It was really difficult for me to get into this book. I have tried multiple times and I couldn't get a handle on the world-building due to the complexity of it. The main character - Zaria - I did like. She seems brave and willing to help others. I had to re-listen to many parts of the story due to ongoing confusion. In the end I probably wouldn't recommend listening to this via audio because of so much flipping back and forth between parts. I imagine this book would be great to read.

I would be interested to see what this author does in the future, but this book was not for me.

I appreciate that the author was going for an intricate plot and world building, unfortunately this was done through A LOT of exposition, not only in the beginning but throughout the entire book, and I still ended up losing track of who was who and what was when.

On the other hand, the writing itself is very simplistic and easy to follow, but there is nothing left for interpretation. Every thought or emotion had by a character "flashed across their face" or was narrated explicitly.

Then, despite all of the plot intricacy, a big part of the third act conflict is still just a simple miscommunication.

Also lots of thoughts on the romance... the lack of chemistry, the insta-love, the immortal man with a girl who's only recently come of age, not to mention the slave/master roles....

Lucy Holden seems to have drawn inspiration from Holly Black and her Folk of the Air and Ironside series. Supposedly there was also inspiration drawn from Greek and Persian mythology, but I guess I wasn't able to see where those tied in. If you're a fan of any of the stories previously mentioned, you may enjoy this book.

It's unfortunate when such a promising premise is so poorly executed. I probably should have DNF'd this by the 50% mark but infeel guilty for DNFing so many books lately.

So much info-dumping and yet the world-building still falls short of expectations. We know that there was a war that caused massive changes in their world, yet it's not made very clear what the war was about nor who the good guys vs. bad guys were. There are so many characters, too many to truly keep track of, and we are told which side each of them were on. Some of the (presumably) bad guys are allowed to walk free (and sit on the Council) while others were imprisoned or executed, and some of the (again, presumably) good guys are allowed to walk free (and sit on the Council) while others were imprisoned or executed. There's no rhyme or reason as to why an individual was given a certain punishment.

Scenes that should have been important or that have a big impact on the plot are rushed and over faster than you can process what just happened, while useless, meandering scenes full of useless info-dumpy chatter go in for chapters at a time. So many words, so little said. Things like a "Sliver Sky" or a "Dark Rip" play central roles in the plot, yet it's never explained what they are or why they're so scary. What's Darkwine? What makes in Indigold? What makes a Pathfinder? What makes a Shadow? What are their abilities? What makes them distinct species? Who are the Paladins and who are the Priestess? What are their roles in this society? Seems like we'll never know.

Gross and likely offensive takes on slavery (I.e. Zaria wants to stay enslaved the Harkan so they she can "feel him" while they have sex). And then when, as promised, Harkan releases her from her slave bond, she feels sad that she's now a slave with no master... I mean she's so depressed over it that she no longer wants to pursue the goal we've spent that last 300 pages talking about

Zaria is a very boring character. Her personality consists of being obstinate and that's pretty much it... this singular personality trait even gets a sibling killed and forces the other to remain enslaved. But don't worry, later on in the book she considers that she may have been a moron. The most interesting thing about her is that she supposedly has eyes the colours of Darkwine (still don't know what that is, though) which I presume means burgundy. Oh, and she's got a... Zumi on her back? We aren't really told the significance of a Zumi though... I mean we're told it's meant to be a protection but clearly that isn't true as Zaria is enslaved and abused for her entire life.

I didn't buy the love story between Zaria and Harkan. They barely interacted and when they did it was bland. All of a sudden they're banging. Oh, and to call this a spicy book then only provides this one (dub-con) one paragraph sex-scene? I just don't think we should be calling a scene between an enslaved woman and her master spicy but idk maybe I'm just a prude. It's okay not to have spice in a book. Toting false promises just makes readers feel mad and deceived.

And finally, once the main conflict is resolved, all other minor/side conflicts are magically resolved out of nowhere. It feels cheap and unearned.

I was so excited at the potential of this book but was unfortunately left wanting. I thought I saw somewhere that this was a standalone but it seems like there's a seed for a sequel... if there does turn out to be a sequel I hope it's better than the first installment.

