minor characters’ names tend to sound like someone with something caught in their throat: Trog, Ruggle, Enk, Berl, Morglain, Hebrel. On a related note, there are lots of compound words to describe things, like “foldbox,” which I’m imagining as a sort of Attache case or a travelling jewelry case.

Ultimately, this is a book for fans of the Dragonlance Chronicles who are not terribly concerned with a polished product, and just want a familiar setting with new characters. It’s forgettable.

Good story. Well written. I really enjoyed reading this book. I will definitely be reading more in this series. V.L. Stuart is a great author and has a new fan of her work! Glad I chose this book

This was a very good, fun read. The story and it's characters snapped me up from the first chapter and I couldn't put it down til I finished the book!

I enjoyed reading this book following Brillar and Elden through their world. Brillar rescues Elden from the Dimlock collar and the story goes from there. I thought it was reasonably well written and is a pretty standard fantasy story. For me it wasn't a book to rave about, that being said I would like to read the sequel.

Thank you to NetGalley and author V.L. Stuart for the chance to review this advanced reader's copy of the book.

I will definitely be buying the books in this series!

The book focuses on two primary characters, the elder male Garnelden of Torennwood, who is a middle aged male mage, and Brillar of Laurenfell, a young adult female noblewoman novice healer and mage. After Brillar saves Garnelden's life in the opening of the book, she nurses him back to health, and then agrees to apprentice with him for a year. The author presents the relationship as evolving over time, with the reader left with the impression that they will become a couple, but are starting as a teacher and student. While I have concerns about this theme, especially in this era of concern of power relationships over women, I think the author makes a save in the way she introduces the pair. Brillar is a powerful and confident individual, who meets Garnelden at his nadir and in need of rescue. So, while she can learn from him, she is not without her ability apart from him and she is not reliant upon him for identity, purpose, and validation. The author nailed it, as far as I am concerned. The book then follows as Garnelden takes care of some unfinished business, they save each other, and then upon their respective recoveries, they enter the Wild for training Brillar specifically requested.

While the book is clearly part of a multibook series, the author found a good stopping point. The story can continue with separate books, but no serious plot points are left unresolved at the end of the book. While there are topics including romantic content and violence, there is neither sexual content nor gratuitous violence. While there are scenes of violence described, the violence is not graphically described such that it would warrant a "trigger warning" or withholding from adolescents, in my opinion. This is written such that an adolescent through an adult can read and enjoy the book.

V.L. Stuart - you have a new fan : )

ARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Orb and Arrow: Exploration is the first book in an epic fantasy series that focuses on a healer called Brillar that decides to leave her home to live adventures and a mage that is being kept captive. When Brillar finds him, she has to kill a man in order to save the mage and killing is something forbidden for healers. Brillar decides to become Elden’s apprentice and they start a journey in which they have to face several obstacles.

I decided to read this book first of all because it has such a beautiful cover that really caught my attention. Also, the premise sounds pretty interesting and it seemed like the type of story that I usually enjoy so I started it with an approximate idea of what I was going to find inside this book. The thing is that I didn’t find what I was expecting. That doesn’t have to be something bad but in this case it kind of was.

What I loved the most is the world in which the story takes place. I think that the author gives the reader enough descriptions and references to the places that the characters visit so it’s easy to imagine them and to be transported to them. I especially liked the Wild and the secrets inside this huge forest. In addition, the magic is also great. I would have liked to know more about it because I feel like we didn’t get an explanation about the different types of magic but we do get information about the Brotherhood and the Sisterhood that I found really interesting.

My main problem with this book was that it doesn’t have a specific plot. Basically the characters go through the woods hunting, healing their wounds and learning magic and on their way they sometimes find these situations that they have to overcome. I never felt that there was an actual plot so I was always I little lost not knowing were the story was going.

As a consequence of what I’ve just mentioned, I felt that the pacing was pretty slow and it was kind of boring at some point. I think that the book starts great with some really interesting scenes but then I kind of lost my interest because of the repetitive scenes. It gets better again at the last 15% of the book which I read almost on a row because I was enjoying it a lot but the middle part of the book is the one that I struggled a little bit to read.

Brillar and Elden are the main characters of this story. I have the feeling that we get to know more of Brillar than of Elden because the story is told mostly from her perspective and Elden kind of stays as a mystery. We don’t get to see his feelings and his thoughts, we only know things about him because he tells them in conversations with other characters and I would have loved to get to know him better. This kept me from connecting with him as I connected with Brillar.

