Review: Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana

I was really excited to finally sit down and read Lore of the Wilds by debut author Analeigh Sbrana. Described as a stunning Romantasy debut about an enchanted library, two handsome Fae, and one human who brings them all together, it definitely sounded like a book right up my alley. To be honest, they had me at enchanted library. I'm a sucker for books about books.

The book follows Lore, an young woman living in the human village of Duskmere in a land otherwise populated by cruel Fae. Several hundred years ago the humans were exiled from their original world by the Gods who created them in an event known as the Cruel Crossing, and ever since they have been looking for a way back to their original world. A search made pretty much impossible by the Fae, as they treat humans like vermin and forbids them from even leaving the borders of Duskmere.

After a terrible disaster leaves her village in ruins, Lore is brought to the castle, where she strikes a deal with a Fae lord: He will send aid, workers and materials to help rebuild her village. In exchange she will enter an enchanted library where no Fae can enter, and organize and catalog the collection of books within. The library has remained untouched for a thousand years, and so Lore sees an opportunity to acquire knowledge no human has ever had access to before. But there's also something else inside the library. Something Lore has always wanted for herself. Something humans like her shouldn't even be able to wield: Magic.

I do like the premise of the book, and the story itself has a lot of promise. I have seen some reviews mentioning that the book reads very much like YA even though it is marketed as adult, and I guess I can see where they're coming from. However - and this might come as a surprise to some people - older teens/young adults do the horizontal tango all the time, so the YA-style writing combined with the more mature parts of the story wasn't a big deal to me. It didn't hurt the story in any way. Lore is supposed to be twenty-one, and there's really not a huge difference between a twenty-one-year-old and an eighteen-year-old maturity wise.

Speaking of Lore, she's a pretty likeable main character for the most part. She cares a lot for her adoptive family and for her friends, and is eager to improve the quality of life for the humans of Duskmere. She's also pretty brave and feisty - you know, when she's not afraid of being killed by unpredictable Fae with no regard for human life. The part I didn't like about Lore was how easily she would be be swayed by a pretty face and a muscular body. I mean, it certainly doesn't hurt to have some eye candy, but forming genuine connections based on something other than physical attraction would also have been nice.

You can tell from the cover and the synopsis that this book has a love triangle - something I'm not overly fond of in the first place. I'm not saying a love triangle done right can't be fun, but as they are few and far between I just prefer to avoid the trope if possible. Unfortunately the romance(s) in Lore of the Wilds are sadly underdeveloped, and it is probably the weakest part of the book. One of the the romance options seems very insta-lovey, as Lore literally gets major flutters when their hands touch after they've had like two or three very short interactions. The other romance mostly develops off-page while Lore is already in a semi-relationship with guy #1, and as the reader I don't really understand why she's suddenly so conflicted about her feelings for guy #2 when she was gushing about guy #1 just a few pages earlier. It does seem like we're headed in a certain direction by the end of the book, so hopefully the love triangle will resolve itself in the sequel.

While I thought the story was fun and engaging (for the most part), there were a few issues with the pacing here and there. For the most part I think the story moved along pretty well, but there were a few parts that just felt oddly paced compared to the rest of the book (chapter 24 immediately comes to mind). This kind of staccato pacing is something I've also seen with some other debut authors, and so I'm not too worried about it. An author's writing style is constantly evolving, and in my opinion they have a tendency to fix their pacing issues as their skill continue to develop and grow.

While Lore of the Wilds might not have lived up to every single one of my expectations, it was still a pretty good read. I am planning on continuing on with the series, and I'm excited to see where Analeigh Sbrana takes the story next.