Wow! the way this book was just INCREDIBLE! I can not wait for the next in this series. This new world that author Sarah Hawley has built has me 100% captivated and drawn in, and I am sat. I need more immediately, please.

I was wary of this book at first because so many romantasy books involve a 19 year old girl completely helpless in a dearie world with centuries old men protecting her and it all feels very wrong. This book was not that! And I am so excited. Yes the twists were predictable but I didn’t care. Kenna is her own person and never needs protection. She is an adult and does everything in her power to help her friends. I need book 2 ASAP. Please!!!!

★★★★½ - I am a huge Sarah Hawley fan, and this book was no exception as to why. Servant of Earth is a gripping fantasy that throws you straight into the brutal, magic-soaked world of the underground Fae. Kenna Heron, a wild and fiercely stubborn human, is forced into servitude in a court where power is everything and mercy doesn’t exist. The six magical trials she faces—each more intense and imaginative than the last—are packed with danger and keep the tension high. What really makes the story shine, though, is Kenna herself. She’s raw, determined, and constantly walking the line between survival and defiance, especially as she’s pulled into a rebellion against the sadistic fae king. Her only “friend” is a sentient dagger with a sharp tongue, which adds both mystery and a bit of levity to the darker moments.

The romance between Kenna and the rebellion’s leader adds just the right amount of emotional depth without taking the spotlight away from her personal growth. Their connection builds slowly and feels earned, especially as Kenna wrestles with who she is and what she’s willing to risk. My only small gripe is that the ending felt a little rushed—some big emotional moments could’ve used more space. But overall, this is a bold, beautifully written story full of magic, rebellion, and a heroine you can’t help but root for. I’ll definitely be picking up whatever comes next in this world.

What a book! I absolutely loved this story and was completely caught up in it. I loved the slow reveals as we learned about this world through Kenna’s eyes as it was all completely foreign to her. I had expected magic but I loved the court intrigue and unique characters in a very unexpected world. Somehow my TBR lately has been a lot of Fae and I really enjoyed how this took a very fresh take on the idea of them. Kenna is a great protagonist who never gets mired in the unfairness of everything she has been through. It’s a very well written story that moves so well I never wanted to put it down. I will be eagerly awaiting book two but I am excited to check out the author’s other series while I’m waiting.

Servant of Earth is a sweeping Fantasy Romance that masterfully intertwines heart pounding action, smoldering romance, and the tangled web of courtly intrigue. While the central twist revealed itself a bit too early, and some character arcs followed familiar paths, the richly imagined world and its eerie immersive atmosphere pulled me in completely. Be forewarned this is no tale for the faint of heart. Themes of slavery, torture, and execution lend a grim and mature edge to the narrative, firmly setting it apart from typical YA fare.

Kenna’s journey is anything but easy, and I found myself deeply invested in her fate as the story unfolded. The relationships between characters were layered and laced with secrets, keeping me on edge with every interaction. The trials were thrilling, a perfect blend of tension and spectacle, and the climax was nothing short of explosive. This is a brilliantly woven political fantasy laced with romance and startling twists. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment to see where the story leads.

I enjoyed this way more than I expected to, it was well written and highly engaging, I tore through it in two sittings

Servant of Earth is the first book in The Shards of Magic series by Sarah Hawley and I had this one on my TBR because I've been on fae book kick for the last few months and this one sounded interesting. I am glad I added it because it has a great story. I also listened to the audio on this and the narrator did a fantastic job.

Kenna Heron is our fmc and she's known in her village for being wild. She doesn't really have anyone but her best friend and when she is chosen to go to Mistei, Kenna is determined to help her make it through the bog. What she never expected was that she would be the only one to make it and then become trapped as a servant in the underground kingdom to the Earth house.

As a human servant, Kenna doesn't have much say in what she does and she is immediately tasked with helping her new mistress, undertake six deadly trials - one for each branch of magic (Fire, Earth, Light, Void, Illusion, and Blood) - to gain immortality and become the heir to Earth house. If she doesn't, the punishment is death for both of them. What Kenna doesn't tell anyone is that the only reason she made it through the bog is because she found a mysterious dagger and the dagger continues to "help" her when she finds herself in some dangerous situations. Because not only is Kenna helping her mistress but she also finds herself right in the middle of a secret rebellion against the sadistic king and when the king's own assassin blackmails her for information, she has to decide what she is willing to risk and who she can trust.

