The story failed to grip me. The characters didn’t interest me and the prose was fairly bland. The story has potential but it feels like the surface was scratched and many layers could have been peeled back.

dnf. 33%
As some reviews have pointed out, the plot is confusing and the main character, Lilith is boring. She is nothing out of the ordinary and not remotely interesting. Wich is sad, because the blurb and the cover is interesting.

I'm not sure what I even read. Plot wise it felt very much like a YA chosen one story from 2005, but the writing was so wordy that by the time I got to the end of a sentence I'd forgotten what the one before even said.

Didn't enjoy this one at all.

I liked the idea, however, the writing style, the characters, and the pacing wasn't something I enjoyed. It seems that I'm not on the best of strikes with arcs

I loved the premise of the book. Unfortunately, it had problems I could not even pretend to ignore.

Lilith Oak is a fiery yet naive girl working at her family's smithy when an accident turns her whole world upside down. She is quickly thrust into a polytheistic world where the Gods represent the elements (water, air, earth, fire, and the aether) and bestow them upon deserving humans when they die before their time. These gifts make them Divine and allow them to protect the world, fighting to bring the Gods' interests to life. The book does switch between multiple perspectives of Lilith, Larkin - Lilith's brother, and Rhea - an enchantress.

If you enjoy a typical YA book and are not expecting a whole new trope or original storyline, this book will suffice. The world building was standard, if not a bit muddled at the beginning, for typical YA fantasy. I did appreciate the creativity with the naming and jargon, but took some acclimation. The characters were flawed but strong, realistic enough. And of course, the handsome hero was to swoon for. I wish we saw more of him to be honest.

Sadly, the flaws surpass other competitors in the YA genre.

The writing is a bit too verbose for a YA, but it also lacks adult content, preventing it from receiving an NA label. I consider myself well-read and comfortable with a dictionary, but I found myself too frequently cocking my head at words and having to use the handy-dandy dictionary tool on my Kindle. This would be fine if it was easy to tell which words were made up (in the Elder Tongue language or world jardon) and which ones were just unfamiliar. Alas, it wasn't clear, and it was far too frequent for me. This, added to run-on sentences and extended descriptions of every little thing made the prose drag.

The synopsis held promise for an original storyline, but I felt like I was diving into an older version of "Avatar the Last Airbender." The Divine's all had Masters, similar to Avatar, and of course, the elements they wielded. Half of the book was about Lilith traveling through the woods or sulking because she did something she shouldn't have done. It was just... tiring.

Regarding the characters, this book's only true diversity was the "golden skin" that gave variety to the otherwise overwhelmingly pale characters. I know this is not a necessity to some readers, and this is a made up world in a different time, but as a white woman myself, the lack of POC characters was very obvious. The ONE black character was referred to as a knight, but essentially was a servant and cook for the other Divines at the Frourio, with no real powers of his own. He was a skilled swordsman, but again, like many POC characters by non-POC authors, he was there just to move the plot along and provide character growth for the main characters.

The Arduen and Rhea were two of the three appealing characters with complex backstories. We barely get more information on Rhea, and essentially just see her hopping from one bad situation to the next. I assume she is secretly Larkin and Lilith's real mom, but who knows if that is true or revealed later in the series. And Arduen, oh Arduen. Lilith describes his attractiveness and this longing for her Master, but then later ends up describing him like a father? Yuck. It needed to be one or the other, or just leave it at "he feels like family" after the plot progression. Not only that, but the twist that he was Jude's relative from centuries ago really was not necessary. Jude was irrelevant and should stay that way. No reason to further complicate the attraction Lilith felt towards Arduen at the beginning of the book.

Finally - I know, I'm sorry - I just could not stand the "you are my entire universe" line being used over and over. It felt like Oliver was trying to show some depth here, but there was just really no symbology or weight behind these words. Jude meant nothing to Lilith, yet these words held guilt over her for the entire novel? And the most basic line, at that?

Anyways, this book had a lot of promise. I wish Oliver would try again so I could fall in love like I wanted to.

Thank You to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with this ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows a young woman, Lilith, which is chosen by the Gods to become extraordinary and join the war against great evils who have enslaved their world. Even though it follows tropes that are used in many YA Fantasy books, it is still unique and new.

The Legend of Lilith was one of my most anticipated reads after I was approved to read it. Even though it didn't disappoint me, it still lacked THE something that would make it stand out. Some points of the book felt overtly rushed, for example it seemed strange how fast she was able to master her powers, and become the person she was destined to be.

