I have to say, this book is completely magical and you get sucked right in! The world is so rich and the characters feel so real; this is fantasy done right. This is my first adult fantasy believe it or not, and I am incredibly grateful that this was my introduction to the genre.

Let’s begin with the world-building because I was blown away with how it kept building up gradually throughout the story. It’s even more interesting how we as readers know the world through what Yeeran, our protagonist knows to be truth. Throughout the book, the truths of the world that she was unaware of are slowly unraveled. Histories that her people, the elven people, have forgotten are being brought to light once more. Alongside with the world-building the themes, discussions, and representation being woven into this story is absolutely incredible: disability rep, LGBTQIA+ rep, the realities of war and its effect on a group of people, being othered by society, and much much more. And what’s even more important is how many conversations in this book relate back to ours, and I want to thank you, Saara El-Arifi for exercising much care with these discussions that you have woven into this fantastical story.

Now for the plot and its characters, I first need to say that I appreciate these characters not being in their teens and being much older. Yeeran, Lettle, and Rayan are the core of this story and it’s quite beautiful how they interact with each other. The love that Yeeran and Lettle have for each other is so endearing; their sisterhood bond despite many things that may be left unsaid between them as they both have lived different lives. Where Yeeran is committed to her tribe, Lettle is dedicated to her divination. This domino effect of the plot is so satisfying, the set up in the beginning sets the story and its characters on a journey. The magic system in this book is fleshed out so well and it’s easy to understand from the very beginning.

Now for the romance, I enjoyed the couples especially since queer love is featured multiple times throughout the book. There was a bit of an enemies to lovers pairing in this book that I will not spoil but I found the gradual dip to lovers to be a little too fast especially considering the situation that made them enemies in the first place but I digress it was cute and passionate nonetheless.

Let’s make one thing super clear: this is how you do diversity in fantasy and I implore everyone to read this book and give it the attention it deserves.

Thank you NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

DNF at 10%

I have loved Saara's other books so I am a little disappointed that this one didn't grip me in the same way.

The beginning of the book is incredibly rushed and we're not given any time to get to know these characters before the exile happens. As a reader, its hard to feel the connection of Yeeran and her partner when we ONLY see them once in a short scene before she exiles her. And we get almost no present interaction between the sisters before hand either.

Additionally, these characters do not read as late 20's/30 at alllll. Yeeran acts like a new soldier rather than a seasoned colonel and her sister Lettie reads like a late teen/early 20 yo.

Maybe it improves but I really lost all interest to keep reading after the first bit. And i learned that this is more romantasy than fantasy which I honestly just don't vibe with nearly as much.

Overall 3.5 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley, Del Rey, and Saara El-Arifi for allowing me access to the this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is a fae romance fantasy novel with character and relationship diversity. While I didn't completely love the book, I am happy to see the diversity in characters and relationships as a there is currently a lack in representation in the genre, especially for very popular books.

I enjoyed the reading this book but I wasn't in love with it unfortunately. I had some difficulty initially getting into the book because it immediately jumps into military action fantasy and it was hard to keep up and know what was going on immediately. After getting through the initial chapters the book really picked up and became more fast paced.

The world building was paced well and did not feel like an info dump which I really appreciated. It was really woven throughout the book to get a good understanding of the world and how the characters got to where they are. The plot twists and secrets were also a nice surprise even is some were a little predictable.

On a different note I felt as if there were some areas where the books as lacking. That would be in the politics of each of the courts/species. I expected to have more in depth political drama and scheming than what I actually got. Additionally, I felt as though there was a lack in relationship building and because of that I didn't connect with the characters love story. The two main relationships felt rushed and had an instalove vibe that I wasn't expecting.

Overall, I liked the book and would/have recommended it to friends who I know will really enjoy it as well.

(review also posted on Barnes & Noble and Amazon)

3.5 ⭐️
I really liked this!
Plot/Characters: This very much felt heavy on the slow build of a plot as a "first book" of a series. I struggled to really get into the book until about the 50% mark. I did not feel there was a strong character development or emotional attachment to any of the characters. The world building and details were beautifully written - I loved the idea of this underground city and magic. I also am a sucker for animal bonds, so to create the Obeah and this soul bond was a personal favorite detail. The two main characters had little personal growth in my opinion, i got a bit frustrated in the end at their stuck ways. I want to love Rayan, though I know so little of him. I hope we are getting more chapters from their POV in the next book because I am pumped for that story. I feel like all of the characters act younger than they are? For most of them to be late 20s/early 30s there were moments that they actually felt a bit like young adults/teens.

