The Unwilling – Blog Tour
The Unwilling by Kelly Braffet
Mira Books – February 11, 2020
*Book Review copy provided by Mira Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
Today I’m throwing it back to my reviewing roots and talking about an epic fantasy book by Kelly Braffet! If you’ve been reading my blog since the beginning you know that I love fantasy of all kind, but I particularly love fantasy with rich world building, especially the dark kind. I was very excited with Harlequin Trade Publishing asked if I wanted to participate in this blog tour!
About the Book
The Unwilling : A Novel
Kelly Braffet
On Sale Date: February 11, 2020
9780778309406, 0778309401
Hardcover
$27.99 USD, $33.50 CAD
Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
576 pages
For fans of S.A. Chakraborty’s City of Brass, Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicles, and George RR Martin’s The Game of Thrones, this high concept medieval/high fantasy by Kelly Braffet is a deeply immersive and penetrating tale of magic, faith and pride.
The Unwilling is the story of a young woman, born an orphan with a secret gift, who grows up trapped, thinking of herself as an afterthought, but who discovers that she does not have to be given power: she can take it. An epic tale of greed and ambition, cruelty and love, the novel is about bowing to traditions and burning them down.
For reasons that nobody knows or seems willing to discuss, Judah the Foundling was raised as siblings along with Gavin, the heir of Highfall, in the great house beyond the wall, the seat of power at the center of Lord Elban’s great empire. There is a mysterious–one might say unnatural connection–between the two, and it is both the key to Judah’s survival until this point, and now her possible undoing.
As Gavin prepares for his long-arranged marriage to Eleanor of Tiernan, and his brilliant but sickly younger brother Theron tries to avoid becoming commander of the army, Judah is left to realize that she has no actual power or position within the castle, in fact, no hope at all of ever traveling beyond the wall. Lord Elban–a man as powerful as he is cruel- has other plans for her, for all of them. She is a pawn to him and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
Meanwhile, outside the wall, in the starving, desperate city, a Magus, a healer with a secret power unlike anything Highfall has seen in years is newly arrived from the provinces. He, too, has plans for the empire, and at the heart of those plans lies Judah. The girl who started off with no name and no history will be forced to discover there’s more to her story than she ever imagined.
My Thoughts
While I have typically steered away from dark fantasy as of late this is a welcome addition to my 2020 reading. There’s something wonderful about how a dark fantasy set in a wholly different world that’s cruel and unfair can be cathartic. I found The Unwilling to do exactly that for me. Readers should note that as dark fantasy implies, there are content warnings of all sorts but if you’re used to dark fantasy you should know what you’re getting into. If you’re new to it steel yourself or perhaps pass on it depending at where you are with your reading life.
I thought Braffet did a fantastic job at a world building and creating political machinations filled with complex characters. This is a story with an emotional plot that pushes the characters and we see how they survive under enormously difficult situations, despite the darkness and cruelty, there is also a determination, which I truly appreciate.
I would recommend this to fans of epic dark fantasy but would be hesitant to give this to new fantasy readers as it can be an intense reader and is quite a hefty tome. However, if a big fantasy book with lots of world building and chess-like maneuvering as well as complex characters sounds up your alley I would say give it a try!
About the Author
Photo credit: Missy McLamb
Kelly Braffet is the author of the novels Save Yourself, Last Seen Leaving and Josie & Jack. Her writing has been published in The Fairy Tale Review, Post Road, and several anthologies. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University. She currently lives in upstate New York with her husband, the author Owen King. A lifelong reader of speculative fiction, the idea for The Unwilling originally came to her in college; twenty years later, it’s her first fantasy novel. Visit her at kellybraffet.com.
Connect:
Author website: https://www.kellybraffet.com/
Facebook: @kellybraffetfiction
Twitter: @KellyBraffet
Buy the Book
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