Book Review: Soulwoven; Jeff Seymour.

I have had a very small amount of time to read this book, and didn't get to properly sit down and read this to completion until today. I have a lot of mixed thoughts, and can't wait to share!

SOURCE: Netgalley
TYPE: E-Read

TITLE: Soulwoven
AUTHOR: Jeff Seymour
SERIES: Soulwoven (#1)
PUBLISHER: Jeff Seymour
PAGES: 446
GENRE: Fantasy, Young Adult, Adventure

RATING: 2.5/5 Stars

Blurb:
Litnig Jin has spent his life yearning for the power to weave the souls of the dead into magic. His brother Cole has spent his believing in nothing bigger than his own two hands. 

When a dragon sinks its claws into their nightmares, their lives will change forever. 

A dream of moving statues, shattered chains, and seething clouds of darkness sets the brothers on a journey into the unknown. A prince asks for their help. A necromancer hunts them. The bloom of first love gives Cole something to believe in. 


As the brothers travel the world of Guedin seeking to prevent the hatred of a god from coming to life, Litnig discovers he has more power than he ever thought possible. But learning why may cost him his brother, his best friend, and everything he is. 

What I Liked:

• The plot was very action-filled. A lot of things happened in  this book and I never found myself thinking that it was dull at any point. There were dramatic twists and turns on every page and it certainly kept my attention. I thought that Seymour was a pretty good writer too, there were some very quotable moments and I loved his descriptive writing too!
• The main group of characters were very memorable and well-written. In fact, one of my favourite things about this book is that Seymour actually developed each and every one of his characters, rather than letting any of them become unimportant. They each had a story-line, a past, and a reason to change as the plot progressed. There was a great group dynamic too, and watching the characters slowly lose and gain faith in each other was interesting to read.

What I Disliked:

• I felt like the pace was just too fast throughout with no real pause for breath. The characters were constantly in danger, and almost died in pretty much every chapter. This resulted in a lot of confusion on my part. I felt like I was missing key events and revelations, and it being written from multiple viewpoints, it was difficult to tell who knew what and when/how they found out. At points it became repetitive too: if I have to read the phrase 'something felt/was wrong' one more time I might have a tantrum.
• Despite the great character development, I just felt distanced from the ongoing action and the characters. I didn't really find myself convinced by the 'power couple' of the story, and the love triangle annoyed me. I never really got attached to anyone in particular and as a result, didn't ever feel truly panicked or disturbed when their lives were in danger (which was pretty frequently).

Overall Conclusion:

At the start of this book I felt like I was really going to enjoy it. And there were things in this story that I haven't seen in other books for a while, such as great character development and wonderful description. But as time went on I began to feel like I was becoming a little aloof from the action, the characters and the whole 'life constantly in danger' thing got a bit old. It was a decent Fantasy with many of the favourite tropes, and worth a read if you're a big fan of the genre.