Romance: I would not mark this first book as Romantasy - due to the little romance that was present. BUT I can assume more will occur as the series goes on making it an "overall romantasy series". Although, when there was romance? OH I did enjoy it. The enemies to lover was tense and HOT.

Plot twists: The plot twist was fun, but I was not surprised by it. The entire time I was heavily questioning the actions and motives of said people, and when the reveal came I sort of thought to myself "i knew it! why didn’t y’all see it?” Also the moment in the end with Nerad felt rush and empty. It was a thing and then not a thing within the span of a page. I would have loved to see a more dramatic moment in that revelation.

Overall, I enjoyed the new world and the beautifully written magic within. I hope the next book is going to be a bit more chaotic and fast paced with craziness (and romance) bc this war is in full swing and I fear Yeeran is headed to the wrong side of it

This was SO much fun. I don't think I have ever annotated and marked up an ebook as much as I did this one, I couldn't stop highlighting lines and making notes and guessing what would happen next. I do not believe this should be classified as romantasy, personally, as the romance in this story- although a part of it, was not a very big part. I feel like the ratings may go down because people will come in expecting a romance with fantasy sprinkled on top but rather, it's the exact opposite! This is exactly the reason I loved it so much. I loved the dynamics between characters, particularly the sister bond, the bond between animal companions (very reminiscent of Eragon which was so nostalgic!) and the bond formed between new friends and a found family. There was so much political intrigue and the world building was absolutely amazing. The way that the facts of the world actually made sense, were consistent, intriguing, and explained power imbalances and the magic system and no plot holes were left unfilled! I will say the only reason I am not fully giving this a five star is because it did read very much like a first book in a series (which it literally is!) in the way that the character development did not necessarily happen. Particularly with Yeeran, she has so much growing to do and I think the majority of that growth will happen in book two. It did not take away from my enjoyment, but it did make some scenes frustrating because I just wanted so badly for her to LISTEN TO HER SISTER and stop being so stuck in her soldier ways. Although, her (and every other character's) flaws were so well understood, and I empathized a lot with the cast. I cannot wait for book two, and I do not doubt that Saara El-Arifi will start becoming a new favorite author because the writing was just what I love.

Overall a fun, intriguing read with a unique world and magic system! It took me a bit of time to get through, definitely wasn't a super addicting plot like most fantasy I’ve read. I'd say it's probably 3.5 but rounding up because I'm intrigued for book 2!

This book focused a lot on prophesy, so I enjoyed highlighting all through this book so I could pick up all of the breadcrumbs. The ending I mostly predicted but there were a couple shocking reveals! The obeah bonding felt strange to me, similar to the dragon bonding in Fourth Wing.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I had such high hopes for this one, and unfortunately they were not met. I think the concept of the story was cool, and I could see major potential for the worldbuilding. But sadly, something about the writing didn't click with me - it felt very dry, almost like a monotone monologue. There were paragraphs where I looked back to see if any adjectives, at all, were used (and there were not). Almost read like a dry nonfiction than a fantasy. But still, I thought the idea of the story was cool. There are plenty of people who have loved this one, so definitely take my opinions with a grain of salt - I believe I'm in the minority here!

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC!

There's a lot of bits and pieces of Faebound that I loved, but unfortunately the rest of the book didn't work for me.

The worldbuilding seemed really interesting and what caught my attention in the first place (and that cover, omg!) and I think my favorite part was the magical animal companions. But the plot and the characters fell flat for me, and that really set my rating where it is. The story comes to a crawl shortly after the main characters reach the fae city, and as a reader I didn't really get to enjoy the setting or get much of a sense of wonder. There's magic in this world, but we don't get to see much of it. Our main character Yeeran wields drum magic, but due to an important plot point she feels too guilty to use it again and it is hardly brought up after the first couple of chapters.

The romances are what bogged Faeburn down the most for me, sadly. I was excited for the sapphic romance, but all the dialogue between characters was stilted and strange, and their inner monologues consisted of "omg they're so hot teehee", my biggest pet peeve in romance. Yeeran's sister Lettle and her love interest were the worst offenders, with Lettle acting like a sexually frustrated teenager anytime her LI was in sight.

Overall Faebound wasn't it for me, but I can tell El-Arifi has some good things going here and I'd be interested in reading more of her work.

Such an exceptional read!

This book will hook you into the Fae world with it's magic system, creation stories, culture, etc.

Two Elven sisters with a beautiful, regretful, grieving, and sometimes annoying sisterly bond, will be tested as they deal with being exiled from their homeland with the Forever War still waging. They then become prisoners of the fae who they thought were all but extinct due to human magic, only to uncover they were only imprisoned underground.

