Tricia Levenseller

In Blade of Secrets, the first book in Tricia Levenseller's exciting new YA fantasy duology, a teenage blacksmith with social anxiety is forced to go on the run to protect the world from the most powerful magical sword she's ever made. Eighteen-year-old Ziva prefers metal to people. She spends her days tucked away in her forge, safe from society and the anxiety it causes her, using her magical gift to craft unique weapons imbued with power. Then Ziva receives a commission from a powerful warlord, and the result is a sword capable of stealing its victims secrets. A sword that can cut far deeper than the length of its blade. A sword with the strength to topple kingdoms. When Ziva learns of the warlord’s intentions to use the weapon to enslave all the world under her rule, she takes her sister and flees. Four companions—a blacksmith, a mercenary, a scholar, and an aspiring warrior—set out on a quest to keep the sword safe until they can find a worthy wielder or a way to destroy it entirely.

Blade of Secrets

Morgan

 try to assault me. He tried to assault me with his lips.” 

“Most women would kill to get me alone.”

“I very much doubt that. Most women are far too sensible to have such poor taste.” 

In Blade of Secrets, the first book in Tricia Levenseller's exciting new YA fantasy duology, a teenage blacksmith with social anxiety is forced to go on the run to protect the world from the most powerful magical sword she's ever made. Eighteen-year-old Ziva prefers metal to people. She spends her days tucked away in her forge, safe from society and the anxiety it causes her, using her magical gift to craft unique weapons imbued with power. Then Ziva receives a commission from a powerful warlord, and the result is a sword capable of stealing its victims secrets. A sword that can cut far deeper than the length of its blade. A sword with the strength to topple kingdoms. When Ziva learns of the warlord’s intentions to use the weapon to enslave all the world under her rule, she takes her sister and flees. Joined by a distractingly handsome mercenary and a young scholar with extensive knowledge of the world’s known magics, Ziva and her sister set out on a quest to keep the sword safe until they can find a worthy wielder or a way to destroy it entirely.

Liz Griffin

Joy Bush

4.25 stars 

I loved this book, the MC has anxiety like me and that made her more relatable. Its a great pick for May for Mental Health Awareness Month. 
Ziva lives for 2 things, her forge, where she can be a smithy and be alone, and for her younger sister. Then events happen to rip her out of her comfort zone and she has to flee with her sister, a scholar that wants to write a book about her magical abilities, and a mercenary that they hired to protect them while traveling. 
Ziva fights for whats right while also dealing with her anxiety and sometimes she has full blown panic attacks and thats okay. I liked the romance too even tho its barely there, very clean, YA. The ending does have a cliffhanger though, it does not wrap up neatly, so I jumped straight into book #2, Master of Iron.

Colleen

3 Stars
 
*A YA story that delivered on the representation of social anxiety but gave little focus to the story itself*


Tricia Levenseller is one of the few Young Adult authors that I still read. She usually writes such fun adventures. I have to say though, that Blade of Secrets is my least favorite of her works thus far. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it also didn’t excite me.

The story is about an eighteen-year-old magical blacksmith named Ziva who creates a too-powerful magic sword and then goes on the run to keep it out of the hands of evil. The central theme of the story is Ziva’s severe social anxiety that affects every aspect of her life. On the one hand, it was great to see a YA heroine who wasn’t the quirky, perfect Mary Sue. On the other hand, it was depressing to read. Because the whole story is told in first person by Ziva, the reader never gets a moment’s rest from her crippling anxiety. And while that provides an empathetic view into those who suffer from social anxiety, to be blunt it made the story tedious at times. It really took the momentum out of several scenes, because no matter what happened, Ziva’s thoughts were always centered on, “What is everyone thinking about me?” 


  “My life is a world of opposites. One instant I'm safe in my forge; the next I'm on the run for my life. One second I'm fine, and then I'm lost to despair and panic. I can't control any of it. And I hate that. I am more than my fears and weaknesses, but so much of the time, they're all I can think about.”

Blade of Secrets got off to a slow start. That was mostly due to the aforementioned stream-of-consciousness anxiety narrative. There was little room for worldbuilding when your only source of information is constantly on the verge of a panic attack. Fortunately, the world wasn’t too complicated. It’s your typical medievalesque world with light magic and warring kingdoms. The plot was equally straightforward. Save the world, self-actualize, find love along the way. Entertaining enough, but also nothing particularly memorable. I also never felt that sense of adventure that I crave. Ziva was also incredibly naïve. How can someone sell such powerful weapons to mercenaries and really think that they are only being used for good?