Woven in Darkness by Lucy Holden was such a slow start that I’ve put it to the side several times. I listened to it and it was narrated by Heather Takano. I’m going to stop right here and say that Heather Takano is probably one of my favorites. She tells a beautiful story adding so much to the story. But alas it still wasn’t enough to compel me to finish. It dragged and I was confused and I just couldn’t do it. I always try to finish my books but this is not one of them.
Thanks Fehu Press via NetGalley.

It was ok. I didn't really hold my attention, and I struggled to get through the story. I will not be continuing with this series.

This book is super intense- there’s a lot of world building right off the bat so you really need to pay attention.
The second half of the book is where the page and plot really pick up and if you can stick it out I think you’ll really enjoy it - if you like complex / high fantasy.
There’s a lot of great banter and tension from the main characters .
I also loved that this is a standalone . Recommend if you enjoy Sarah J Maas and Suzanne Collins

Thank you to Netgalley for the audiobook version of this story. I found the story to be engaging and full of mystery and magic. The main character has the characteristics of loyalty, love, curiosity, drive, and perseverance. I loved the fact that she continued to fight to the end, to win the freedom for herself but also for her siblings. She continued to hold fast to the notion that they all needed to be free, not just herself.
I will be interested in reading a sequel to this book.

🌟🌟🌟🌟.5/5

Thank you NetGalley for this amazing arc.

I have to be honest, going into this book I didn´t know what to expect. The first half was very difficult. The reader is catapulted in a completely new world and it is not easy to follow or understand what is going on, but then, as soon as we start to understand how things work the story becomes beautiful.

In my opinion, struggling with a woldbuilding it´s not necessarely a bad thing. Who read Fantasy knows that time is needed to understand properly what is going on.

Zaira is the main female character and I LOVE her. She was strong, resolute and curious.
The story starts with Zaria brother Doron being lonto into a Dark Rip. Zaria always tried to potect her four siblings and losing Doron made her realize she needed to act and do everything in her power to get rid of the braid which enslaves her and her family.
She soon meets Harken, the dark lord of the Woven court. He is a being with many secrects but their fates will entrwine soon.

I loved their relationship and all the side characters were very interesting.
The romance between Zaria and Harken was very nice, even though I would have liked more pining (from Harken) and general interactions between the two. 🙈

The book doesn´t end with a cliffhanger but I loved the events of the last ten pages.

🎤I read and listen to this book and I´m not sure of it but I had the impression that the reader of the audiobook is the author herself (if so chapeu). 💕

This is a wild ride of dark fantasy romance. A slave and a magic king strike a bargain in this complex fantasy world. There is a large amount of world building, which makes the story start slowly. Thankfully, the audio helped carry me along.

Should darkness be feared or embraced? Maybe both!


Woven in Darkness narrated by Jessica Harris is the first book in Lucy Holden’s new fantasy romance series The Woven Saga. An ancient land with a society that is woven throughout with magic is the backdrop for Zaria’s story. For as long as she can remember she has been marked as a slave with a braid around her neck, the end of which is kept by the master who controls her, and dreamed of the day she would earn her freedom and eventually the freedom of her “siblings” through the deadly braid race, where only the winner walks away alive. A chance encounter with the Lord of the Savage Court and unexplained attempts to kill her change the trajectory her life as her purpose becomes part of a bigger struggle between forces that are set on complete dominion of the world as they know it.


Billed as a slow burn fantasy romance, Woven in Darkness is conceptually an intriguing story with its exotic world, magic societal groups, and strong and gifted heroine. However, there were several things that kept it from reaching its full potential in my mind. As the first book in a new fantasy series, I realize that world building needs to be a big part of the first few chapters. I felt that there were so many foreign terms, titles, etc. and a lot of characters that a glossary of some type would have help immensely in keeping things straight. The opening scenes were riveting with action that was not matched until the very end of the story. It felt like a roller coaster ride I once got stuck on midway through the run and had to sit and watch the crew work on it for a while before it took off again. Lastly, Woven in Darkness is billed as a slow burn romance. For me it burned so slowly that my interest in their relationship fizzled out. Finally, too many lose ends were wrapped up in a much to convenient and timely manner that it did not feel natural.