An enchanting tale of bonds, grief, hate, and love. The world building and journey we see our characters go through will have you wishing for more from the world of the Faebound.

I don’t know if it’s a 3.5 or a 4.

I remember buying the debut novel by the author but never getting to it coz it’s my usual shtick now. I did find myself gravitating towards Faebound a lot though, maybe coz of its gorgeous cover. And while I did manage to snag the eARC at the last minute, I waited to get the audiobook after release and it was definitely the best idea.

I was wondering how a Black author would create a world with fae and elves and I have to say, I really enjoyed the origin stories of the creation of the fantasy races in this book, along with their own magical abilities, giving it a very distinct feel. I feel like I can’t comment realistically on the pacing of the story coz I listened to the audiobook which was very good, and I took a long time with it coz I just don’t have enough free time in the day anymore. The plot though is much more character focused, with lots of bonding between characters, getting to know each other, building and breaking of friendships, love stories and more.

Firstly though it’s a story of two sisters. Yeeran the older one, a colonel in the army who gets exiled for insubordination and Lettle, a seer, who won’t just let her sister leave without following her on this new journey. They are followed by their friend Rayan, who is loyal to Yeeran and also feels a bit guilty about her exile. I loved how the two sisters are very dissimilar from each other, have different viewpoints in life and almost opposing desires, and despite their issues with each other, their loyalty is unquestionable. Even though Yeeran is the warrior, she is the one who is more trusting among them while Lettle is a bit more cynical and realistic about the world and people around them.

We also have a very interesting supporting cast in Rayan, the mysterious Komi, the fae royals Furi and Nerad, and the animal companions in Pila, Amnan and more. I especially liked the prickly, electric dynamic between Yeeran and Furi that starts with them being deadly enemies but morphs into so much more. The bonding with the obeah is also a fun aspect of the story and all moments between Yeeran and Pila were a delight.

I’ll be honest, though there’s some action at the beginning of the story and some revelations and betrayals towards the end, most of this book feels almost like a slice of life story, with some conflicts in between. It’s very focused on the various relationship dynamics and if that’s the kind of story you enjoy, this book will be for you. I think I definitely enjoyed it more because of the lovely narration by Bahni Turpin. I had also wrongly assumed that this was a standalone but now that I know it’s not, I guess whether I continue it will totally depend on my mood around the time of the sequel’s release.

This book was a bit too predictable/regular to be especially enjoyable. The premise and lore was absolutely great, however, it bogged down the progress of the book rather than enhancing it. It felt like it took wayyyy to long for the actual story to move on from what was told to us in the three paragraph synopsis. From there, the fae world was wonderful and I wished it was built on even further. The characters felt and their romances felt a bit too one dimensional. I may just not be the target audience even though it seemed like such an exciting book; while I had a good time reading it, this isn't really something I'm jumping to reread or think about afterwards for too long.

A big thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was sold on the beautiful editions and the mentions of fae, but it wasn't exactly my favorite.

Faebound By Saara El-Arifi is a fantasy novel about Yeeran, who was born on the battlefield, has lived on the battlefield, and one day, she knows, she’ll die on the battlefield. As a warrior in the elven army, Yeeran has known nothing but violence her whole life. Her sister, Lettle, is trying to make a living as a diviner, seeking prophecies of a better future. When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven Lands, both sisters are forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders. There they encounter the impossible: the fae court. The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world, torn among their loyalties to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts.

The world building was interesting, but the plot was a little lackluster. But I blame that on the predictability of it, since I've read so many fantasies in the past year. This book was overall underwhelming, but I'm glad I read an advance copy instead of one I bought myself.

𝑭𝒂𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒚: 𝑺𝒂𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝑬𝒍-𝑨𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒊
𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: ⭐️3/5 🌶️2/5
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁: Dual POV, Enemies to Lovers, Unique Magic System, Elves & Fae, Magical Creatures, Drum Magic, Military Setting, Lore, Sapphic, Queer Normative, Prophesied Love, Disability Rep
𝗧𝗪𝘀: War, Death, Grief, Elaborate hunting and slaughter of an Animal

I have a lot to say about this one. There were plenty of elements that I liked in this world created by the Saara. The unique magic system and setting was definitely what carried the whole book for me. Drum magic in a military setting set in an African / middle eastern inspired location described beautifully and eloquently that it will easily demand your attention; accompanied by magical creatures that is folklore inspired.

