Book Review and #BlogTour @The_WriteReads – Vultures (#1 Shadow Twins) by Luke Tarzian (3.5 stars)

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Title: Vultures (#1 Shadow Twins)

Author: Luke Tarzian

Published: 31^st of May 2019 – Luke Tarzian

Format: Kindle Edition – 344 pages

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Hello Hello! How are you?

Today is my stop on the blog tour organised by Dave from @The_WriteReads for Vultures by Luke Tarzian. By this point, I don’t even need to know if the book sounds good, as I automatically enjoy nearly every book from these tours!

I’ve got a lot of thoughts on this book, it wasn’t my favourite but by no means was it bad, so I’m sorry if my review is really waffly, I just couldn’t get my thoughts together!

Thank you so much to Dave and Luke for letting me be part of this tour and thank you so much for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

An enemy slain is not a conflict won…

After decades of war the demon Te Mirkvahíl is dead. But its progeny endure, spilling from the Heart of Mirkúr, sowing death across the land of Ariath. If the people are to finally know peace, the Heart must be destroyed. Theailys An believes he can do just that with The Keepers’ Wrath, an infamous power focus wrought in Ariath’s yesteryears–but the weapon first must be reforged.

War spares no one…

Serece never intended to get involved in Ariath’s war. But history and demons have a way of pulling strings. When she learns Theailys An, a man whom she abhors, bears striking similarity to the first creator of The Keepers’ Wrath, Serece departs her mountain world for Ariath to ascertain the truth.

From patience, hope…

For millennia Behtréal has walked the world alone. Rewriting history to resurrect his people is easier said than done. But Ariath holds the key–soon The Keepers’ Wrath will be remade.

Truth from madness…

As paths converge and a shadow falls across Ariath, one thing becomes increasingly and horrifyingly clear–these events have played out many times before.

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MY REVIEW

Vultures by Luke Tarzian is the first book in the fantasy series called Shadow Twins. This is quite a complicated book to explain, I think I would call it more epic fantasy without the length because there is just so much going on, a lot of characters and it can be a little bit much. To me, it kind of felt a little bit like Game of Thrones in its essence because of everything happening.

This book has different points of views and settings, I usually really enjoy that in a book, but it felt a little bit too clunky for me because I really wanted to know what was happening just to Theailys or Serece, but it kept jumping about to other people. I understand that there are more than those two settings and characters that we see the story through because of what the other chapters reveal, but I think I would have preferred a different type of reveal.

This book is definitely fantasy, there is world-building that really intrigued me but I would have liked more because it had such a cool vibe and I was really enjoying it, I feel like it could have gone on for longer and maybe detail things more and it would have been perfect! There were also quite a few characters and although I liked a few of them such as Cailean, Leyandra, Theailys and Serece, the others got a little jumbled for me and I couldn’t really work out who they were or what they wanted. I also have no idea how old they are, they seem to be immortal, but I think that whole part of the characters is a little blurry and needs a bit more detail, for me personally.

There is an interesting kind of magic system, I don’t know what else to call it, I enjoyed seeing it in action, however, once again, I didn’t really know what was going on, why, how, when, etc, it was too clunky for me and it needed more because I just didn’t understand what that was all about, which is really unfortunate because as soon as I started this book, I knew I was really going to enjoy it, and it was very unique!

I did really like the writing style though and that and not knowing what was happening kept me reading, I would have liked more detail and precision on the characters, the world, the magic, and I wouldn’t have minded a longer book, but as it stands, I did struggle a little bit and saw myself pushing forward to try to finish it. I think that the ending was nicely done, but again, in my opinion it was still too vague.

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MY THOUGHTS AND RATING

This was an interesting and unique first book in a fantasy series, the vagueness and lack of detail could be because it’s setting things up for the next book, but I need more detail and to be able to understand everything to enjoy it and be immersed in the story fully.

I liked the writing style and there was definitely a nice vibe, I just think, that for me personally, this really needed a little more work because, at the end of 345 pages, I’m still a little unsure of what I read.

I gave this book 3.5 stars (you can find my full ASPECTS rating breakdown below), I enjoyed it and I think that it has a lot of potential, it was just too vague and clunky for me. I would recommend this book to fantasy lovers who don’t mind missing a bit of information and who enjoy high stakes and complex characters!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this post, see you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx

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ASPECTS RATING

Atmosphere – 6

Start – 4

Pacing – 5

Ending – 6

Characters – 5

Theme – 6

Style – 7

Total = 39

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Luke’s links: Website – Twitter – Facebook – Amazon – Goodreads

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If you would like to purchase this book, you can find it here:  Amazon UK  – Amazon FR  – Amazon US –  AbeBooks (affiliate link) – The Book Depository (affiliate link)