There was some of the fun banter that I expect from Levenseller. And I did like the relationship between Ziva and her sister.

On the other hand, I was not feeling either romance in the story. Probably because neither love interest had much personality. Kellyn in particular had that too perfect vibe that felt like he was manufactured to be a squeal-worthy book boyfriend. But he never felt real. Maybe part of that was seeing him through Ziva’s eyes since she constantly put herself down while waxing on about how perfect and handsome Kellyn was.

Speaking of Kellyn, it was way too weird to refer to a twenty-year-old mercenary as "boy" constantly. Ziva always referred to him as “a boy” and not in the general way of referring to gender. Rather it was that very teenage way of referring to other teenagers such as, “he’s the cutest boy I know!” or, “I have such a crush on that boy!” I seem to recall this happening in Levenseller’s other books, but it felt even more incongruous here. It felt like the narrative swung widely between trying to make the story mature and trying to make it young. The giggly highschool moments didn't match the forced-to-grow-up-too-soon seriousness of other parts. But seriously, twenty-year-old men who kill people for money do not qualify as “boys.” He’s lopping off heads for gold not stopping by your lemonade stand, girly!

The story also ended on a cliffhanger right when things seemed like they were wrapping up. Honestly, changing a few sentences in the last chapter could have made this a standalone. I’m not sure yet whether I will read the sequel. Admittedly, upon finishing this book, I wanted to pick up the sequel right away. But since the sequel won’t be out for almost a year… I know myself well-enough that by the time that rolls around, I will have mostly forgotten Blade of Secrets and reading its sequel won’t be a priority anymore.

This review does sound awfully negative, and I didn’t intend for it to sound so harsh. This is still a solid YA Fantasy-lite adventure that will please many fans. The bottom line is just that I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Levenseller’s other books, so it was hard to drum up much gusto when writing this review.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 2 Stars
Originality: 2 Stars

Faith Kitowski

tricia’s books are always so interesting and this one is no different. it was really good.

Megan Lowe

DNFed at about 20%.

This is the second book I’ve read by Tricia. I absolutely LOVED the shadows between us. It was such a great book and I had high hopes for Blades.
Unfortunately what I read fell flat.
I felt like the writing was juvenile and I didn’t really vibe with Ziva. I loved that she had anxiety, but she was too juvenile for me.
I’d like to think I’ll come back to this book, but I probably won’t.

I have a fun time reading this! After reading several Tricia Levenseller books, I find a lot of the romances to be insta-lovey, which I don't love. But it also doesn't retract from my enjoyment of her books.

After reading this a second time, I wish Levenseller had expanded more on plot lines to really fill the story. I enjoyed the overall story and characters but nothing stood out to me. I think this book, though, is a fun, quick fantasy that many can enjoy.

Brandyn

First Read: 4 stars
Reread: 3.5 stars

I have a fun time reading this! After reading several Tricia Levenseller books, I find a lot of the romances to be insta-lovey, which I don't love. But it also doesn't retract from my enjoyment of her books.

After reading this a second time, I wish Levenseller had expanded more on plot lines to really fill the story. I enjoyed the overall story and characters but nothing stood out to me. I think this book, though, is a fun, quick fantasy that many can enjoy.

Holly

Very good, but there's a decent amount of telling, not showing at the beginning.

Elizabeth Hagenlocher

I'm SCREAMINGGGG at how cute the romance in this book is. It's a good 'ol will-they-won't-they slow burn, and I am HERE for it. I haven't been this in love with a fictional man since George Freaking Cooper (Song of the Lioness Series). In other words, it's been a LONG time. Kellyn is a sweet, compassionate mercenary and we love to see it. 

The next best thing is my girl Ziva, the tall smithy that can whisper magic into her creations. She's better with metal than she is people, and I can certainly relate. The author's depiction of her social anxiety was so spot-on for me. I think that's why this book totally works in first person: we get a front-row seat to the spiraling thoughts that come with anxiety. YET, I didn't ever feel like it was heavy-handed. Does it mean sometimes Ziva says or does the wrong thing? Yeah. But if you struggle with anxiety, you know that sh!t happens sometimes, and your brain does its damndest to convince you that the world is against you. YES, even when all signs point to something being GOOD, that doubt remains. For me, that was relatable as hell. 

