My Review Of Cait Monroe's Shield Sworn

My Review Of Cait Monroe's Shield Sworn 

I got the advanced reader copy of this from Booksirens in exchange for an honest review

Shield Sworn is a young adult historical fantasy that I rated 4.25 stars. Honestly, my only qualm with the book was the language, mild suggestive content, and sensitive content (which was handled very well).

Trigger Warning: There are mentions of sexual assault, r*pe, and vulgarity, directed toward women. It was handled well, but readers sensitive to this should take caution.

Tropes
Young Adult
Historical Fantasy
Roman-Inspired History
Norse-Inspired History
Slow Burn
Enemies-to-Lovers
Survival
Reluctant Allies

My Thoughts

Worldbuilding: I really enjoyed the world-building in this book. It felt like it was taken out of a history book and changed just enough to make it sparkle. My favorite part of it was either the Roman or Norse influence in the story, or maybe the tribes, as they are depicted as how many societies have seen tribes like those over the years: primitive... but not actually.

Plot: The plot wasn't incredibly fast until the end, but it had a solid, steady pace that slowly raised the action and lifted us toward the climax. It felt a little slow until Eavus and Renvi met, but after they did... the story really took off. There were a few points that I wished we would have gotten more length to, but, since it's more of an Epic fantasy, it made sense to not drag out every little thing.

Characters: There are two main characters in this book: Revni, an Isfolj soti (warrior), and Eavus, a soldier of Aleteria and slave. I'll be honest, Revni was my favorite of the two. I loved how she stuck to her beliefs, her fighting side, and conquered all the trials that came at her. Her character arc felt believable, and the fact that she remained strong after having so many terrible things happening to her made me root for her all the more.
Eavus was a good, complicated character who hated what he was forced to do, but didn't really have a choice if he wanted to survive and buy his freedom. I didn't like him as much, though that might be because of some of the choices he made, but his character arc was, too, believable.

Writing Style / Execution: The writing style of this book definitely leaned toward an epic, grand tone, while still maintaining a close enough relation to the characters to really feel for them. I enjoyed this aspect of it, and the execution of the idea was very well done, including a nice set-up for the sequel, Ewekeeper, which I believe will be released in the fall of 2027.

This was my review of Shield Sworn by Cait Monroe.