If you're looking for a Fantasy Romance that has plenty of action, romance, and court intrigue, consider picking this one up. I'll definitely be interested in grabbing the next book in the series to see what happens next based on how this one wrapped up. Kenna has a challenging road ahead of her and I can't wait to see what happens.

I really ended up enjoying this book. I will admit I thought the beginning was really slow and was kind of sad for it but once it got going I fell in LOVE! I knew something was up with Kallen and Drustan was too perfect!

SPOILER ALERT…

When he sacrificed Selwyn and then “humbly” offered himself as the new king I thought it was so typical of his character! I will admit it gave me ACOTAR vibes but that’s why I loved it!!! I love that Kenna got to kill Osric and was heartbroken when we learned Anya was still alive. Kenna with magic!? Oh yeah! I’m so excited for book 2!

A Court of Thorns and Roses meets The Cruel Prince in this dark, deadly fae fantasy, with a homicidal talking dagger. Yes, really!

Kenna crosses into the violent world of the Fae to save her best friend, only to be swept into brutal trials, tangled loyalties, and a love triangle featuring a golden Fire Prince and a brooding Void Prince (of course).

The real MVP? A sentient dagger with a taste for blood and sarcasm. I’m always here for a murderous weapon with personality.

The plot twist was predictable early on, and the character arcs felt familiar, but the worldbuilding and haunting atmosphere kept me hooked. Definitely not YA: expect disturbing themes like slavery, torture, and executions.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the ARC!

This book was a wild ride from start to finish. I loved the worldbuilding and the predicament Kenna was thrown into. The relationships between characters were dynamic, interesting, and secretive. The trials themselves were fun to read about, and the entire end was insane. This was a great political fantasy with plenty of romance and shocking twists. I absolutely can’t wait for the next book!

Servant of the Earth
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC of Servant of the Earth by Sarah Hawley.

This book has darker themes that may not be for everyone, including scenes of torture and sexual assault involving secondary characters. Please check content warnings before reading.

Servant of the Earth had so many of the elements I love:
• Dark Fantasy
• Sadistic Ruler
• Fae Rebellion
• In-depth Magic System
• Morally Grey Characters
• Forbidden Romance

Even with all of that, it was not an instant five-star read for me. The plot was quite predictable, and most of the major reveals were easy to spot early on. I also found it hard to fully connect with the characters and would have loved to see deeper development and more growth. That said, I still enjoyed the story and am really looking forward to book two. I especially hope to see more of Lord Kallen because he was the character who captured my attention from the moment he was introduced, and we were only given small glimpses of him.

Wow. I don’t know what I was expecting but I absolutely loved this book. I was in a bit of a reading slump and this book quickly pulled me right out. The world building was incredible and I loved how this depicted the fae. I don’t want to give away too much but this book centers on Kenna who is a human girl that ends up in the land of the fae and becomes a servant to the house of Earth. The fae world is divided into different houses who all hold different magical abilities. A unique facet to the fae in this world is that they are not automatically immortal. They have to surpass trials in order to gain immortality and their full magical abilities. The trials themselves were fascinating and extremely well done. The story also continued outside of the trials and always kept me intrigued and interested to see what happened next. I am obsessed with this story and the characters and am now waiting impatiently for the next book in the series. I am counting the days to find out what happens next to Kenna and everyone else. If you enjoy trials and fairies and a well written interesting fantasy, you need to add this to your tbr immediately, and move it to the top.

What to expect:
-darker story than your normal fae story
-forbidden romance
-elemental magic
-ACOTAR/Cruel Prince vibes
-human in a fae world

I was sat and locked in once I had my way of the land down and I’m always going to be excited about a book with trials! This was a darker take than I was expecting but I’m definitely intrigued enough to follow the story into book 2!

I really wanted to love this, unfortunately I did not, but it had it's moments. It does seem like you typical romantasy novel though, and I think if you're new to the romantasy genre it will be enjoyable.

