Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eArc in exchange for an honest review!

The Tenets in the Tattoos is a high fantasy read in which we follow, Thorn, a member of special forces. Thorn is looking for his soul companion, and when he first meets her, he is not pleased. We follow their trials as they try to make their relationship work.

At times I struggled through this book and at other time I coudnt put it down!

The premise of this sounded interesting but I just couldn't make myself like it. I ended up having to DNF at 30% and it was a struggle to get that far. It might have improved after that point but I couldn't justify reading further when I really wasn't liking it.

This novel is narrated by Thornn who is one of his Kingdom's best swordsmen and who desperately wants to find his soul companion. As both a narrator and a character; Thornn is insufferable. He is conceited, arrogant, misogynistic, and just all-around annoying, having to read about this man took any joy away from the rest of the story or the other characters. He made snap judgments consistently and seemed to think he was the be-all and end-all of what mattered.

Aside from my rampant dislike of the main character I just didn't vibe with the writing style and found is disconnected and clunky.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did because the idea of the soul companions is fascinating but unfortunately it just didn't work for me. I have no doubt many people will adore this book but it just wasn't for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for an e-arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book as an eARC from Netgalley. All opinions are my own!

Thorrn is one of the best swordsmen in the kingdom, and that's really all he's ever wanted. Well, that - and his soul companion. But when his soul ends up being a girl from the fabled Earth, Thorrn finds himself thrown into a kind of chaos he'd never even dreamt existed.

I'd just like to start by saying that I absolutely loved this book! I was so surprised by how quickly I got attached to the characters. Even though they were dealing with a fantasy world, they were all so real and each of them struggled with different things that were so relatable and touching, things that drew me to them and made me root for them and their stories. And don't even get me started on how soft Thorrn is! I loved him as a main character and watching him grow into himself and his story. He had me giggling from his theatrics and I loved connecting with his story in this way.

This book dealt with some heavier topics in the form of what the characters were all dealing with, but it was also a feel-good story to me. Comedic relief always seemed to happen at just the right time, and I always found myself smiling just when I needed it. But it still had themes that made me think and made my heart wrench for the characters, and I thought it was balanced incredibly well.

I cannot wait to see where this series goes from here! I loved the world, the characters, and everything in between! If you like fantasy stories with a dash of comedy, this is the book for you!

being a mood reader I could see how many people would pick this up based on the description. however after scrolling through multiple other reviews I find I am not the only one who did not enjoy this book. the description seemed very promising and I was quite excited but it fell short of my expectations unfortunately.

This was one of the arcs I was super excited for. But sadly it did not live up to my hype. The thing I LOVED about this book was how Thorn was on earth. He made me Lol several times with how he reacted to modern things. And the way he started trusting Evyn and protecting her. I was kind of confused about the soul thing and kept thinking that souls were together. But in the end I liked Aubin+ Evyn and Thorn+Tuniel

When my first thought after finishing a book is that I am glad it's over, this is not a good sign. I wanted to read this book because the concept of soul companion interested me, along with a team up between a swordman and an apothecarist. Sadly this was not what I though it would be. Thorrn, our protagonist, is extremely arrogant and I disliked him very much. Yes he has character development and changed but I still did not like him. At one point he did a complete 180°, almost just like that.

The pacing was kinda weird too, it was either nothing much happened and everything was slow, or everything was happening at the same time.

Some of the world is intriguing though, with the possibility by people to create portals to travel from Thorrn's world to Earth (and other realities). Seeing Earth through the eyes of Thorrn was kinda funny.

I'm giving this book 2.5 stars (mostly for Evyn which is an amazing character).

The Tenets in the Tattoos follows, Thorrn, a member of special forces, in a high fantasy world. Thorrn is looking for his soul companion, and when he first meets her, he is not pleased. In time, they connect, and Thorrn finds out that Evyn, his soul companion is an Earthian, who can ping between the realms. This book follows them as they attempt to save each other, people they love, and the rulers of Thorrns realm.

I enjoyed this book. I loved the characters Evyn and Aubin. I appreciated that the characters were all flawed in their own ways. The magic elements of the book were fun. I look forward to the next book in the series.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Tenets in the Tattoos in exchange for an honest review.

I don't have much to say on this one beyond that based on the description and what the plot was trying to do this should have been an exciting adventure, but it just left me bored. All of the characters kind of merge together and while the world building's unique, it felt underexplained in some ways and overexplained in others and all in all, didn't really feel like a real, tangible place.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise/description of this book sounded very promising. I was intrigued by the concept of platonic soul companions, since I haven't read or heard of many books that use this. The book itself, however, fell extremely short of my expectations. I finished it, however if I wasn't reading it as an ARC I would have put it down probably 5% or less in.

