Book Review and #BlogTour #UltimateBlogTour @WriteReadsTours @The_WriteReads – Venators Promises Forged (#2) by Devri Walls (5 stars)

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Title: Venators Promises Forged (#2)

Author: Devri Walls

Published: 30^th of April 2019 – Brown Books Publishing Group

Format: Kindle Edition – 428 pages

Hello Hello! How are you?

It’s already the 1^st of June, this year is going by so fast! I’m so happy to be bringing you my first #blogtour of June, the #UltimateBlogTour organised by Dave from The Write Reads for Venators Promises Forged by Devri Walls, the second instalment in the Venators series. This series wowed me right from the start and I was so happy when Dave asked me if I wanted to be part of the tour for the second book in the series.

I also buddy read this book over the course of May with El from Papertea and Book Flowers. We both knew we really had to read the next book in the series and we had so much to discuss! Keep reading for my thoughts on this great fantasy series! Thank you to Dave for inviting me to take part in this blog tour, it’s always a pleasure.

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

It has been mere days in the world of Eon, where Rune Jenkins, her twin brother Ryker, and their friend Grey have been trapped, fighting for their lives. After discovering the truth of their ancestry, the three are far from home, and far from anything resembling their mundane lives of the past.

While Ryker is still held captive by the eerily beautiful Zio and her goblins, Grey falls into the clutches of Feena, the Fae queen. She begins to drain his soul bit by bit to feed her dark underground garden, and Grey has no hope of escaping on his own.

It is now up to Rune to save Grey, as his precious time slips away inexorably. But the Council has denied her permission to embark on a rescue mission, until she can harness her Venator gifts and prove herself capable of venturing into the Fae queen’s territory. As Rune discovers that promises in Eon are forged with life-or-death consequences, she realizes that she must act quickly, or else be swallowed and Grey along with her by the dangers of Eon.

MY REVIEW

Venators Promises Forged by Devri Walls is the second book in the Venators series, a YA Fantasy series that follows Rune, Ryker and Grey as they discover they are Venators and are taken to a world in which everything they thought was only fairy tale is actually true.

In this instalment, we follow directly from the events of book 1 and this review is going to be so hard to write because I don’t want to spoil you, but I also want to urge you to pick up book 1 if you haven’t already read it. You can find the full review of book 1 that I wrote a few months ago here!

SETTING

Promises Forged and the whole series so far is set in Eon, a type of parallel world to our own reality in which every single creature you thought was fictional, actually does exist. In this world, Venators used to be the protectors, but after a sort of civil war between the Venators and the creatures of Eon, the gate between worlds was closed. But now the people of Eon and most importantly the Council, need the Venators again to fight against an evil that is rising up and sure to destroy this world.

This book starts off again a few days after the first instalment ended, and I can’t really say too much about it without giving you any spoilers, but in this instalment, Grey gets into trouble (big trouble) and Verida, Tate and Rune have to go save him from the Fae Court.

In the first book, I really appreciated the world building, however in book 2 it is so much more than what it was in the first one. I loved how different and unique Feena’s territory was from the Council’s land even though it borders it quite closely. I was so intrigued by the throne room in Feena’s court, also by all the flowers and vines – you’ll know what I mean if you read this book!! I thought that this instalment with Feena was so interesting and also really unique!

I also loved how Rune has to learn all about Eon, not only the geography of it but all the customs, rules, niceties and how to be polite, the dances, the culture, the different species and their traditions, this was really interesting to me and I thought that Rune pulled it all off admirably!

CHARACTERS

I’m going to be talking about a lot more characters than I did for the first book because I thought that these characters had a really important role in this instalment and I have a lot to say about them.

Beltran: YESSS! We have more Beltran in book 2, whoop whoop! For those of you who haven’t read Magic Unleashed (#1), you won’t understand my excitement and joy, but those of you who have, you will! Beltran became a very big part of book 1 at the end and I was so glad to see him take a bigger role in book 2. He is so charismatic and just an incredible character! He is a shapeshifter, very witty, a bit smug and he acts like the bad boy, but I really thought we got a better glimpse of who he really is and I can’t wait for book 3 to see him again because I have a feeling that things will get even better between him and someone who shall not be named until you read book 1!

Rune: I think that this book really portrayed Rune as her true self, she is selfless and very strong-willed, she is determined to save Grey, but also to understand the world in which she now lives and help as many people as possible. She is an amazing female lead, she thinks that she needs Grey for everything, which I would argue she doesn’t because she kicks ass very well all by herself, but I loved seeing more of a soft side to her, and also a darker side, I’m really intrigued to see what will happen in the next book!

Ryker: We only get a few little glimpses of Ryker again, but I have to say I really don’t like this character, for obvious reasons. And I can’t even say much because it will explain spoiler-y things, what I will say is that I really wanted to hit him, multiple times and I know that whatever happens with him in book 1 and 2 is building up to something, but I don’t know what and that scares me!