There were a couple of things that I appreciated though. One was that Kenna was not anti feminine things like dresses or makeup. It’s refreshing because that's usually not the case in fantasy novels. And the other is the friendship between Lara (the fairy princess she’s assigned to serve) and Kenna. I thought the author was setting Lara up to be a Mean Girl type character at first and was pleasantly surprised.
From the first few pages however I didn’t find myself engaged by Kenna, and thought she was a bit annoying. But I was intrigued by the blood drinking knife.
And she didn’t really grow on me throughout the story. None of the other characters really grew on me either. They all seemed undeveloped, and I don’t know how to word it but they all felt like stand-ins for the roles they were supposed to play, but not like actual people.
Early on in the story, we meet Anya, Kenna’s BFF, and then subsequently has a tragic end in the next few pages. Anya’s character was giving “dead wife trope” to me… in that her whole purpose just seemed in service of Kenna’s character development. So her death had no emotional impact on me.

Also there were a lot of plot holes and things that just didn’t make sense.

One of the things that bothered me is that it's obvious the author did not know how to write a character from an impoverished background.
Because most people who grew up poor do not say “I grew up in poverty” and I can’t imagine someone who grew up poor, and probably had a limited education because this is set in a fantasy world village - where people live in huts - casually using the word “egalitarian.”

Another thing that bothered me because it didn’t make sense is that I had a hard time believing that a human village girl who just found out fairies were real could answer every single riddle about the fairy world. But the fairy princess who’s lived her whole life in the fairy world couldn’t answer a single question?

Also I did think it was a bit predictable, after the first trial, I was like why is she doing everything for Lara? Then I realized why…and at the end I was proved right, but Lara definitely could’ve done more cuz she was basically useful. It was very much a disservice to her character. Also I knew Drusan was not gonna be the actual ultimate love interest…but I would have liked it to be a more convincing romance.

This book was SO fantastic, I wish I didn’t wait so long to read it!

Sarah Hawley so perfectly blends high fantasy, romance, well-developed characters, and a super unique court and magic system. I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading the story and I cannot wait for more!

I love this kind of thing when it's done well and it is! Enough creativity to her conception of the faery world, Kenna actually has a personality... I enjoyed it.

4.75 / 5 Stars

This book was annoyingly good. Annoyingly because I now have to wait until September to read the sequel. Let’s start with a layperson synopsis: This book felt like Hunger Games in a fae land. Kenna, our main character, has always been an outsider in her human village. With only her best friend, Anya, to rely on (Kenna’s mother passed away a few years ago and her father wasn’t ever in her life), Kenna is a survivor. In her town and surrounding towns, a sexenniel (oooooh, thesaurus told me this means every six years and I feel fancy) tradition says that humans must send four women to the bog so that these can be guided to the fae realm of Mistei and in exchange the fae’s will protect the humans (poverty runs rampant in Kenna’s village so maybe the fae’s need to do a better job). Except that usually these ladies don’t survive (Kenna has found bones in the bog) and her best friend has been selected. Kenna follows them into the bog, determined to help them survive (the first hunger games portion of the book). With the help of a sentient dagger (again, found in the bog – truly what can’t you find in the bog), Kenna makes it to Mistei. It isn’t a myth but it also isn’t what she has been told it will be.

Kenna has been taught that in Mistei, any survivors of the tradition will be showered in riches and lavished with praise. Turns out the fae don’t really like humans and view them as deeply inferior. Kenna is assigned to be the servant for a lady of the Earth House. All of the fae belong to one of five houses: Fire, Earth, Light, Void and Illusion (there was also once a Blood house but we don’t talk about them – but say it in the style of “We Don’t Talk about Bruno”). The Earth lady must compete in an immortality trail where she will face six challenges and if she passes, she will become immortal. If she doesn’t, she will lose her magic, or worse, die (the second hunger games portion of the book). Kenna is tasked with helping her lady pass these trails, while she also plots a way to escape Mistei and free herself.

This book made me love things I don’t usually love in books. I don’t love to read big, long blocks of scenery descriptions (sorry, not sorry, I’m a dialogue girlie), but everything was so well written here that I ate up every little detail like it was crumbs and I was starved. The world building is amazingly down with just enough details to be intriguing and not so much that it is overwhelming. I feel like sometimes in books I can get lost when there is just too much written especially with orientation (like wait, why do I care about the color of the carpet and did you say the desk was in the north corner while the shelf was in the east corner and why does that matter and who is standing in the southwest corner?), but each space in this book, big or small, was built with such care that I felt really taken care of. Sentences were perfectly structured with just enough information that they weren’t run-ons and therefore information flowed easily into my brain.