The story had a lot of potential as it was a brilliant idea, but unfortunately it wasn't there yet. In the
future, I would love to come back and read more books from this author as I have high hopes. Overall, 2.5 Stars.

Tried. I really really tried to give this series a chance since the synopsis was good. Being stuck at 15% progress for 120 days, that’s when I decided to give up. I. DO. NOT. TAKE. DNF-ing. LIGHTLY. I can count the books I DNF-ed in my whole life within one hand and I’ve read for more than a decade already. I do not like DNF-ing, but this book was too much to bear.

- The words were a whole jumble of mess. I mean who use words so deep I can see the Earth’s core in it????

- The story didn’t interest me. A girl gets powers out of nowhere and now she has to go train herself with a bunch of strangers???? With words that I’m sure she doesn’t even understand 😳😳

- The MC doesn’t even have a backbone!! She just allows herself to be **uprooted** (more like kidnapped) by a stranger because she has a destiny/job to fulfill? I call bs.

All in all, I really had a hard time reading this. Might give it a try again in the future, but not anytime soon.

I really wanted to like it however I DNFed it very fast. I usually finish books even if I am not the biggest fan, but I just could not get into this one. The characters were odd to me, and I was very confused. I don’t recommend this book, however it’s my opinion and yours might be different

This book was ok. Not bad but not great. I felt like it went down the same path that a lot of the YA fantasy genre ventures down. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but for someone who has read a lot of fantasy in general, I found it a little tedious to get through. In saying that, there were sparks of unique features to the book as well that did push me through to the end. I would recommend this book if you're getting back into reading again. There is some trigger warnings that some audiences may be sensitive to.

This is a complex fantasy but a brilliant read. I really enjoyed reading about Lilith, our main character, and seeing her character developing. The world building is extensive and I found it had a mixture of high fantasy and medieval feel to it.

The story definitely had its own uniqueness of fantasy theme to it. Another plus point to add is the father and daughter relationship between Arduen and Lilith. As with any relationship, it's complex and rocky but develops well.

I really enjoyed this book and can not wait to read the next one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this!

I loved the story and the characters although it did go down the classic YA Fantasy road at times it did have small hints of uniqueness which was fun. The characters were very well written.

I ended up loving this book. It took a while for me to get into it, but that was definitely not the book’s fault. Seeing how much Lilith grew in this book and the sacrifices she endured were an amazing experience. I can’t wait to check out the sequel
#TheLegendOfLilith
#NetGalley

I had a lot of hope for The Legend of Lilith being a great book, but I'm sorry to say that unfortunately, for me, it fell flat and I found that reading this one was becoming a chore.

I had a hard time finishing this book because of the writing. I did not enjoy the way it was written and I usually really like YA fantasy books. I did like the characters in the book and the storyline was pretty good as well. Thank you Netgalley and Phoenix Rising Press for this ARC but all thoughts are my own!

This book was okay but not super memorable. It felt a little overfilled with tropes and I didn't feel a strong connection to the characters or plot. Furthermore, I didn't find the setting particularly interesting. It had potential, but didn't live up to it.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

Sweeping saga of Lilith's journey from child to one of the Divine. Follow her as she faces obstacle after obstacle. Themes of women's empowerment, family, submission and war are throughout. Trigger warning fratricide and instances of overly submitting to man's will.

This is part one of the saga.

The legend of Lilith

*DNF at 21%*

long story short: I didn’t like this book. Maybe it’s because I’m not the target audience or I don’t like the chosen one trope, but something about this book made me not like it.

First things first, the writing. It was…uncomfortable, some sentences and phrases that were said made me take a step back and stop reading for a bit. An example of one of these sentences being, “Lilith hadn’t deigned to notify her master of the arrival of her moon cycle.” Master?? That was another phrase used that made me wildly uncomfortable.

I didn’t feel drawn to the characters, nor did I feel for any of them. To me, their personalities were kind of bland. All of Liliths conversations with Arduen were so formal, and a kind of a pain to read. In almost every conversation, there would be some sort of lecture from Arduen. Lilith was also an “Oh no I got this sudden power, now i must train but why me? why am I the chosen one” type of MC and those main characters are a struggle to read about.

The plot seemed very interesting, but too many factors played into me not liking it, and ultimately my decision to DNF it.