I tried giving this novel a fair chance but the writing style was too horrid for me to move on with it. The premise was interesting and the cover was beautiful but the execution was bad.

Not going to lie, got an Arc because the book cover interested me enough. B

This one is the first book in the series. I like how Liyah gives me throne if glass vibes but with a primary mission that will be revealed if you read the story. I will not spoil it for you guys.

I enjoyed how the plot had its uniqueness to it with it being both different and engaging. Characters are depicted truly well, and the author has made an excellent showing.

I think you enjoy a good female lead you will enjoy this one, especially if you're a die-hard fantasy lover. Then this one's for you. It kept me going for a few days to just relax and escape reality and went to a fantasy world with many actions.

There's a good story here apart from all of the bad grammar. At first I thought that it was a bad copy, but I concluded that it is just a poor translation to English, seeing as the author is from Austria.
Regardless, the story kept me intrigued throughout even while puzzling out the occasional sentence structure and confusing word choices. The main character is torn between two kingdoms as she fights for her home and for her friends while struggling being caught in the political intrigue. The plot is fast paced and kept me glued to the entire book. The big reveal at the end was a big surprise I did not expect. It's a great read!

This was a DNF for me. I just could not connect to characters or plot. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity.

I tried giving this novel a fair chance but the writing style was too horrid for me to move on with it.

It's terribly written and overall the sentences feel unconnected, this book is obviously not only poorly written, but also badly edited.
There's tons of obvious errors like usage of clunky sentence structures that could have been easily replaced with common phrases, a lot of inconsistencies with dialogues, missed " marks, lack of "the" when needed and insertion of it when it was not, weird commas, weird narration structure with every sentence feeling detached from one another and chapters ending very abruptly.

There is a lot of moving parts in this book.
This book includes: balls, spy missions, land and sea battles, mysterious magical mountain people, a heist, a ruined and forgotten city, magical objects, curses, corrupt council members, an attempted coup, fortress cities, assassination attempts, magical potions that produce visions, destiny, betrayal, monstrous attacking octopuses, soul eaters, secret societies, multiple dimensions myths and dragons.

Liya is a top spy. As a woman, she is often overlooked by most. Her social standings mean she has the ability to enter high society functions and her training has provided her with the skill to disguise herself as different people, with different occupations. This fictional world seems to portray a patriarchal social structure, with misogyny that hampers Liya but also allows her to be unnoticed, helping her execute spy missions.

Liya is highly successful at her job. If the book was just about her spying on people, being a fountain of secrets and using said secrets to manipulate situations and people than I would be peachy.
This book only touches on Liya's ability as a spy master, but delvopes into delveing into Liya's biggest secret, her magic. From a kingdom that controls magic users to the nth degree, under constant heavy surveillance, Liya hides her magic to avoid that path in life. Hiding her magic felt more like a trauma response, linked to her parents and she would rather stick to her comfort zone. Her magic is an uncomfortable aspect that she hates, and causes her to think about her parents. The amount of magic she has is unprecedented and I think she knows that, knows this would mean she would be inspected, and prodded, and placed on a pedestal above her peers. She would rather the normality than to be the special girl with special powers and I think that it's understandable.

The announcement of a political marriage brings the threat of war closer. Liya is tasked with gathering information but her past is catching up with her present and will impact her future. Liya has to navigate treacherous waters, juggling her own secrets and the secrets of others. Unfortunately its not only Liya's past that has reared its head. I was angered that Liya's innution, which was highly regarded for the majority of the book by everyone (especially her King), was quickly discarded at the end. She was touted for her keen sense of hearing a lie but refused to listen to her when they needed to the most. The King and the people she trusted the most did not give her the same courtesy. She saves so many peoples lives, including the King's multiple times and yet she is quickly disgraced. I would keep the person with super magical powers that can do unprecedented things close, and not cast her off by herself, where she might be a future risk to you and your country. Easy way to make an enemy. Also she knows so many secrets its kind of stupid for them to let her go knowing them. Liya could probably topple kingdoms with what she knows. Just saying.

At face value, Elladur - The Awakening is a fantasy book about Liya, the magical chosen one. In some respects it is, but ultimately it is a political fantasy between powerful men, struggling over power and control. Underneath it all is a sinister magical darkness. Liya's use of her powers was unique and interesting. I was intrigued by what she could do with her magic, and how quickly she could adapt to precarious situations.

Ewan was a likable character that disappointed me. He was affectionate and caring with Liya but when thing got tough, when the country was on the edge of war, he became hostile with her.
Julian was swarmy from the beginning. I saw a snake and he didn't disappoint. He's the type of guy I wouldn't want to be in a room alone with. Dangerous to woman. Lowkey incel.

I found understanding the lore complicated. The eventual info dump felt insufficient. It was very easy to get confused trying to figure out what countries are good, bad and the tense relationships between the each country and their rulers.

My ARC was peppered with grammar errors and some sentences felt weird, but I had assumed it was simply because this was an advanced copy. I read a review on Amazon that the errors I read it was not just my ARC copy but the English translation as the authors first language was not English. It didn't impact the story telling much but it was annoying enough that you questioned whether it was proofed.

At this point I'm interested to find out what happens next after that cliffhanger. It was a great final few chapters that bumped this rating up from a 3.

☁︎ Would I recommend this book?
Yes! Interesting, rich fantasy book with intricate lore and great stepping point for the rest of the series.

☁︎ Would I re-read this book
Yeah, I would like to re-read the book when the next one comes out, as a re-fresher. There are a lot of details and history I would not remember that would be important later on.

The main character in this book, Liya, was so well developed and had me rooting for her from page one until ten end of the book. Liya is a secret agent of King Louis. King Louis is the King if the nation Namoor. Liya is on a quest to investigate and report on the kingdom's political marriage. She becomes entangled in a struggle if loyalties ad she renews her relationship with, Haydn her former love who is soon to become the king of Dar Angaar. Liya's best friend, Ewan, the Captain of the royal army, accompanies her on her quest. They uncover the ancient scroll in the kingdom of Elladur. Liya also uncovers about magical power! Romance, adventure, mystery, fantacy and MAGIC!

This book had me from the first chapter, the characters, the world, the magic, the history and the twists, I loved it!
While I did get a bit confused with who was who and from where, (no fault of the author) the list at the back really helped me.
I can not wait for the next instalment

Elladur-The Awakening is a very good fantasy book with a strong female character in Liya. This is the first book in a trilogy and as such it does a good job setting up the different characters, showing us who's with who and also explaining the world where Liya lives and works in. In the beginning there were a lot of names and with all the political intrigue going on it did take me a while to keep all the characters apart, but once the story really picks up the pages were flying by. Right until the ending which leaves me waiting for more and I will definitely want to read the next book!

I'm deliberately not saying too much about the plot cause a lot is happening and it is easy to spoil stuff, I'd rather you as a reader get the experience like I did and be shocked, suprised, mad, confused just like Liya when there is a different twist again. Everyone who likes fantasy and a strong female lead should definitely give this book a go.

*** Thank you Netgalley for this ARC***