An interesting concept of the book, however there were a lot of things missing for me. I missed specific descriptions, since the story is happening In Asia, and there could've been so many descriptions of smells, architecture, dresses, traditions (Since there is a mix of cultures). Book is very predictable, Kaiya sees the first male and falls in love, no way... 

Fair enough, author in the book description says that the main character Kaiya is very naïve, but level of her naiveness is well exaggerated, I could not stop rolling my eyes. Also, too much talks about her period “Heaven’s Dew”. 

Also half of the book Kaiya is running is search for the magical instrument. Basically there isn't much happening.

There is so many names!!! At some point I thought I would need to start writing them down, because I lost who was who... It was annoying because there were so many "one scene" characters, but everyone had a name...

I really liked the fact (and it truly makes me sad, because book could’ve much bigger potential) of mixing two different cultures of Cathay and something that reminds me of India.  

This is also one of those books where you like secondary characters more. I’m an absolute fan of half elf girl (unexpected in this book), she’s cool and I think that she would be much better than the main heroine, just because of her I want to keep reading this series, hoping that things will improve. 

Thank you @Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to: Goodreads
Review will be posted on: 03/02/2021

*3.5 stars

I loved the setting of the story as well as the concept including a music as the magical power aspect. The ending was my favourite part and the plot twist alone makes me excited to read the rest of the series. The writing style was easy to understand and the chapter lengths were perfect and made it a lot faster to get through.

However I'd say 60% of the back is rather slow building and was a little tedious to get through, but once the action kicks in the plot picks up a lot and becomes more interesting. This isn't very surprising though as most first books in a series tend to be much slower to get into due to the world and plot building. The character development was also rather minimal but I'm hoping the next instalment of the series will delve more into the characters and fleshing them out more.

Overall it was an interesting read with a great plot that keeps you wanting to know more. Hopefully I'll get to pick up the second instalment soon!

Gripped my early on and kept me going. Overall good book, loved the world building. I’d definitely check out the others in this series

*Thanks to the publisher for the ARC! Here is my completely honest review*

DNFd at 20%. I really wanted to push myself to finish this, especially so that I would have evidence for the things I liked/didn’t like. Nonetheless, it increasingly felt like a chore to pick this up, and this to me is a sign that a book is not for me. I can say, however, that this 20% of the book was enough to figure out how the rest of it was going to go.

First of all, I hated the insta-love. I had never seen a book where the main character falls in love with the love interest SO QUICKLY. Not even romance novels do that. She is sixteen, but even at sixteen, I think kids have some sense, or so I want to believe. Sure, do all the stupid stuff you want, you’re a teen... but what I can’t believe is that this character immediately aligns with the political goals of a nation she had never seen in her life. We are supposed to believe that she is a princess, and even though she has been educated as a musician and not a diplomat, she surely should have some sense of politics... right?

But I’m not sure what’s going on with that, to be honest, because we don’t get explanations for anything. Anything! It’s like the author wanted to avoid worldbuilding info dumps, and so they treat the reader like they’ve read an encyclopedia’s worth of background content before embarking in the reading experience. I don’t know what Kaiya, the princess, is supposed to know and not know, because I know nothing about her life or what she’s supposed to do and be like. Apart from the fact she is going to be married off to some noble and she hates the idea, but when this foreign prince comes around she’s suddenly into him like it’s her only purpose.

Tying into that: there is no description at all. The maximum I spotted (and I know because I was paying attention) were two lines saying what colour and shape a room was. And a description of a dragon-shaped throne. Otherwise, no description. The reader is presented with action and dialogue, nonstop, but we are never shown what this world looks like, or what the characters dress like, or the kind of city we are in. If you’re telling me the princess is taking off an outer robe, tell me what the robe is like or what her outfit looks like now, at the very least! It made immersion in the world impossible and it meant I never cared for anything because I wasn’t truly introduced to it.

For the worldbuilding: I think the setting makes sense, sounds appealing and cool, and the premise is awesome too – I could make out some of the myths and legends of this nation which were certainly cool. We aren’t shown the world, though, and the author assumes the reader already knows it all, when it’s not the case. Additionally, some aspects felt very much pulled straight out of Dungeons & Dragons. The dwarf artificers making toys that are mentioned a couple of times, the stereotypical rogue, this foreign prince being trained as a Paladin (yeah, with a capital letter.) These elements alone aren’t necessarily connected to D&D, but unless you flesh them out and explain them, that’s what people are going to connect them to. For instance, in Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (a book that I didn’t love, don’t get me wrong!), we are presented with “Cavaliers” and “Necromancers”, which initially sound very much like Fighters and Warlocks, but the author spends a while fleshing out the intricacies of it so it’s never stereotypical.

But I digress. My last point is on the writing style, which I have noted pretty much throughout this review but I think deserves a moment. It’s bad, I didn’t enjoy it. It’s clunky in the way it jumps from omniscience to character perspectives, and we aren’t shown the characters’ feelings either. The dialogue is repetitive and unnatural, and the action doesn’t read smoothly - I had a hard time figuring out what was going on during action scenes. Finally, I spotted quite a few grammar and punctuation errors, which usually I would be fine with when reading an ARC. This, however, is a book that is being released for the second time, so I expected the editors to be more careful with it.

Overall, Songs of Insurrection was stereotypical, hard to get through despite the writing not being dense or overly complicated, and to be honest, quite a disappointment.

I have to say that the cover drew me in but sadly the multitude of names was just far too much.  I wished that the author would have cut down the amount of characters in this one. Because I just couldn't follow everything and everyone.  I don't feel like you should need a float chart to keep everyone in my mind and in the story.