Naomi Hughes

A disillusioned young bodyguard finds himself falling for the dangerous, magical princess he protects. Meanwhile, his assassin sister plots to kill the princess to free him from her.

Mercurial

Mercurial is a character-driven story about magic, revenge, and redemption. What lengths would you go to for someone you love? 

I would recommend you pick this one up! It's a self-published stand-alone fantasy novel that's fast-paced. I read and finished this book in a single sitting. It comes out on March 16th, 2021. 

The character development was great throughout the book and I loved how flawed the main characters were. Also, I've realized that I love rooting for morally grey characters. 

I personally would have liked for there to be more world-building and court politics as it felt as if we barely scratched the surface of what could have been on that front. The same goes for the magic system! I would have loved to read more about metal magic and how each type differs. 

Thank you to Naomi Hughes and Netgalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Victoria

This was a book that I read in large chunks because of how much it drew me in. It was a fast paced story but I really enjoyed that. Reading it made me feel like I was watching a movie and I absolutely love that.

Tal is a character that you grow attached too. So when he feels pain, you feel it too. I think this is important for a main character as it draws the reader in, making them wanting to know more.

The Destroyer is such an amazing character and I am absolutely in love with her. She has some of the best character development I've seen in a character. I love who she becomes and that we get to be there for that growth.

The story is told from the perspectives of Tal, the Destroyer, and Nyx (Tal's sister), and I thought that it was well down. I love POV switches and it makes an amazing read when it was executed properly and thought out. These POV switches allow the reader to get to know the character's on a more personal level and allow the reader to know something that other characters don't.

I would 100% recommend this book to my friends.

Ruth

This is one of my new favorite books by far. From beginning to end it kept me engaged and wondering what might happen next. The character development was superb and helped me as a reader to stay engaged between the pov flips. There was not a huge amount of world building, but the story and background makes up for that. I would personally recommend this book to fantasy readers who enjoy Sarah J Maas series' and Jennifer L. Armentrout series'. It is the perfect book to get someone out of a reading slump and remains engaging throughout. 

Now delving into the characters, I found the multilevel character development to be very enticing. Just when a reader may begin to bore of a characters point of view (all readers know the feeling in pov switches), Naomi throws in a perfect piece of info or plot twist. The internal conflictss that both The Destroyer and Tal went through made this book a very thoughtful and reflective read. 

Overall, I would rate this book a 4.7/5! I enjoyed the read and plowed through it in two days! I believe I only found two noticable typos, but that is considerably low in the ebook world. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy/romance/adventure!

Camila Eduarda Vilela Lobianco

The Destroyer is the most feared person in the hole empire. She is fearless, powerful and the youngest sister of the empress. Tal is a believer, he believes that his god will find a way to help the Destroyer end this rigid govern, so he promise to protect her no matter what. The problem is that, in the role of her bodyguard, he starts to hate her and everything she does, how bad and careless she is. But everything changes when an accident happen and the Destroyer forgets who she is and also loses her power and Tal become to fall in love for this girl, that is so kind, but in the end keeps being the one that killed a lot of his people. 

This book is great. This book tells the story in the perspective of the bad person, the villain of the empire. This is actually something that I never read, what makes the experience much better. The writing is fluid, we can read this really fast,. but is also an actually pretty nice book to make you company during occupied days. I read this during my month of finals (I'm from Brazil) and it was something nice to pick up in the end of the day. The story also is a standalone so is nice if you want to read a nice and small fantasy story. I liked a lot of the second characters, specially Tal's sisters' girlfriend and Elodie's sister.

The romance is well paced and well balanced. The feelings progress in a believable way, what's not that common in actual fantasy books.

The only reason I won't give this five stars is that I didn't cried in the end, and I was really hoping this will happen. I know, stupid reason, but I will give this four stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this book in exchange of an honest review!

Shay Lynn Crace

Eternally grateful to Netgalley and Naomi Hughes for providing me an ARC of Mercurial in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to finish this book, but unfortunately, I couldn't, I got to chapter ten and realized it is not the kind of book that I like, it is a good book, but it's just not for me, but I would seriously recommend that you give it a shot when it comes out in March.

Mercurial

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