What an awesome, action packed adventure! This is a super quick read (the pages literally flew by) and it had me hooked each chapter. It's very very speedy, and some things did feel glossed over but also for a YA book designed to be an action adventure story, this wholeheartedly committed and i appreciate that! Standouts for me are Cinta and Esmond. Two polar opposites that go on great story arcs throughout, both with satisfying endings.

Yes this is comp'd to The Hunger Games and obviously no, it does not come close- those are big shoes to fill. If you're like me and read THG for the immense political intrigue and nuance, you will not find that in To the Death; what you will find however is tension, twists, action and scenes that will leave you begging for the next chapter. There are some scenes in here that truly made me gasp from the shock! At times, predictable however still fun to read the same.

I hope the author will write more in the world since while this can be read as a standalone, there's room for more spinoffs with various characters, a sequel, some companion novellas- I would really love to return to this world!! This is an excellent young adult novel that i will be recommending.

My early copy was won at YALC. I was under no obligation to review.

This is...a lot. This review is a lot (mainly because I'm the most passionate about my highly anticipated reads when they let me down), so apologies if it's length. I'm extremely conflicted in my rating (either 2 or 3 stars) because i am REALLY rooting for Weavinghsaw to do well, except it missed the mark massively for me. This book was extremely easy to put down, and I didn't feel excited to pick it back up again. It was just...there.

I enjoyed small parts of the mystery (while I was still able to figure them out myself) and liked the unique magic system/ghost magic that was explained thoroughly, though would have loved a little more history about Lena's ghost work and why exactly she learns to do as she does (herself). Some of our characters are intriguing- namely the nobles in the latter half of the book and they were great at changing the dynamic.

Personally, this was sold to me as a dark academia, dark romantasy, gothic novel with political intrigue in which I believe it only hits 1/4 of those point- only dark romantasy. The author tries at gothic, but it's much more than just a dimly lit castle with ghosts. It's the setting, the world, the atmosphere, the horror- none of which was present. The political intrigue came across as very generic ('we hate immigrants') and then never gets explored after that. The romance also felt very copy/paste, and (if you go by tropes) is an insta-lust/slowburn, something that doesn't interest me at all (was expecting just slowburn). Lena is nothing but angry at everything and having this as our main narrator constantly made for some very repetitive thoughts i did not enjoy. I understand why she is angry, but that's all she is the whole book!

The beginning is extremely slow. Undeniably slow. Nothing happens for a very long time, and things that do pop up are immediately solved within that chapter. I was constantly told 'it gets better at 25%, no actually 50%, no actually i didn't buy it until 75%' and i don't understand why I should have to wait until over halfway for me to be hooked into the story. Suddenly the war is over, suddenly Rami got justice, suddenly we learn about the locket etc etc. Actions never had long lasting consequences (even the blurb of the book sets up the whole story to be about finding a lost brother- but he is found within 25%).

Over the course of the book, things stopped being mysterious. Anything that could have been intriguing was highlighted in the dialogue, almost like a 'HEY LOOK THIS WILL BE SUPER IMPORTANT LATER' arrow to the point where I wasn't figuring anything out and had my hand held the entire way. For an adult debut, this absolutely could have been in Young Adult/Upper YA as it read young (because our characters are naive and inexperienced).

Unfortunately, much of the story was clumsily revealed to us in a dialogue heavy, expositional chapter that ruined absolutely all of the mystery and the whole book from then on (about 70%) relied on dramatic irony. After The Wake chapter, the book went in a direction I had absolutely no interest in- demons. I wanted more political intrigue, I wanted to learn more of the world, but instead it went the other world route. With everything happening in the final 20% i couldn't help but wonder why this is a trilogy and not a standalone, at most a duology, since as a result of the ending i couldn't help but feel that all of the setup in this book was needlessly dragged out for no reason. It was a very open/closed case and story, that has now pivoted to something else entirely.

We also don't get to visit Weavingshaw until 60% of the way into the book. A strange choice, honestly. The ending is a cliffhanger that didn't make sense to me because:

1. where are you going to go?
2. it's really obvious you won't leave anyway.

I appreciate the effort that was made here- truly, and i can absolutely see this book finding its correct target audience, but sadly, to me Weavingshaw felt like a generic romantasy disguised in a gothic setting, and i'm extremely disappointed. I won't rush to get the sequel, but I will absolutely be rooting for it since It can be turned around, and I'd like to see how the author does that.