I had to DNF this... (41%) I recognise that I am a mood reader, but I have tried many times over the last few months. I find the author fun and engaging on social media and so I very much wanted to support her and her work.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. The world building showed promise, the starkness of the world was well established and the slow reveal of the wider context added depth. The friends to lovers dynamic between Ryon and Dawsyn was clear and the additional layers of prejudice against blended parentage helped flesh out the characters.

Despite all of this in its favour, it just fell flat for me and I didn't feel the connection to the characters or the world. However, your milage may vary. It did feel like a familiar set up to fantast giants like Sarah J Maas, so fans of this might find this fits much better.

The potential for great stories that I sync with better is still with this author, so I still to check out her future works.

First of all, I want to thank you for allowing me to read this book! It took awhile for me to start this book, just due to the holidays and daily life. Once I was able to start it, I had a hard time putting it down.

The Plot: Dawsyn lives in a place called the Ledge - a desolate community high on a mountain. The last living member of her family, she ekes out a living in the harsh landscape and waits for the yearly culling, a time when the local, winged creatures known as Glacians come to steal away several human sacrifices. After being chosen and ripped away from the only life she has ever known, Dawsyn is determined to find a way to survive.

The Review: This new adult fantasy romance started strong. The setting made it a perfect winter fantasy read and I loved that Dawsyn didn't seem to be ~special~ in the way so many heroines in YA/NA are. I was hoping for an Elide-esque character, where Dawsyn would be notable simply because of her intelligence, ferocity, and strength. Unfortunately, I think the beginning of this book was the strongest - as the story continued I became less and less invested in the characters or their goals. By the time I reached the ending, I was reading mostly just to see the book through, rather than because I wanted to see what happened.

I also found the world-building a little confusing - sometimes Dawsyn seemed to know nothing about the outside world, but other times she referenced things that she had never been exposed to before. Early on, she commented that her isolated community had never seen an avalanche and it bothered me that she had a word for an experience no one she had been exposed to had ever had.

This was a really promising debut from Stacey McEwan, but it lost steam as the story unfolded.
All in all, I enjoyed this but didn't love it. Props to McEwan for this debut though - it takes courage to publish a novel and this one had a lot of good things going for it.

** Thanks so much to Stacey McEwan and Angry Robot for this ARC via NetGalley. Ledge is available now! **

I really enjoyed this book, it was a good comfort read with lots of my favourite tropes and a nice ‘the main characters will always be okay’ undercurrent.

The book begins on The Ledge with our main character Dawsyn where the small population of humans are enduring rough conditions, only barely surviving. This is where I thought the story would take place but quickly find that there is more to this world than the ledge.

The species of Glacians which rule this world and take all they need from whomever they need was different and so intriguing and I would have loved more exploration of why they are so much more than any other species. They seemed unreachably strong, intelligent and ruthless but when the uprising happens we see none of this and the battle is quick.

The romance was predictably comfortable, just letting you lean into it and enjoy the ride. The banter between the two and the aggression which Dawsyn expresses to Ryon gave me many a giggle which I really enjoyed.

I look forward to watching the Queens get there’s in book two and hopefully seeing the humans on the ledge released.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read Ledge. Unfortunately the interesting premise fell a little flat for me. The FMC was a bit underwhelming and the MMC back story had a lot of holes. I don’t think the writing in this is for me

This book had me hooked! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars are easily given!

I absolutely loved the intriguing plot that kept me wanting to read on! Both main characters are without a doubt awesome and loved their dynamic so much through the book! I can’t wait for the next one, so so excited for more!!!!!

Add this to your shelf asap, I promise you won’t regret it!

Super unique world! I loved the way McEwan builds it-its all discovery along with the main character. You get a bit of an enemies to lovers vibe that I was digging for sure. There is a cliffhanger, so be prepared for that. If you want a unique fantasy romance that kind of gives you Sarah Maas vibes, check out Ledge!

Interesting and atmospheric story unfortunately felt the character development was lacking a bit and there was a lot of background explanation.

Somewhere between a DNF and “not right now” read after chapter 7. I love this author on TikTok, and I think the writing is excellent if you’re looking for a bleak, gritty sort of dystopian fantasy. I wasn’t quite feeling this world or story, but I can perhaps see myself giving it another try one day.

Wow. The Ledge did not disappoint. It grabs you by the collar from page one and doesn’t let go. Dawyson reminds me of a badass Viking. Ryon gave me some Cassian/Rhysand/Azriel vibes. This book was so colorful and adventure packed. It was everything I needed in a book. I’m just sad that I have to wait until next year for book two.

