Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

I am both a reader and collectir of books and was looking for a spayed edge book to join my collection. I read a few chapters at the bookstore and found it to be an interesting read. The book is beautiful and well made, the story is interesting and flows along at a good pace.

This book was very much an impulse buy for me. I heard that it was a lot like Six of Crows, involving a group of misfits who have to work together to complete a heist. I also saw that Rebecca Roanhorse gave it 5 stars. Lastly, I have been in the mood for swords; like any sword at all, and the title is pretty self-explanatory.I did really enjoy this. It is very much a popcorn read; it’s a light read with a style that involves short chapters and a pace that makes it easy to keep thinking “oh only one more chapter”. The book is told in first person point-of-view from six different perspectives, all with very different personalities and voices. First person POV is always my favorite narrative style as it really allows you to be inside a person’s head. It can be hard to pull off when there are multiple characters, though, as it involves the author adapting their writing style to each unique character. All the characters think and speak differently, so it was really well done here. If you listen to the audiobook, they do have different narrators for each person, so that helps for sure, but the writing really provided a solid base for all the narrators to go off of when they have to act as their character.One slight warning I would give is that the characters aren’t all working together from the start. Most start off in a pair with another POV character, and then about halfway through is when they start meeting the other pairs. I thought it would involve misfits being thrown in together at the start, but the slightly slower way to introduce them did give the author more time to set each character up and better develop each of their motivations for being part of a plot to assassinate an immortal king. All of the characters have secrets to hide as well, which is always fun to try and sleuth out as the reader.I docked a star off because while it does build to a good ending, it didn’t quite hit the pay off I was hoping for. Still a fun, easy breezy read. I would recommend it if you want a fast-paced book centering around a band of misfits, assassins, and thieves working together to accomplish a very difficult task. Fair warning that it can be dark at times. Romance is a fairly heavy sub-plot of the book as well, but it loops into each character’s motivations. It creates tension between the relationship and what secrets these morally-grey characters actually have.

I picked this book up on a whim and I’m so happy I did. It’s like Oceans Eleven meets the Dirty Dozen in a fantasy setting. Plea Ty of twists and deceptions that keep you guessing until the last chapter. Excited for the sequel.

This book was amazing! I was hooked from the first page! ❤️I love all of the characters and that we got everyone’s point of view. I am a sucker for multiple povs and this book had it all. I love that the story started out with each pairing and that you got to know them before everyone came together. I don’t even know which couple was my favorite because they all were great! Everyone knew what their role was, but they weren’t trusting of each other. It made for a very entertaining book watching them all try and work together to complete this mission!This book has a little spice, but it’s not explicit. There is romance and you keep waiting for something to happen between the couples. You see feelings develop, but they aren’t always acted on. There’s a lot of will they/wont they will some of the couples.And the twists 😱 the twists just kept on coming! You think you got to the twist and then BAM, another twist. I absolutely loved it! It made for a very wild ride and I need book 2 immediately!!

3.5 starsHard to decide where to rate this one. I liked it enough to finish and was interested enough that I’d read the next book. The characters were interesting, and the ending did surprise me. With all that said, I want to rate it higher than 3 stars, but it was missing that certain something. I was never completely hooked. I could have used a character chart or breakdown in the back of the book. I tend to enjoy multiple POVs, but at times I got confused about who I was following. There was also SO much horniness with very little resolution. Was there supposed to be romance? Super slow burn to me. Maybe more in book 2? The story kind of meandered along.Some of my issues could have been from mostly consuming this via audiobook. I did pick up the physical copy, which is beautifully done, to better acquaint myself with the characters. The audiobook has a different narrator for each character. I would have preferred if it was duet style narration, meaning the narrator assigned to each character voiced the character dialogue throughout the whole book instead of only narrating their character’s chapters. The narrator for Aeri wasn’t my favorite so I did sometimes cringe during those chapters.Pick this up if you enjoy fantasy with a quest, an unlikely group coming together, found family, and adventure.

I cannot get over how stunning this limited edition book is, and the writing is as incredible as the artwork that went into designing this remarkable debut by Mai Corland. Without question, a must have for anyone who loves fantasy.

Me ha encantado! Wow, he disfrutado mucho con esta lectura. Me ha enganchado muchísimo desde el principio. Me gusta como está escrito: en primera persona y desde el punto de vista de cada uno de los personajes principales, cambiando de uno a otro con cada capítulo. Es una historia tan intrigante que no quieres parar de leer para saber más y descubrir más secretos. Les tomas cariño a los personajes a la vez que desconfías de ellos, igual que ellos mismos, como si formaras parte del libro. Es una historia llena de mitología, aventuras, secretos, traición e incluso un poco de romance.El plot-twist del final no lo vi venir. Tenía mis sospechas sobre uno de los personajes y estaba convencida de que ese era el traidor/la traidora, pero no me esperaba la otra revelación para nada... Uff.. Todavía me estoy recuperando de las emociones, pero estoy deseando saber como sigue. Para cuándo el segundo libro?!?

The media could not be loaded. Libro in perfette condizioni. L’edizione è davvero stupenda🥰

Beautiful special edition, purchased as gift. I love the quality of this book. Very happy with my purchase.

Excelente edición pero me ha llegado con algunas paginas dobladas