Despite Ziva's battle with her anxiety, she grows as a character and learns how to push her boundaries in a way that is healthy. She isn't perfect, but she tries. And I love that for her. It's amazing to have a character who has such a whirlwind internal struggle and still has the strength to face it down. That's yet another thing I admire. I've see some criticism that internally she struggles yet externally she's more or less fine, and that it somehow makes the representation bad. But I have extreme social anxiety and I'm forced to face it all the time! I probably (hopefully) seem fine on the outside all the time. So personally, it really worked for me. 

The other two characters in our band of misfits are also wonderfully fleshed out, and I love the distinct feeling each person has. Not to mention, the banter between our four heroes is top-notch. I genuinely enjoyed the dialogue and how the characters interact with each other. 

Readers, take note that on occasion, the conflict can have to do with miscommunication. I'm tired of the miscommunication trope as much as the next person, yet in this case, I feel like it's done with a careful hand. Levenseller chooses only the things that make sense. Without spoiling anything, the characters are still learning to trust each other. And, in some cases, social anxiety facilitates miscommunication. This is done VERY lightly, and in my opinion, just enough to be believable without being frustrating. However, I hope the sequel continues to be this light-handed.

The story itself was entertaining, if not open-ended. Because the general plot was just "hide from enemies," this left a lot of room for surprises in the flow of the story. This unpredictability made for a good time, and even better character interaction/development. While it wasn't revolutionary for a fantasy plot, I did find it refreshing. Ziva and her friends are not your typical heroes, and they're not out there fighting evil and trying to save the day. That was plenty to keep me hooked. 

And then, of course, there's the romance. There's no spice in this book, which is YA, and there doesn't need to be. What we get is so perfect and sweet: Levenseller really knows how to build the tension and longing. Give me more anticipation! It makes the payoff sooooo much better. 

The only thing I think would improve the book is more detailed world building. I have no problem believing that this is a medieval-ish fantasy. However, every once in a while, Levenseller employs a term or concept that doesn't seem to fit. Granted, this isn't OUR world, so it doesn't have to play by our world's rules. There are plenty of modern-ish, medieval-ish fantasies that work. (The ones that come to mind are Galavant and the Ella Enchanted movie.) But I think that could be better established in the book. Instead, I'm left to wonder if those are simply mistakes or misunderstandings. For example, in the first few chapters, the characters go to a "restaurant" and order off menus from a waitress. It was jarring, since most fantasies tend to have taverns and barkeeps...and I'm pretty sure menus are fairly modern. 

The kingdom also had some surprising geographical elements. Like apparently they've got every type of biome right next to each other on one map, though this is never explained well. At one point they go somewhere in the middle of the map and suddenly refer to it as the tropics, but also there are penguins? These things don't ruin the story for me, but they did give me pause. 

Ultimately though, this promises to be a phenomenal duology, and I can't wait for book 2! Thankfully, I won't have to wait too long. If you're a fan of Tamora Pierce, I think you'll enjoy this.

This is a YA Fantasy book about magic weapons, sisterly love, and overcoming social anxiety without changing who you are as a person.

 someone who suffers from social anxiety myself, Ziva's emotional reaction to groups of people resonated with me, especially as she tried to push through it to spend time with her sister. The bond between the two sisters is beautiful and I appreciated how the author gave them the ability to disagree and fight without damaging their underlying love and respect. 

The dynamic between Ziva's sister and their traveling companion had me cracking up and I loved the ways in which Ziva's sister pushed her to grow while not forcing her to go beyond her boundries. 

The relationship between Ziva and her love interest felt a bit insta-love to me and I would have liked to see Ziva's feeling grow out of more experiences together rather than straight attraction. 

Minnie Mazuera

This is a YA Fantasy book about magic weapons, sisterly love, and overcoming social anxiety without changing who you are as a person.

As someone who suffers from social anxiety myself, Ziva's emotional reaction to groups of people resonated with me, especially as she tried to push through it to spend time with her sister. The bond between the two sisters is beautiful and I appreciated how the author gave them the ability to disagree and fight without damaging their underlying love and respect. 

The dynamic between Ziva's sister and their traveling companion had me cracking up and I loved the ways in which Ziva's sister pushed her to grow while not forcing her to go beyond her boundries. 

The relationship between Ziva and her love interest felt a bit insta-love to me and I would have liked to see Ziva's feeling grow out of more experiences together rather than straight attraction. 

Overall great book!

Ashlee

This book was incredible! When I was nearing the end I suddenly had that 💡 moment and realized it wasn’t a standalone, like I thought. But then I was happy because that means more of these characters and this world! Really, everything was just so well done and it was more than enjoyable, definitely the kind of story you can happily loose yourself in. 