Talking about side characters, I have to say none of them really stood out to me. They serve as a tool for the story to go forward so they don’t have a complexity within them. If I had to mention one of them, there was this man that I thought was super interesting because of the intrigues around him. The thing is that he disappeared pretty early in the book and I wish the author had explored him more, he had a lot of potential.

To finish this review, I wanted to mention that the ending is pretty open because this is the first part on a series but it didn’t make me want to continue reading the next book so I don’t think I will. I enjoyed this reading if I forget about the boring scenes but that’s it, it didn’t move me and I love to be moved by the stories I read.

Through NetGalley, I received a free copy of ORB AND ARROW (Book 1) by V.L. Stuart in exchange for an honest review. Brillar has escaped her elite school, family, and all of the expectations of her school and family. Brillar wants to explore the world, meet other species, and see all the sights. In her travels, she comes across a pair of kidnappers who attack her at first sight. After successfully defending herself, she finds an ensnared mage among their belongings. Removing the magical snare is tricky and results in her travels being slowed as she is now responsible for the mage’s recovery. The mage is Elden, a war mage skilled in four powers and a person being hunted by an unknown party. Elden further entangles Brillar in his drama by forcing her to become his apprentice. Together, Elden and Brillar will have to confront their individual pasts before being able to move on to the future.

I really liked this story and the new world built by this first book. I went ahead and bought the next two books. I recommend this book to fans of high fantasy.

#OrbandArrow #NetGalle

Tolkienesque, indeed! Orb and Arrow, Book I was such an enjoyable read, I could not put it down and consumed it with fervid abandon. The worldbuilding is filled with diverse locale, varying trades, guild-like orders, a plethora of fantasy races and creatures, and an interesting magic system.

The book begins with an overview of fantasy terms accompanied by their definitions and pronunciations, which was so thoughtful to even consider providing the readers. At first I was speculative that I would enjoy this book assuming it may be riddled with an overabundance of confusing naming schemes, but that wasn't the case at all, the prose wonderful and fluid.

Perspective is split between our two main characters: Brillar of Laurenfell, a fiery Archer / Healer Mage of the Life Sisterhood, and Garnelden of Torennwood, Mage of the Four Powers of the Brotherhood. I had little issue with this, only that there were times where perspectives momentarily jumped mid-paragraph with no indication very suddenly, such as when the other character had a strong reaction, and I had to re-read some passages.

I love the characters, and the slow-burn maybe-romance. Brill is 22 or so in years, and Elden perhaps almost double her age, so for much of the story they keep up the pretense that they are "niece" and "uncle" while traveling together in spontaneous apprenticeship, which at times came off as kinda gross and is really the only issue I had with their dynamic. Where Brill is passionate and willful, Elden is calculative and sharp-eyed, both matching in wit and charm. I am shipping them so hard. Note that (view spoiler).

Side note: If I could cast a VA for Elden, it'd be Jay Hickman (specifically, Jouichirou Yukihira) hands down.

Their adventure went about rather slowly, and the plot(???) dragged. In honesty, I'm unsure of what the plot even is, simply feeling that it's more so about the MC's attraction and need to be near the other, which isn't awful as I adore their complimentary personalities and connection to the other but I wanted more. There are moments where both MC's pasts come into play, though encounters were rather brief which utterly killed any and all suspense and in that they seemed disjointed from the story, especially in regards to Elden.

One thing that really bothered me is the few sexual scenarios scattered throughout. First, (view spoiler). I found that fairly problematic. Then there's this situation later on (view spoiler) which wasn't handled very well, the whole ordeal detracting from the story and simply remaining uncomfortable besides. Despite that, I did take notice and appreciate how Brill was never written in any over-sexualized manner.

The back of the book held some information overviewing the Sisterhood and the Brotherhood, which was a really nice supplement that helped flesh out these orders and hint towards certain aspects of the MC's and the worldbuilding, though it would probably have been wiser to have this in the beginning of the book so as to keep the information in mind while reading.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I'm looking forward to reading the next installment to see what kinds of shenanigans this mage-ic duo get themselves into next.

There is a lot going on in the book but for me it never went anywhere. It is exploration and our two main characters do a lot of that. Along the way. there is danger and adventure but I never saw a goal. They just wandered and met different people. Entertaining but no incentive to read the next book in the series.