REVIEW: The Raven Scholar (Antonia Hodgson)

Book: The Raven Scholar

Author: Antonia Hodgson

Premise: With the emperor stepping down, seven contenders compete for the throne. Each contender trained at a different monastery, inspired by a sacred animal. When one of them is murdered, it falls to Neema Kraa to investigate. But as she hunts for a killer, darker forces are gathering.

I saw a lot of good reviews of this book so I went into this book with high expectations. I think this might've worked to my detriment because I wasn't blown away by it. In fact, I'm not sure what I made of it. But I felt that maybe it was trying to do too much. The main storyline was the trials. There was a murder mystery plot but that was pretty much solved by the halfway point, so was a bit of a let down for me. I wasn't a massive fan of Neema to start with and I could see why she was an outcast.

All that being said, I did enjoy the story. I liked the world and the different animal houses (although I could've done with a reference page of what their specialism were). The last hundred pages was where it really started to pick up. There was an interesting twist and then we reached the climax of the story.

So a mixed bag. I'll have to think about whether I want to commit to the rest of the trilogy.