I loved the weighty presence of the magical creatures, especially the Obeah! The bonding with them giving the ability to communicate gave us what we all love = amazing witty banter. The characters are diverse and represented excellently with no restraint in showcasing sapphic relationships and queernormativity. With that being said, the use of gender pronouns to represent that did get a bit confusing to me in the beginning mostly with the use of they/their and made me go back and reread to make sure it was referring to one person (relating to their gender identity) rather than a group of people (as in plural sense) and it took me out of focus a bit.

This book has so much potential to be an beautiful epic fantasy / romantic fantasy novel with how it was setup in the beginning but shifted full on to focusing on the romance aspect which was beautiful to see, however because of the lack of character development, fell a little short for me altogether as they were unfortunately lacked complexity. The pacing of the book was slow at times and the plot although interesting, was predictable. What was meant to be the big reveal, i had figured out soon after the foreshadowing.

The book is left open to hopefully more world building. I still enjoyed reading it and will definitely continue reading the series.

Thank you netgalley and random house publishing for this ARC.

3.5- there were many things I liked and a few I didn’t. I liked the magic system and the lore. I liked the positive representation, including LGBTQ and disability rep. I felt that it read as more YA than adult, and although the characters were supposed to be in their late 20s/30s, the internal dialogue seemed much more immature. I felt that the plot twists were heavily alluded to from the beginning which made it feel a bit dragged out and the conclusion dissatisfying. Overall, very good start to the series and I am looking forward to seeing where it will go.

Review will be posted to goodreads on 1/25/24

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this advanced reader copy.

4.5 stars!!!
What an inspiring fantasy novel! Two sisters of different beliefs, one a warrior and the other blessed in divination. One sister’s exile leads the other after her in loyalty. Leaving what they know as home amongst their reputations, the sisters find themselves in enemy territory.
During their time as captives they are forced to outgrow their ignorance and learn new accustoms to survive. Prophecies foretold by diviners are broad yet inevitable. One sister reads a prophecy that cannot be deciphered until it’ is too late and peoples perceptions have changed once again.

Please read this amazing novel with amazing writing and plenty of side characters that are lovable and relatable. Pila just so happens to be my most favored. This book also includes fae, elves, magic, sapphic romances, & nonbinary characters. It’s done so well and I thoroughly enjoyed the read. highly recommend picking up if you enjoy fantasy books!

tropes include
-enemies to lovers
-animal bonding
-training moments
-hidden truth/inheritance

I think this is fine. It's not bad, but I don't think it's doing anything unique or interesting that I really got swept up in. I could be persuaded to continue on, but it won't be a high priority because I'm not invested in the story, the world, the magic, or the characters.

The Magic:
This is a personal pet peeve, but I a teensy bit loathe prediction/fortune telling/divination type magic systems. They can never be written in stone, and are often useless to the story and only come to be relevant after the event has happened and nothing can be done anymore, or the author can only derive twists/intrigue by the characters misinterpreting a vague prediction. Which means I just plain don't care.

Animals:
I was warned beforehand that there are some animal cruelty scenes but really found it quite tame compared to what I was expecting. It's no longer part of the story after ~30-35% in, and I didn't find it overly graphic but ymmv.

The Writing:
I know that there were large chunks that were really exposition heavy. and felt like it really leaned more mid to lower YA. There was never a time that I truly felt like I was reading an Adult book or that anything was more explicit than what I've read in YA books before. Things are very simply explained to the main characters (and by extension the reader), century spanning wars are mostly boiled down to a handful of bad actors.

The Romances:
There are two relationships here, which I think will make the shippers happy! Maybe! One of them was a pairing with a juvenile character, so it seemed very young to me; and the other didn't have enough screentime and build-up for my personal investment so it was just suddenly they're super into each other now, I guess? But I'm very much not the right audience.

World-building & Cultures:
The culture clash between groups of people that have been kept completely isolated for centuries is so, so minimal and it feels like they have a single conflict (around how each culture views one of the creatures in their world) and it's over in a blink and you miss it moment. While I had the audiobook on in the car, my husband kept commenting and being baffled about how they seemed to be presenting arguments using our own legal definitions (light spoilers via context clues) [about manslaughter vs murder but in the book they're drawing definitions between killing and murder. mind you, this is an argument presented to a totally different culture that also generally speaks a different language (hide spoiler)]. And ultimately it just wasn't the rich world-building I was hoping for.

Overall:
I don't know, man. I was hoping to leave my curmudgeon era and really wanted to like this one. But I just can't muster up any feelings about it stronger than 'it was fine.'

I've been waiting for Faebound ever since I read the plot description, and I was super excited - who wouldn't be excited for elves versus fae? POC and queer representation? A magic system that utilizes a musical instrument? Awesome. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to love this book, it missed the mark for me.

