Author Julia Goldhirsh weaves a fantastical tale about old wars and magic in her book titled Amy’s Rebellion. Check out my review of this high stakes story.
This book flowed well and gave us a lot of insight into different point of views by utilizing third person omniscient which I’m a fan of. I think it’s a lot easier to follow storylines when you’re not stuck in the head of one character at a time. There’s a lot of moving parts to this book and a good bit of action, but not all of it makes sense.
While reading this book, I found out that the author also has a prequel that is about the War of the Twin Swords which I think would illuminate a lot of the questions I had. This war was mentioned several times throughout the book which meant that it was a pivotal event that created the relationships between many of the characters.
The book centers around Amy who’s an enchantress with a mysterious past. She comes from a magical land along with most of her friends that was destroyed by Opal, the evil villainess of the story. Opal is dead set on revenge against Amy for killing her friend and starting the war that ravaged their lands. So, naturally, Amy does a lot of running and gathers an army to go against Opal and her alleged reign of terror.
I do believe if I had read the prequel first, I would sympathize more with Amy, but while reading this I kept thinking that the whole war started from a lack of communication. Of course, isn’t that most wars? While the characters were portrayed as being older (I’m thinking early 20s), they all seem to be making the same communication mistakes with each other which is a sign of immaturity. This gives them a personality flaw, but also makes it a little frustrating. I think this book would be better marketed at young adults.
I did appreciate the amount of representation in this book. There were many characters who were clearly a part of the LGBTQ+ community. My only quip is that Iris, who appeared as non-binary and used they/them pronouns (and even mentions this in the book) had part of a chapter where they were being referred to as “she.” I felt like this was a little glaring during the story and took away from what the author was trying to accomplish with this character. Of course, this is easily fixed with another edit.
I also found myself a little confused with the character of Dusk. He had two other names as Cat and Night, and it didn’t explain why. I simply assumed because he was a shifter that these were his other “forms,” but I think this could’ve been explained better – especially if you haven’t read the prequel where I’m sure this character first appears to Amy.
Now, onto Amy. I foresee much needed character growth in her future. There was some of it in this story, but she still seemed to make decisions that were more sacrificial than reminiscent of a true leader. I believe Dusk said it better in the story.
Overall, I liked the descriptions in the story and I thought Amy had the coolest job owning a gem shop. I do think her past is a little predictable, but it leads up to a good story for a sequel and it is pretty interesting. I specifically enjoyed the many clans presented in the book and the hybrid elementals with more than one element under their control.
I received this book a free ARC from the author and my review is my honest opinion.
I would say that this book had some interesting moments and was a good read. If you do decide to check it out, don’t forget to leave the author a review of your own! Happy reading!
Author Lauren Eason 