I really appreciated the anxiety rep and loved seeing the way the other characters cared for Ziva and helped her through the panic attacks and moments of overthinking, and also seeing Ziva feel comfortable amongst them, enough to start letting down her walls a little and feel safe in exploring ways she can cope with and manage her anxiety. Definitely a shining point of this book.

The sisterly love in this is some of the best I’ve seen too, and it felt incredibly genuine and believable. Ziva and her sister depend so much on each other, and certainly that is going to create a degree of strife at times. I liked that we got to see both sides of their relationship as sisters.

And finally the romance in this is great! It’s a little bit rivals to lovers, a little bit forced proximity, and a let’s face it … Kellyn is a big bad cinnamon roll. Truly one of my fave character archetypes. 

I am looking forward to the next installment in their story!

Nice book.
I enjoyed it, not special, not bad.
Had to cringe from 2nd hand embarrassment sometimes tho.
I also craved a bit more violence, trauma, drama, death and sadness. But that's just me who's messed up (:

The mc has anxiety and panic attacks n shit, which is an interesting change to all the bad ass strong mc's.

The story's concept is pretty nice, about the few people having magic abilities and sorts and about the country being divided in 6. Wished I'd seen more of other stuff, or gotten more attention.

Not necessarily a must read, still an okay book. Finished it in around 6 hours.

“I am more than my fears and weaknesses, but so much of the time, they’re all I can think about.”


This is my third Tricia book and the last two had badass heroines with all the self confidence so seeing Ziva, the heroine with so much anxiety and hardly any self confidence (but still badass when she needs to be), was something new and I loved it a lot. 

The one thing I absolutely loved about this book was how the writer never made Ziva’s anxiety seem like a casual matter or something that magically disappears infront of a dude (I’ve seen that happen a lot). I also loved how the LGBT community was represented without it seeming forced.
And the dynamics between the characters (mainly Petrik and Temra) was so beautiful. I absolutely loved Ziva’s character. This book was unique in its own way with a magical blade smith and a feisty sister and a soft scholar and a love interest I have no idea what to make of. 

However, I found this story very mediocre and not much engaging. Sure there were fights and a dangerous authority figure and adventures but it was still lacking. I found the world and the love interest equally bland (yes he was very cute and understanding at times but he had no character) and I found the writing lacked depth.

Yet it was good read and I’ll wait for the next book !!

While I somewhat enjoyed this book, there were several elements that distracted or disappointed me while reading.

A potentially ace/demi character but also instant lust? Farfetched. This is an instance where no rep would have been better than bad rep.

The exactitude of some of the measurements (like temperature or character height) knocked me out of the story. As did some of the phrasing/light slang that felt anachronistic with the overall style and feel.

Additionally, in many instances, Ziva managed to rally from her anxiety just in time to say something pithy or important, at highly convenient moments. She was also surprisingly good at lying.

The late in the game character reveal and insanely abrupt ending keep me interested enough to read the sequel, possibly.

Áróra Lind 

Freya Cardwell

Blade of Secrets is the first book I listened to instead of reading and can say it was a good introduction to the world of audiobooks. 
I’d never heard of this book before probably since as I’ve now noticed it is a recent release. For once I’m not six years behind everyone :) 
I ended up listening to this more often than not at night as I found the readers voice quite relaxing and the plot was slow to build up so I wouldn’t get completely invested and stay up to finish it. 
I really liked hearing Ziva’s inner dialogue showing her anxiety and nerves about being judged. I also liked the premise for the story, of it being a world-ending weapon that the creator must protect from the evil warlord it was made for. Also welcomed the change from most YA fantasy books where the main protagonist is the worlds greatest fighter or deadliest assassin or the chosen one. It’s just a blacksmith with anxiety, her little sister, the hired protection and a scholar. Nearing the end of the book I really liked the change as Ziva gains confidence in herself, her abilities and go from hiding behind her little sister to protecting her.
I did have a few issues with this book, however, hence the 3-star rating. Firstly, the group seemed to spend the majority of the book travelling in the woods, get to one place and something goes wrong then back to the woods travelling to the next. I also found that the majority of crisis moments especially nearer the start seem to be easily adverted and solved. I would have liked to see them have more difficulty with this instead of lucky coincidences. 
Finally, the twists at the end were especially entertaining and I finally felt more connected and involved with the story and characters although no one likes a cliffhanger so I definitely will be buying the sequel once it comes out.

Sophia De La Garza

4.5 stars 

WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?! 

I adore Tricia Levenseller’s books and she quickly became an auto buy author for me. 
Blade of Secrets is no exception. 