The thing that got me through Woven in Darkness and kept me engaged was the wonderful voice of Jessica Harris. Her character variations and presentation really enhanced the feel of the book and took me to where I was not just listening to narration but a part of the story. I also loved the addition of the Sea Dragon, Huxley. She was so endearing and I hope we get to see more of her. I really think The Woven Saga has great potential and look forward to seeing how Zaria’s story plays out.

Thanks to NetGalley and Fehu Press for allowing me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review!

NetGalley rating (for the novel as an audiobook): 3 out of 5⭐
Goodreads rating (for the novel's story and plot): 4 out 5⭐

This is a novel that would have been best suited for me to have read in digital or physical form rather than listening to it, and I regret discovering that it was available on Kindle Unlimited after I was almost finished with it. There were just enough new concepts for my neurodivergencies to get stuck on in confusion while reading the audiobook which really hampered the listening experience for me overall unfortunately. I would have understood & enjoyed it much better had I just read it on Kindle Unlimited, and because of that, I do feel it warranted the 3⭐ here rather than the 4⭐ on Goodreads.

The story puts us in a different world than ours where separate realms are connected to one another through a magic called Weaving, and the story centers on a slave named Zaria who makes a deal with a mysterious lord to earn her freedom, as well as the freedom of her four siblings, in exchange for assisting him with a problem she finds that she is woven deeper into than either ever truly suspected.

Betrayal, misunderstanding, & exceeding expectations set by oneself, and everyone else, are challenges they both must meet head on before the world returns to a state its seen twice too many times already.

I thought that the narrator did a decent job with the voices she gave to individual characters if, perhaps, the emotional performances she gave for them came off a bit underwhelming at times. I happened to rather enjoy her voice for Gemory, though, who was my favorite character out of them all. It was fun to see bold acceptance of a non-binary character without narrative derailment explaining it to other characters or the readers themselves.

I am really not cultured enough it seems to grasp where the Persian and Greek mythology references were made unfortunately, and that makes me feel a little despondent as I feel like I missed some good layering to the novel.

I do want to make note that there is an uncomfortable power dynamic re: slavery that the narrative tries to subvert that did not feel 100% successful. I am not sure it is a dynamic that can/should be attempted at subversion. This heavily affects my ability to recommend this novel to anyone...

Woven in Darknes is a fantasy story about overcoming hardships and finding oneself. The world is rich and complex and the story is compiling.
Thoughts, specific to the audiobook version- I feel like it’s important to mention I found the narration very hard to listen to. For me, the narrator was a bit too monotone and I felt like she was reading a history book not telling a fantasy story. I think because of that I found it difficult to get into this book. The prologue is filled with a ton of information about the world’s, types of people/creatures, and a general outline of the MC goal. (Had I been reading a physical copy it would be nice to be able to flip back to these details) As it was, I was confused and a bit overwhelmed with data so it was hard for me to fall into the story. I felt like it took about 15% of the book before I really got into the story. I feel like the story would be really good but I don’t feel like I got nearly as much enjoyment out of it as I would have if I’d read the physical version.

Great slow burn with that swoon worthy “Who did this to you?” 🥰 Great story but I would definitely recommend picking up the physical copy over the audible on this one.

The book's cover caught my attention and the audio performance by Heather Takano, kept it. The author has created a complex world with many characters. Sometimes this was confusing. Aside from Zaria, her siblings and Harken and maybe one or two others, I wouldn’t want to take a test at the end for my understanding of who’s who and what they care about.

Zaria is a likeable and engaging character. Her quest to free her siblings is strong throughout. The best part though, is her physical and emotional connection to Harken. We want her to win her battles and free her siblings, but most of all we want her to connect with Harken.

This was an enjoyable summer read/listen. I received this audiobook as an ARC from NetGalley and Fehu Press in return for an honest review.