I also loved our heroine, Kenna. Her curiosity was the perfect device to reveal plot and information in a way that seemed natural (she’s an outsider in a new world so, of course, she is curious). She was strong and kind. She was no nonsense with a sense of humor. She survived and had a zest for life. She had some fun love interests.

I also feel like sometimes I will finish a book and think, “that could have been 50 - 100 pages shorter” and while this one was long(ish), it never felt long. The pacing felt right to me and I was drawn in the entire time. Reading until 2am. Standing in front of our TV, making my boyfriend pause Madden so I could tell him about the plot.

I’m already on the waitlist at my library for the second book (because we all know I’m not getting approved for the ARC for it - LOL). OH and speaking of, do NOT look up anything related to the second book until you are done with this one. Don’t even look up the title.

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing the reading copy! All opinions are my own.

Servant of Earth was everything I hoped for and more!
Kenna is destitute and alone in the world, except for her best friend, Anaya. Life experiences have toughened, but not beaten, her. She's determined to find a way to make a better life for herself and Anya. The opportunity arises when she finds a dagger on the day of the winter solstice, the day that her town sacrifices four unwed women to the fae. Unfortunately, before Kenna can act, Anya is chosen as a sacrifice, and Kenna will do everything within her power to save her. That twist of fate leads her to the fae land of Mistei, where four noble houses rule and rebellion is quietly reaching a boiling point.

“Gifted” to Lady Lara of Earth House, Kenna must serve as her handmaiden during the upcoming immortality trials. As unrest builds due to the king's cruelty, Kenna finds herself embroiled in the trials, doing her best to help Lara succeed.

Servant of Earth is filled with secrets, lies, betrayal, and unimaginable horrors. Kenna will face extraordinary tests, question loyalties, gain unexpected friendships, and come out of the trials a different person.

I loved all the twists and turns and embraced the unexpected. I'm eagerly anticipating book two, Princess of Blood!

I devoured this story within hours. Magic, royal court, tension, female friendship, I loved it.

It was a bit predictable at times and felt similarly to other fae/faerie books available, but that brought more enjoyment to me in this instance. It wasn’t trite, it was captivating. Everything I want in a Fae inspired novel. It felt like curling up under a warm blanket, reveling in familiar comforts. A strong FMC, handsome fae that find her intriguing, she is able to accomplish more than she ever thought, and builds friendships along the way.

There was also clearly a great deal of research done in terms of alchemy and holidays and it brought so much life and realism to the story.

I cannot wait to get my hands on the second one and drink it in like Caedo.

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for granting me the ARC.

Servant of Earth was a fantasy that completely swept me away. The world was fascinating, the characters were multifaceted and kept us on our toes, and the storyline played out beautifully! This is a book I’ll definitely be re-reading down the road, because I couldn’t put this one down! With a heroine we could respect, morally gray Fae princes that captured our heart, and political intrigue with games abound, this book was so easy to love!

Kenna Heron became trapped in the underground kingdom of Mistei surrounded by the Fae. She found herself forced to help her new mistress pass trials to gain her immortality and became the new heir of Earth House. Right from the start, Kenna became an instant favorite. She was brave and I loved her ability to dive into any situation no matter how terrifying. Plus, she was smart and had such a good heart. Also I loved that she didn’t think twice about stabbing someone! Yet the world Kenna knew wasn’t as black and white as she thought it was. As new things and horrors became known, Kenna found herself in the middle of a rebellion that she couldn’t walk away from.

While there were multiple morally gray Fae princes in the pages, two of them captured my attention. I have extremely strong opinions on them, but I don’t want to say what they are because of spoilers. Just know that you should trust your heart and gut. Because it led me to screaming, I knew it!. And I was left excited to see what will happen next!

One of my favorite aspects about this story were the tests. And how Kenna had such an intricate role with helping Laura. I was fascinated and so nervous for them. I hung onto their every word. And as the story unfolded, I loved all that we learned. Rules became broken. Alliances formed and others became unknown. And those you thought you could trust seemed to hang on a precipice. This book was absolutely fascinating! Plus I loved how a certain object seemed to become its own character!

With secrets, murder, traitors, kisses, betrayal, twists, and tests, Servant of Earth was a romantasy book that was so easy to love! The ending left us in the perfect holding pattern, and I’m eagerly counting down till that next book releases. I listened to the audiobook of this, and it was beautifully done!