Firstly, this book is full of the kind of casual and blatant misogyny that I have only seen in old fantasy books by white cis men. The main character, Thorrn (who has the biggest and most unwarranted ego I have ever read), has built up an image in his head of his 'ideal soul companion', which basically consists of a woman who is tall and beautiful, and who will be subservient and helpful to him in all ways, without any consideration of the wants and needs she may have for herself. This means that when he meets his soul companion Evyn for the first time, he immediately rejects her because she is (and these are direct quotes) "plain", "short, round and rumpled", and looks to be "well-fed rather than well-bred". This leads to him and the rest of the Special Forces constantly laughing at her for her supposedly 'male' name, calling her "Lady Evyn" with an emphasis on 'Lady' to imply that the two sound ridiculous together. Even after he accepts her as his soul companion (which happened way too quickly considering how opposed he was to her initially; people don't have such sudden changes of heart), Thorrn continues to constantly underestimate Evyn, belittle her opinions and choices, and remove a great deal of the agency she should have. Even when they're on Earth, Thorrn never follows Evyn's lead, even though Earth is her home world and so she has the largest amount of knowledge about it. And Evyn, despite being a woman from our real-world 21st century, apparently has zero objections to any of this treatment because she never speaks up about it.

Thorrn's interactions with Aubin's soul companion Tuniel further demonstrate his disgusting attitudes towards women. From the moment they meet, he is constantly ogling her and always thinking about her in a sexual way. Even when she's trying to heal him after he's seriously injured, all he can think about is (again, direct quotes) "the way her chest rose and fell", her "soft curves", and how she's leaning over him "as if she were pushing [him] down into bed", even though he's apparently in extreme pain. And there are many, many more examples I could use to demonstrate my point.

Secondly, slavery. First we see that Thorrn is actually pro-slavery (direct quotes: "Thank the gods we have slaves for that", "What most people need to realise is, we need slaves"), and his views on this are basically never called into question. We then never actually see any slaves or hear anything more about slavery for the rest of the book. Coming from a white author, this is absolutely disgusting. We do not need white opinions on slavery, especially if those opinions consist of 'slavery is good for the economy'.

The story itself was also very poorly executed. The premise was interesting and I can see how it could have been done well, but that was not what happened here. The plot was all over the place. Key concepts were not introduced early enough or well enough to feel anything other than clunky. The concept of 'alts' and alternate timelines was incredibly unnecessary to include on top of having two different worlds, and actually made everything even more confusing, especially when it ended up playing a key role in the 'final battle'. Key abilities were not explained at all, like how a woman who is supposedly from the 'real world' has the ability to open portals.

It is extremely obvious that there was no oversight or editing for this book, or if there was, it was clearly not done by anyone with differing opinions to the author on slavery and the treatment of women. Frankly I am disgusted that a book with these views is being published in 2021. I can't submit this review without providing a star rating, but if I could, I would be giving it 0 stars.

[e-ARC was sourced by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review]
...
DNF'ed at 10%.

Call me a hopeless romantic, but when I see a soulmate au I have a tendency to reach for it - especially in a fantasy setting. So when I read the description for this book, I was ecstatic. A soulmate au in a fantasy setting? The main character is supposed to kill his soulmate? Sign me up! However this book feel extremely short of my expectations.

The book is narrated by the main character, Thorrn, who is incredibly irritating. His entire thought process is centered around whining about how unfair it is that he hasn't met his "souls companion" (aka soulmate) and how good of a swordsman he is. His expectations are unnecessarily high, and he is insanely rude to Evyn because she didn't meet his expectations for a soulmate.

Originally, I had hoped to push through this difficulty in Thorrn's personality in hopes of him getting a character arc and becoming more likeable. However, when he and Evyn are talking in the third chapter, Thorrn reveals that he is pro-slavery and doesn't believe that slavery is wrong.

Not only is this disgusting, but Thorrn's already large ego makes this book incredibly hard to stomach.

As much as I tried, I could not force myself to finish this book. Overall, the writing style was clunky, there was no connection between the reader and the character, and the main character (whose head the reader is stuck in) is entirely unempathetic, rude, and egotistical.

I truly tried to give this novel the benefit of the doubt but it fell incredibly short of the mark I had wanted it to hit. If I had to rate it, it would be a 1 star.