A fun fast paced fantasy with a lovely sister relationship. As well as amazing social anxiety rep, and as someone with social anxiety I loved seeing this in a fantasy book. 

The romance build up was adorable and I cannot wait to see how everything unfolds in book 2!

Tanja Hoffmann

Tricia Levenseller isn’t the best writer and the fantasy elements/world-building in this are a little simplistic, but it was a fun, fast-paced read and the romance was *chef‘s kiss*. Definitely better than „The Shadows Between Us“.

Linda Quintanilla

I was so intrigued to read this book just from the book cover. And then I read the book summary and I became more intrigued to read it. I really enjoyed reading it but I had one issue with it: the romance between the main character and side character. Their potential romance with each other is a bit immature to my taste. I mean it's not the end of the world when someone messes up. People are not perfect. And that's something that teenagers need to realize in life, especially Ziva. People are flawed, it's forgivable. Learn to forgive and learn from it. It's going to take some time for Ziva to grow up a bit especially since she has a nation after her.

laura

I really enjoyed this read. I found this book to be super fun and loved the characters so much. I also really loved the Ziva and at the heart of it was her dealing with anxiety and how the affected her. I also really enjoy both the quest elements but also the rag tag bunch of heroes. I have never read a book with blacksmith main character and was super captivated by that elements. At the heart of this book was also the sister realtionship and this book was fast adventure story, that i FLEW through. I am super excited to get my hands on book 2!!

Julia

Cute, fast paced, easy read. Tropy but i liked it.

Hannah

K.J. Haakenson

Honestly so disappointed... 

Plot was slow and not interesting - I almost DNF’d. I didn’t really like any of the characters. I was super excited to see a social anxiety rep in a fantasy novel but it swallowed the plot and the bad world-building made the anxiety superficial. There was also a big emphasis on romance which was odd since the two characters had bad chemistry. There were hardly any descriptions so it felt like I was reading something that happened far away and in a white room. Tbh, I didn’t even know what the main character look liked other than “she was tall”. 

I loved the blacksmith magic but that was about it. I’m glad I read it since it was one of my most anticipated reads this year but it fell flat. The cover of the book is absolutely stunning - I just wished the story on the inside matched.

Joleen

4 stars

Every time I pick up a Tricia Levenseller book, I am constantly impressed. Blade of Secrets was fantastic! It has adventure, a relatable MC, and one awesome plot twist.

There is not a lot of fictional characters that I can relate to, but Ziva comes the closest. Her struggle with anxiety mirrors my own. It was nice to see an MC feel the way I often feel. And I absolutely adored her relationship with her sister. Those two genuinely care for each other and it shows. We also get a precious romance that I hope everyone loves.

Now let's talk about that plot twist. Obviously, I won't spoil it but I was taken aback. I did not see that coming. I mean seriously what an ending!

Thank you to Netgalley, publisher, and author for this one!

Wren Hardwick

Thank you to the author and the publisher and Net Galley for giving me a e-ARC of this beautiful book! 

I really enjoyed this one. It is probably my favorite work of Tricia's so far, but keep in mind I have only read three of her books total. Now I want to read them ALL. The beginning was a little slow, but I took that as world building and character setting up. I honestly didn't mind that much. Once I hit like 15% though, I was hooked.

I loved the mental health aspect of this book and how the people around our main character help her deal with her anxiety instead of leaving her to deal with it on her own. Even people she meets in the book immediately are nice about it. Her sister is my absolute favorite tho. Ziva (the main character) and Temra's (the sister) relationship is so pure and I just... I just adore it. 

The whole book is so interesting. These sisters are on the run due to Ziva, a teenaged blade-smith who can put a little magic in the items she creates, creating a blade for someone she realizes is not a great human and is planning to create a lot of chaos and pain with her forged-blade. So the sisters run, they pay a mercenary to protect them on the road named Kellyn (LOVE HIM), and then a big ol' cinnamon roll named Petrick joins since he is wanting to learn more about magic.

I just really loved this book. There are a few twists, there is cuteness, there is mental health reps.. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves YA fantasy!

Meg K

I absolutely LOVED this book! Ziva is such a relatable character. It’s heartening to see her going through the same kind of mental battles with anxiety that I have in my everyday life, and how she uses her support system to work through it. Kellyn is everything and I love him to pieces! Officially going on my favorite book boyfriends shelf 😉 That ending has left me REELING, and I can’t wait to jump back into this world again to see how the story continues in future installments!

Blade of Secrets

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