Review: Wilde's Army

Wilde's Army by Krystal Wade

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Book Info: Genre: Fantasy
Reading Level: Older Young Adult
Recommended for: Fans of fantasy, especially with romance, those who want to finish the series.

Disclosure: I received an e-book ARC/e-galley from Curiosity Quills via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: “Hello, Katriona.” Those two words spark fear in Katriona Wilde and give way to an unlikely partnership with Perth, the man she’s been traded to marry for a favor. Saving her true love and protector Arland, her family, and their soldiers keeps her motivated, but the at-odds duo soon realizes trust is something that comes and goes with each breath of Encardia’s rotting, stagnant air. The moment when concern for her missing sister spirals out of control, all thoughts of trust are pushed aside and she finds herself trapped by the daemon tricks Perth warned her of. 

However, rescuing those she loves is only half the problem. 

Kate still must get to Willow Falls, unite her clashing people, and form an army prepared to fight in order to defeat Darkness. When so many she’s grown fond of die along the journey, her ability to play by the gods’ rules is tested. 

How will she make allies when the world appears stacked against her? And will she still be Katriona Wilde, the girl with fire?

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Wilde’s Fire, which was basically a really long set-up for this book, giving us the world- and character-building needed to come into the story and want to stay and find out what happens. However, this book did not excite me and bring me into it like the last one did – I think it was because there was just so much going on, constantly. Fight, barely manage to recuperate, fight some more, magic, deus ex machina, more magic and fighting, blah blah blah. I had a hard time keeping myself focused on reading it, and ended up spending long stretches of time doing other things to get away from it. Kate kept fussing about things over and over again to the point where it became absolutely ridiculous and I just wanted to shake her. The last 15 percent of the book or so took place in a hold, so there was again some character-building and interactions, but it wasn’t quite enough, for me, to make up for the overall book.

However, the ending sort of made up for the rest of it. I was fixing to give this two stars and a scathing lack of recommendation, but those who enjoyed the first book will probably want to go ahead and read this one. I’m hoping that, like many trilogies, the final book will be more satisfying, although I’m certainly not going to rush out and get it because I no longer have as much interest in it.

So, basically, I didn’t feel this book developed on the promise that the first one gave, but the ending made up for a lot of the problems, so if you enjoy fantasy, if you’re a fan of romance and/or fantasy, you might end up liking this better than I did. That’s all for my review, but if you want an idea of my thoughts on a couple things that are definitely spoilers, you can read the last paragraph.

SPOILER ALERT: This will give some ideas that I had that apparently no one in the book noticed. It will be under a spoiler break on sites that allow that formatting, but most do not, thus this long preface to make sure you know – if you continue on, you will get spoilers. The whole issue with Perth could have been a non-issue if anyone had stopped to think: does it specify that Perth must marry the eldest Wilde daughter? Couldn’t he marry Brit and achieve the same results, of a consolidation of power? Brit is also a Leader, after all, even if she is a year younger than Katriona. Katriona and Arland could then be together with no problems, and Brit is a better match for Perth anyway. If it was specified that it must be the eldest Wilde, well, they could just lie about it – everyone makes such a huge fuss over how Kate and Brit look so much alike, so it shouldn’t be hard to do. Another problem I had was during the walk from Watcher’s Hall – they had horses. After most people were killed, why didn’t they take turns on the horses, or at least let the children ride them? It would have sped things up a little and not exhausted them quite so much.



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