A Forest Of Vanity And Valour (The Levanthria Series)

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Again, I really wanted to like this book. I am a big fan of fantasy, legends and even Robin Hood in general. While I do not wish to discourage the writer, as this seems to be his first book, it is a good example of self-publishing gone wrong. It’s interesting that it’s written in first person. Not something I’m use to. But it was refreshing.

While I enjoyed Vireo's chapters, I despised Jareb's. There was no variation in voice despite them being on opposing sides. He was just so flat! Initially, I didn't mind him because he seemed to be doing his best with what he had. I was intrigued by an antagonist who put his people first, but his 180 turn into a tyrant was jarring. Even if we blame it on Morgana's influence, it should have taken him longer to forget his morals. If you want a review on the story itself, I'm sorry, I can't give you one. I only got halfway through before giving up. This book was sold as a Robin Hood retelling and I can see where the author tried to incorporate certain aspects of the tale within his book, but it felt more like the beginning of the story instead of the actual story. Like this story was to tell the audience not a retelling of Robin Hood, but how he came to be within the forests that protected him and his "merry men (and women)." It didn't really feel complete either as there were was no real wrap up in the end, and I know that this is supposed to be a first book in the series, but the next books don't seem to have anything to do with these characters anymore so I felt that there should have been at least some wrap up instead of it just ending like it did. Admission of guilt: Bought Forest of Vanity and the following three books mostly based on the covers and the fun Tiktoks from the author. It's some wonderful imagery and AP is a fun person to watch.

No matter the story (it's an inspired-by anyways), the character's reasons and development are as non-existent as the creativity of the writing style. Full of poster-image scenes that make no sense nor can be connected to the bigger picture. I do like the book it’s a mix of Arthurian Legend and Robin Hood that comes across really well with a good mix of medieval themes in the book and it’s a good interpretation. Not the worst book I’ve read in 2023, but hella disappointing for how good it looked on TikTok and the cover is pretty legit. The abysmal writing style combined with the painful point of view and tense made this short book extremely difficult to get through. By the time I got to the halfway mark, I was reading it out of spite. Seriously. I read six books between starting this and finally finishing it. First-person is difficult to pull off, especially when there are multiple points of view, and this one flopped.

Embroiled in a secret affair with a fellow noble’s wife, Vireo is mortified when he’s forced to commit an unthinkable act. Driven into exile, no longer able to coerce the vulnerable, and with the powerful tome in his enemy’s hands, the fallen agent’s only shot at survival hangs on his skills at saving others. The use of the first person present is done so horribly that I actively cringed at least once every chapter. It reads like an online role play, providing the reader with second-hand embarrassment. Example from the first paragraph of chapter 9: The book had a few typos where the good mage and the villain’s names are swapped - so the book could just use another run through. That said I was a fool. The story is absolutely captivating and each moment that passed I wanted to know more. The over all change in the main character was beautiful and compelling to see. Watching the antagonist fall deeper and deeper into madness was like watching a well preformed play. We as the readers follow two narratives Vireo (our Robin Hood) and Jareb (the Sheriff?) that switch between chapters for the most part so we can see what is happening from both sides, which when there are not a lot of switching I tend to enjoy and I for the most part did in this book as well.

There were some loose ends that I felt could have been wrapped up nicely if an epilogue was given and I definitely would have enjoyed a bit of a longer book to be honest as I felt that there is so much more that could have gone in to make the book more fleshed out. The ending was rushed and made no sense. Lek gave no indication that he would betray everyone. If anything, I thought it would be Gillan. Did he make a deal with Jareb? Was he manipulated by Morgana? Who knows? And what happened to him in the end? Because homeboy just vanished into thin air. Some extremely tragic events play out leading to a slight change in character, loss of status and a love. However ultimately this guy is still a pretty big jerk. His history with Lek and Gillan could have been fleshed out more, but I still got a good sense of their characters. Jordell was also an interesting character and, to be frank, the only one with his head screwed on right.

The author has a very good social media presence which intrigued me to read his series. I wonder if I can continue, thou'. Or only for the sake of seeing can he do any better? So this book.... I had higher hopes for a gritty fantastical re-telling of Robin Hood. To cut to the chase, I was sorely disappointed. (Not a great start to my 2023 reading) None of the characters' motivations made sense. Some of the descriptions were overly detailed, while others were glossed over (in an inconsistent way). Vireo the protagonist starts off as a jerk and never gets redeemed he stays a jerk and completely unlikeable. He never feels like Robin Hood at all. The only resemblance is that he is an archer and hides in the woods. The antagonist's (the Prince John role) initial motivation is totally unexplained. He is a tyrant and hates that he is, but it is never clear why he acts this way if he hates it. There is a betrayal at the end that makes no sense and is just kind of left there. And where did Morgana come from? She was creepy as hell. I got r/menwritingwomen vibes from her due to the way that she was described. It's one thing to have Jareb view her in such a way but then Vireo immediately described her as a woman in a skintight dress. Sir, you have more pressing things to worry about. Your friends are dying.The characters themselves miss depth and would be better suited in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, the whole book feels like it could have been a transcript of a D&D campaign. Now, as a fan of myths, legends and lore, I adored the concept of these books, which was the second reason I rushed to buy them. Unfortunately that's where the positives end.

Authors, if you are a member of the Goodreads Author Program, you can edit information about your own books. Find out how in this guide. Third, and spoiler, but Lek betraying him…..JUST WHY. Like give me a reason, any reason for this. But no, and from what it looks like, the next book doesn’t have any of the same characters so you won’t get to know.An aggressive debt collector banished from the kingdom. Now his life depends on his ability to help the less fortunate… The dialogue was decent. Unlike the writing style, it flowed well even though it was nothing special. The writing isn't great. I don't consider myself a book snob and I understand that self-published indie books come with quirks and occasional mistakes, but I believe writing takes skill and ALL writing benefits from a few goes around with an editor and even ARC readers to really bring out the best in a story. I saw the authors TikTok for this book and was immediately intrigued by a darker robin hood retelling. I found the execution wanting. I felt the pacing really slowed me down and only being on a plane with nothing else to read could dedicate my attention to it. The dialogue at times felt jarring and unnatural, or like the author didn't trust the reader to understand what was going on and then made a joke about it. Spelling errors didn't help either. The first person perspective switching between different characters threw me for a loop too. He fridges the main character's romantic interest, I felt the characterizations were inconsistent towards the end, and he didn't wrap up the ending with any sort of explanations regarding these questionable character actions.