Grey: This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I did not like Grey in book 2 as much as I did in book 1. He sort of wins me over again towards the end of the book, but at the start, he was really moody and kept hiding away and avoiding people and that really annoyed me. I get it, I really do, but I thought there was a bit of a clash between the Grey we see at the end of book 1 and the Grey we see at the start of book 2, but that is the only thing that I found a bit weird because the rest of the book is amazing and he is less of a dork at the end aha!

Verida: Oh Verida, I just want to give her a great big hug after all that, she would probably bite my head off and drain me of my blood, but I think she still deserves some love. I knew there was more to this character when we first met her in book 1, but she really comes into her own in book 2 and I loved that! We learn a lot about her, who she is, where she is from, her family and also her beliefs, and it just about broke my heart to see her going through so many things and revealing some truths to Rune. She is quickly becoming one of my favourite characters and I’m sure she is going to play an even bigger part in the next book!

Tate: We don’t get to see as much of Tate as we did in book 1, but obviously there is a reason and I do think he will be more prominent in book 3, which scares me because I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. I also really loved how he helped Rune learn about all the traditions and cultures of Eon, but also how he opened up about some things. I was expecting to see more of him because of how central he is in Magic Unleashed, but I’m sure he will be back and right at the centre very soon!

Tashara: Oh boy, I didn’t expect to add her to this list after meeting her in Magic Unleashed but she has definitely become so much more important in Promises Forged, especially because of her link to Grey. I think she has suffered a lot in her life, much like Grey and sees him as a kindred soul, and that just really warmed my heart because both of these characters seem so misunderstood! We don’t see Tashara that much, but what we do see I loved and I’m excited for more!

THEMES

I’m not going to be able to say too much here because I’m going to end up giving you spoilers, but what I can say is that this book does centre a lot on the traditions, cultures, different species, learning about the history of Eon, learning to become a Venator who will be respected and listened to, etc. I really liked how Rune was at the forefront of this instalment in the series because it let me get more of a feel of her character and personality.

There were quite a few instances of innuendos and subtleties in this book that I am very excited to find out about in the next instalments. There is definitely a lot going on in this series, it is really binge-worthy, but it’s also really complex, a lot of work has gone into this world, its characters and I just found it very wholesome.

Of course, there are instances of blood and gore (quite a lot), battle, death, starvation, torture, killings, cruelty and probably some more I missed, so if you are sensitive to these topics, I would probably stay away or go into it carefully. I actually really liked all these elements (I know I’m weird) because it was so action-packed and that’s the type of thing I like to find in a fantasy novel or series. I definitely think this series has the potential to become really big and I’m here to shout about it very loudly because it was awesome and I loved it so much, so much so that I don’t know what to say without spoiling you, but I also have so much that I can say, and now this review is all over the place aha, please forgive me, but go read the books!

MY THOUGHTS AND RATING

If you hadn’t already guessed from my gushing review and all my babbling, I absolutely LOVED this book! The characters are so well fleshed out, they are believable, they are probably killers and hunters, but Rune and Grey are also human beings and they have FEELINGS! This was a really important part of the book and I think a lot of the time in fantasy, there aren’t enough feelings and things are done for survival or because of the basest of instincts, but the addition of feelings, empathy, fear, and so many more emotions really made this book for me.

The world-building again was very well executed, as was the description of all the dances, customs, species and everything that Tate, Beltran and Verida teach Rune about the world and history of Eon. I thought this really grounded the story and gave so much potential for new stories and adventures for the future. I’m loving how these characters are all coming to grips with one another and the world they were thrust into and I’m just so excited for book 3 now.

I loved this book from start to finish, it is quickly becoming one of my favourite series. I gave it 5 stars because it’s just great, binge-worthy but also complex and thought-provoking and if you are a fantasy fan I highly recommend! I actually highly recommend this book, series and author to everyone, so definitely go check these out because if you are anything like me, you’re sure to love it!

I’m going to have to stop myself now because I’ve already written so much and I’m sure I’ve bored you all, but I can’t say enough about this book, it’s just great and I’m definitely going to start picking up the paperbacks of this series so I can reread them and put them proudly on my bookcase!

Thank you so much to Dave and Devri for letting me take part in this tour and for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for a free review! It was such a great experience once again!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this post (if you made it to the end oops), see you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – DEVRI WALLS

Devri Walls lives in Kuna Idaho with her husband and two kids. She has worked as a music teacher and currently, a preschool teacher. She majored in theatre and her love of a story still drives her today. Thankfully, she has finally found an outlet for all the voices in her head.

Devri’s Links: Website – Twitter – Facebook – YouTube – Instagram – Pinterest – BookBub – Amazon – Goodreads

If you would like to purchase this book, you can find it here: Amazon UK (affiliate link) – Amazon FR (affiliate link) – AbeBooks (affiliate link) – The Book Depository (affiliate link) – Audible FR (affiliate link) – Amazon US –Barnes and Noble – Audible UK – Scrib’d – Kobo