I didn't really know much about this book going into it beyond the info in the synopsis. I was immediately invested in the Ledge, its history, and the plight of its people. The gritty harshness of it and the effects on the people were fascinating to read. I had so many questions about how they got there and why their lives were so difficult. I was excited to find out. Unfortunately, the answers provided in the rest of the narrative were less than stellar and often nonsensical. For example, it made no sense for the Glacians to keep the humans on the Ledge if the goal was to keep a ready supply of them for harvest. I'm honestly surprised that three generations of humans had survived the conditions, and the population would have likely dwindled to nothing in the near future. Much of the love interests' story didn't really make sense either. He's visited all sorts of different places and made allies all over, but he also claimed that he couldn't get out of the Glacian palace for more than one night at a time. The trip to some of these places took days. Maybe he did some of it before going to the palace, but none of it was really very clear. The characters were largely one-dimensional YA stereotypes despite this not being a YA book. Dawsyn was the headstrong girl who refused to give up and had surprising strength and fighting ability. It made sense for her to be scrappy given her life on the Ledge, but her strength seemed way overblown considering how undernourished she must have been. Ryon was the big, strong, mysterious man who started out as a gruff 'enemy' but came to love the heroine because of her wit and skill. There was quite a bit of obsession with size difference between them in the romance, and the dialogue made me cringe. As for the rest of the writing, it wasn't that great either. The descriptions were often repetitive, and the sentence structure felt dull. I lost count of how many times I read the same description of Ryon's stubble. I get it. The author thinks stubble is hot, but at least use a different word every now and then. The book wasn't without redeeming qualities, though. The beginning was quite good, and some of the world-building and plot elements were fun to read. There was the promise of a good story in here amongst the cringe-worthy romance, plot holes, and uninspired writing. Unfortunately, I won't be continuing the series to see if it gets any better. Therefore, I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars.

Dawsyn is the lone surviving member of her family, using her axe and sheer strength to survive. When she is chosen for sacrifice as well as others, she is thrown into another fight for her life.
This was a 3.5 star read for me. A lot of it has to do with the fact it’s a little lacking in the world building. There isn’t a lot of information such as the hows, whys, or even history of the Glacians. I felt readers were expected to accept things at face value. Also, I would have liked to see more initial character development with Dawsyn in the beginning. I would have liked to see more time in the beginning spent with her day to day survival and maybe filling in more of her family history. This is more a personal preference than anything else.
McEwan’s writing is strong. It’s very wordy in places which does slow down the pacing a bit, but she had a wonderful grasp of imagery and her use of metaphors is really nice. She does a really nice job in the action and even the romance.
Overall, I think this is a pretty solid start for a debut novel and book one of a series. The series has a lot of potential, and if that doesn’t compel you to read on in the series, then the cliffhanger definitely will. Four stars!

I personally didn’t relate to the characters, and the FMC felt really flat for me. There wasn’t any character development and the MMC was just boring. Probably one of the most boring MMC I’ve read yet. The plot was very good though and I personally feel if it was more plot driven it would have had a better rating for me and been a better book overall.

If I could have the following two books out now? That would be wonderful, I want to see if the bones of what I liked of the book can develop into a series I love and can easily recommend.

In the beginning, I was a little hesitant to like the MC mainly because I didn't think I liked her at first, but as the story progressed I found my feelings about her changing.

What I did love from the beginning was the world-building, giving us quick snippets of the harsh reality of the world and living near the Ledge. I look forward to seeing the development progress and how our MC and her love interest go.

I didn't hate it, I didn't love it, I look forward to seeing where it goes though.

Thanks to Angry Robot Books for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 50%

This book had a very intriguing premise. The female protagonist, Dawsyn, lives in a village isolated on a mountain ledge, where Glacians (nondescript Fae-like humanoid creatures) take part in an annual invasion and abduct the villagers.

However.

I just could not get over how two dimensional the characters came across as. Dawsyn has practically no personality. Her ax is her personality. I also think the author attempted to give Ryon an intriguing backstory and instead really missed the mark on his character.

I also noticed at about the halfway mark that the plot events were all a little too basic and recycled. While I did appreciate the sprinkles of diversity (MMC is Black, there is a non binary character. etc), I do not think this book's writing style is for me.

This is a great book, the world and character building are so good. I got lost in the story and was actually really sad when I finished as I just wanted ready to leave the world!

I can’t wait to read more from this author,

This book definitely lived up to the hype and if you don't believe me then you definitely need to go pick up a copy today! I can't wait to see what McEwan does next.

The world building was a little too confusing for me, so it was hard to get into but the writing was good.

This book was a wonderful start I loved how unique and intriguing the story was. I can’t get enough of it. Definitely looking forward to read more and upcoming novels by this author.

I gave this a 3.5 star because of how unique the storyline was and i requested this eARC because of TikTok and how everyone loved it and I can proudly say that I enjoyed this as well. I was kind of scared that this book would go into the aspect of historical fiction but it didn’t which I was happy about! I have never read books about glacials and this was a cool read tbh!