Thank you Net Galley and Nehu press for the audiobook ARC! This book was a bit of a slow start for me, especially because of the immense world building and terminology I had to figure out while listening to a narrator. I find that complex world building is a little easier for me to grasp when reading a book vs listening. There are a bunch of characters with interesting names introduced and differentiating who was who was a little hard at first. I did get sucked into the story and enjoyed the beautiful world that was created. There is a slow burn romance, forced proximity and some light spice which all romantasy lovers enjoy! The ending was satisfying and even brought a tear to my eye. It leaves you with a taste of what's to come, but gives a great conclusion.

DNF

Narrator choice a bit lacking. Since this is a fantasy book, i'll give it a break since it's not my main reading genre. But i just couldn't bear it any further.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy!

Book TWs: Slavery and Abuse

Zaria, along with her 4 siblings, are slaves with no past and a full future. When a dark rip forces the siblings apart, Zaria must find a way to gain the power to free her siblings before they are lost to her forever. When a man named Harken claims her, she is thrust into a world of lies, deceit, and hope. She weaves her way through the politics of her new world and finds a connection with the most unlikely of people.

Zaria was a very inspiring character who proves to everyone she is a force to be reckoned with. She is tough and willing to do anything to free those that she cares about. She is also flawed, making mistakes that cost her and not always having the knowledge she needs. This makes her so much more realistic and interesting, she is someone who you can see yourself in and understand. Harken, however, is an ethereal man that is wrapped in mystery and secrets. It’s only when Zaria learns more about him, that we also begin to unravel his past. They’re blossoming relationship genuinely makes my heart so happy, the way they understood the darkest parts of each other and still accepted all of them. It was so beautiful and I can’t wait to see them grow in the next book.

The plot was fast moving and always kept my attention. Even when there was downtime between events, something was always happening or being discovered. I LOVED the magic system in this book. The slave braids were such an interesting concept, being that Zaria and her siblings were given them seemingly to protect them (not a spoiler, it’s said earlier on). The world building was easy to follow and never felt overbearing, new info always given in small increments. If you’re like me and can’t take heartbreaks for long, you’ll love this book. While there is no insta-forgiveness, the characters have decent communication skills and aren’t afraid to talk to one another.

Overall this was an absolutely amazing fantasy book. The plot had just the right amount of angst and fluff to keep me wanting more. If you like Daughter of No Worlds or Throne of Glass, you will absolutely love Woven in Darkness.

Spoiler Review: Coming Soon

Woven in Darkness had an interesting premise. Enemies to lovers, magic, found/made family. It had everything that I usually devour. *Usually*

This book started out extremely slow, in my opinion, and was more than a bit confusing. I know, I know... sometimes that happens. The problem here was that it happened for so long that it took me completely out of the story.

I will say that the characters were great and I loved them.

Received this ARC I tried a couple of times to get into this book, but I felt that the beginning was very confusing. It felt like a dump of information at a very fast pace. I ended up DNF’ing it.

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc. I’m late with my review. However, I was really interested in this story at first. It was very interesting. However I think it was just too much in the beginning and I felt very lost. Ultimately I DNF’d around 30%.

Okay girllllll, I love how invested you are with this world-building, but I need you to go a couple of sentences in between explaining a new concept/character/location/myth/world-shaking revelation, please.

If you love a super built-out story with tons of characters, backstories, fantastical magic, and a crazy amount of mashing of mythologies, then this is the place to get it all! And I mean, allllll of it. I'm assuming that there will be more books, where some of the side characters and/or siblings who are kind of barely mentioned in passing will have opportunities to have true character arcs, so I'm waiting on bated breath.

5/5 world building
5/5 every fantasy trope, including minor spoiler-alert, **dragons**
4/5 narration was great, but there's just a minor disconnect with a few of the generic men's voices blended together a bit for me
3/5 character-building, you have a ton of characters, but there's really only one character arc that gets built out and grows, it's great, a little singular, but I enjoyed what you wrote me

Thank you to Fehu Press for the advanced audio copy via Netgalley! I'm always up for a fun fantasy frolic with strong female characters!