The characters are dry, and very plain with simple personalities. They were all just pawns being moved around from place to place for the sake of the plot with not much depth to any of them. If more of their backgrounds were given to us from an emotional standpoint I most likely would have felt connected to them in some way. The main romantic relationship seemed to come out of nowhere as the characters' minimal interactions beforehand didn't seem conducive to one. Fully grown adults acting so awkwardly around each other the way that sheltered teenagers would just didn't make sense with what we knew about them. The entire romance was just oddly unnatural and forced.

I found it difficult to get immersed for a variety of reasons; the descriptions of everything were lacking. Characters were traveling and battling quite a lot but I felt there just weren't enough depictions of the environment, architecture, cultural clothing, physical characteristics, etc for me to get a grasp of what was going on. There was little to no emotive punctuation - when a character was angry at getting manhandled or even yelling, there were very few exclamation marks and italicized words for emphasis until the second half of the book. There were also a few emotional reactions that didn't fit the situation.

I wish the worldbuilding was fleshed out more - the potential was there. To have different factions for fae and elves with their own distinct cultures was really cool and there were tons of possibilities to make from that but in general, the story just fell flat.

It’s a Saara El-Arifi book; it’s gonna be five stars.


Thank u sm netgalley for this arc.


Non spoilers:
This was AMAZING. One of my top reads of the year already. I love Saara. I loved the magic system of this book sm. Lettle🫶🫶🫶I’m still slightly on the fence about Rayan but I like him-Yeeran grew on me a lot by the end, and Furi I’m kinda meh about, but she had two more books to grow.




Spoilers:
I fully thought it was gonna be uhh Sahar¿ it said a kings revenge he was technically king… 🤨🤨still sus tbh-the end☹️ Yeeran better not get back together with Salawa😒bitchass I feel like she’s gonna trust her again and get her to give her info and then betray her😐

I think this book is a really good start to what has the potential to be an amazing series. It has an interesting world, a unique magic system, good lore with old gods, badass main characters, some mystery, and of course… some romance. This book has great representation as well. It all fit nicely with the story and was actually detailed so it didn’t feel like it was thrown in last minute just to be there.

The lore at the beginning of the book really drew me in and set high hopes for me. It was detailed enough to introduce me to the concept but vague enough to leave me with questions and wanting to know more. I feel the same way about the magic system. We get a basic understanding of it but I definitely have questions and am excited to see it further explained in future books. It’s definitely a very unique magic system and seems really cool. I always love great characters and character dynamics and this book definitely gave me that. The sister relationship between our two main characters is layered and realistic. They have a solid bond but they definitely have their issues. I was able to connect to both characters at different moments.
Here’s where it missed for me-
It seemed like the first 5ish chapters of the book made you expect a different book than what it ended up being. So it felt like it moved pretty quickly and then lulled in the middle while transitioning into a different “vibe” of a book (if that makes any sense).
We needed a little more info about the magic system so it wouldn’t seem so out of place. The characters start to understand it but I didn’t feel like we were given enough to get to that point with them.
The romance was…. Rushed? Forced? A bit odd? Almost like the book was written without the romance but with the idea that it would eventually happen so then it was added in after the fact. With one romance we didn’t get nearly enough between the “I hate you, you must die” and the “our mouths crashed into each other with passion” parts. I can see how the romance could happen but it definitely didn’t get the explanation or time it needed to get there. And with the other romance, it seemed a little more natural at first but then we have unnecessary conflicts and childish tempers. Once it actually happens, the amount of love they have seems a bit much so soon.
There were like 4 or 5 twist / reveals in this book and I guessed most of them. They were extremely predictable, with knowledge the characters had no just us, to the point that it was frustrating and then felt like nothing when they finally figured it out. Because of that, the moments at the end that were supposed to be very suspenseful or jaw dropping, were just okay. There was a lot fit into the last 15ish % of this book so it felt rushed yet normal because I already guessed most of the stuff.

BUT I still really enjoyed this book. There were definitely chapters where I didn’t want to put it down. Everything I mentioned first was great and made this an over all great read. I think the next book (hopefully) will be more action packed and informative. I’m really excited to see where this series goes. It has the potential to be an incredible one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC. I LOVED FAEBOUND!!! It was so interesting and magical and fun. The worldbuilding and culture was so intriguing, the drum magic was so cool. Faebound is a story that follows two elven sisters who end up in the fae court. I loved both Yeeran and Lettle's perspectives, their sibling relationship was so enjoyable to read, I loved reading about both of them being annoyed with the other, it was just so cute. I also loved the creation myth story and the different folklore and tales. The enemies to lovers sapphic romance was beautiful, I loved the tension between Yeeran and Furi.