I loved the meaning behind the book and the incredible world. It has everything that I love about so many fantasy books. The Tenets in the Tattoos has a strong female character Evyn and amazing characters that you are introduced to interesting ways. The relationships between the characters was great. I will be reading this again

Thank you for the advanced copy for review.

I liked the book in general, however I had some issues with it:

1. I found it a bit too much in terms of main story, I mean two world for a first book seems enough, why include alts already? Saying this alt-Thorrn was my favourite
2. Some explanations were lacking - what was the reason for the coup? it would've been nice to understand what lead to the circumstances
3. The characters were a bit plain.
4. From the title I must say I expected a bit of magical tattoos, my mistake.

Overall is an OK read and I think it could benefit of some editing.

Disclaimer- this is only my opinion. I still urge you to read this book if it sounds interesting to you and form your own opinions. Thank you NetGalley and Becky James for allowing me to read this ARC.

I had a really hard time getting into this book, and I ended up speed-reading through the majority of it. I could not connect to the characters, nor could I find the magic system that understandable.
I think the premise was exciting, and I'm all an apothecary and royalty and all that fun stuff, but this book did not hit the mark for me.

I originally chose this book for the cover but I am glad the story didn't disappoint. This is definitely a great introductory read for readers who are trying to get into the fantasy genre. The world-building and magic system isn't as developed as I would like but there is so much room for potential. While I adored Thron, Evynn was hands down my favorite character. I loved her personality and her ability to not take any crap from anyone.

I read this book is no time whatsoever. This book was exceptionally written and it was refreshing to read a high fantasy book solely from a male perspective. The author writes really compelling language and the chapters are laid out in a way that makes you want to keep reading. The world building and characters are excellent and overall The Tenets in the Tattoos is an excellent fantasy read.

This high fantasy book was really enjoyable overall. As someone who liked reading male characters POVs, I was so happy to see that they had been incorporated in this book. This story follows Thorrn and he is part of the royal guard. The way this high fantasy world works is that everyone is going to meet their soulmate but when Thornn finds out who his is, he isn’t really pleased. Evyn (his soul companion) is basically what you can call an “Earthian” (traveller of two realms). As in a lot of books threats start to happen and they’re going to start working together to stop them. They’re relationships and interactions kept getting better throughout the book and there were some really funny parts too where Thorrn was completely astonished by the Earth inventions. I will be honest, the book starts really slow so I didn’t get into it immediately but after a bit I couldn’t put the book down anymore. Be aware that this book isn’t full of romance so don’t expect it to be like A Court of Mist and Fury or From Blood and Ash. The relationships developed the most throughout the book are friendship so don’t get your hopes up.

I really enjoyed the overall concept of this book. We have a magical world that contains royalty, special trained soldiers, and magical wielders. The magical world is like parallel to Earth and "Earthians" have crossed over into the magical world. People from Earth have special qualities that make them immune to magic and their blood is coveted because it can increase the power of the magic wielders.

The story is also unique in that the characters are all connected to a special person, their "Soul", that improves their abilities and bonds with them. The "soul" mates are not romantic though. They are kind of like best friends that compliment each other really well. All the paired "souls" are in romantic relationships with other people. I thought this was a unique spin.

The characters are all likable and complex especially Thorrn, Evyn, Aubin, and Tuniel.

The plot is lacking in some ways. The author did not do a great job explaining some aspects like traveling between the worlds, the magical system, etc. I did skim sometimes because it was confusing. The potential is definitely there to be so much more. It also tried to explore like alternate timelines for the main characters...but it was choppy and not explained well either. Hopefully some of these things are better developed or explained in the next book in the series.

Thank you to the author/publisher for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

While I like the idea of the story, the magic system and the characters I often found myself skimming through the majority of the book. There was a lot that could have been edited out. Most of which wasn’t super necessary for the plot, it didn’t add anything or help move the story along. It made things stagnant and the pacing felt off. For example, Aubins dream family situation. While I understand it was needed for creating conflict, it went on way longer than it needed to. It just felt like a lot of unneeded filler. Also when the characters came through to earth, nothing and I mean nothing was explained very well to the other realm characters. They were given an annoyingly brief explanation of how certain things worked and seemed to only confuse the other realm characters even more. The earthens knew these people weren’t from earth and yet they relied on them knowing half the information, which they didn’t. Overall, it was alright, and had potential. However I probably won’t continue on with the series.

I've been seeing this book around. The cover is gorgeous! So, I had high expectations and they were certainly met. This was an original world, full of mystery and rich characters. The plot pulled me and didn't let go. I look forward to more from this author!