Review: Feudlings (Fate on Fire #1) by Wendy Knight

Feudlings by Wendy Knight

Author: Wendy Knight

Series: Fate on Fire

Pages: 283

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Astraea Press

Amazon

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Nothing makes a new school suck worse than discovering the guy you’re in love with is your prophesied nemesis.

Ari is the most powerful flame-throwing sorceress ever, and her people’s last hope in an ancient war. But she’s also a seventeen-year-old girl, and in her free, not-hunting-nemesis times, she jumps from school to school, trying to figure out regular people her own age and pretending she’ll get the chance to graduate.

Shane lives a double life. He goes to school and masters the art of popularity, hiding the fact that he has a fate with a slim chance of his survival. He’s destined to end a 300 year-old war by killing or being killed. He knows he’s hunted by a powerful enemy who’s not afraid to die. Only problem? He has no idea who that enemy is. 

When Ari shows up at Shane’s school, angry and sullen and determined to keep him at arm’s reach, neither of them realize they are supposed to be killing each other, not falling in love. Until Ari does realize it, and she almost dies – by Shane’s hand.

Review: 2 ½ out of 5 stars

Star-crossed love stories always appeal to me and Feudlings appeared to have all the elements I tend to enjoy in a Young Adult novel based on the synopsis alone but unfortunately I wasn’t wowed right from the onset although I think it is a promising start to this series.

Seventeen year-old Arianna Delacour is an Edrens who has trained from a child to be the most powerful sorceress she can be to fulfil a prophecy which states she needs to kill the enemy Carules prodigy to end the war.

Arianna was a stubborn, powerful but at times detached character who I did like but didn’t love; she has moved from one school to the next, never forming any connections or making friends but things change when she moves to Adlington and forms some close relationships, including with the school hottie, Shane Delyle who happens to be Arianna’s sworn enemy – the Carules prodigy.

Shane was pretty swoon-worthy but lacking in personality for me, there were no knee-wobbling gushing moments that I usually enjoy; the attraction and connection is there but I think the overall appeal was missing.

The plot was interesting and evenly paced, the prodigy’s needed to kill each other to end the war - the feuds and fights between the clans were fascinating but the imagery of the setting was not there, I couldn’t picture how the fights played out. The world-building was regrettably lacking; I was curious about how everything came about – the sorcerers, clans, flames etc. so I hope these aspects are further explained in the sequel. I always like to get the history to fully appreciate the overall story.

The secondary characters were likeable but a few needed further development such as Will, I would have liked more detail on his role as the renegade colony leader and his feud with the Edrens, I can see him playing a bigger role as Ari’s guard in future books and I needed more information about these aspects to truly appreciate him. Hunter had me intrigued and I loved Charity and the new friends at school Ari had made except of course the clichéd mean girl Brittany who I think came across as immature and childish.

I think this book has so much potential, it was very well written and the premise is really fascinating I just felt the back-story and execution was lackluster overall for me.

Feudlings has received a lot of praise, so please don’t let my review deter you from reading this book, what’s good for me may not be for someone else so please be sure to stop by Goodreads for differing opinions.

About the author: Wendy Knight was born and raised in Utah by a wonderful family who spoiled her rotten because she was the baby. Now she spends her time driving her husband crazy with her many eccentricities (no water after five, terror when faced with a live phone call, etcetera, etcetera). She also enjoys chasing her three adorable kids, playing tennis, watching football, reading, and hiking. Camping is also big: her family is slowly working toward a goal of seeing all the National Parks in the U.S.

You can usually find her with at least one Pepsi nearby, wearing ridiculously high heel for whatever the occasion may be. And if everything works out just right, she will also be writing.