Feed My Reads recommended in 2022 - day 95

A debut offering from Amy Lee is our Feed My Reads recommended in 2022 read for day 95 as she brings us Fate and Resolve.  This is the first book in a trilogy and was one that I was not sure how I'd feel about but as I read through it I found myself really enjoying the story and being impressed by this debut author, meaning this had to be on our recommended reads list.

Some people get lost in the forest. Others find themselves there.

Leah just found out she has been promised to the blacksmith with a violent past. She had expected the gods to reward her with a loving marriage for her obedience to her father and religion. Instead, she is now faced with a choice: Trust that this is her destiny, or create a life of her own and run.

Leah abandons her wedding and flees into the forest, but soon after is captured by a centaur. Dominick offers her a place in his tribe, where he promises she will be free of the village's oppression. But Leah has reason to believe that Dominick has a darker motive.

Will Leah be punished by the gods for trying to alter her fate? Or can she build a new life for herself with the choices she makes?

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Fate and Resolve is a new adult fantasy romance with a love triangle, one slow-burn and one insta-love.

This is the first book in a trilogy. There are some open ended subplots that will need tying up, but it is a COMPLETE story with no huge cliffhangers.

There is NO SPICE in this first book in the series...but it will come, my friends. It will come. This clean romance gets as frisky as sweet kisses under the stars.

This book contains sensitive content. For a list of potentially difficult topics, please use the "Look Inside" feature.

Review:

Imagine being a female who is raised in an environment where everyone has their set roles and being a female means your role is to be subservient and to be a homemaker plus mother, for some this life may seem fine as it is all they have ever known but when faced with having to marry a man, who has already got one dead wife under suspicious circumstances, Leah decides that this is not for her and so runs from all she has ever known.  Can you ever really outrun your problems though?

With a forest that has many amazing creatures it is not long until Leah finds herself in the company of a centaur and her entire understanding of the world is turned upside down.  Centaurs aren't real?  Women are to be subservient?  The man is the master?

This story sees Leah go through a variety of emotions and we watch her develop throughout the story but thanks to the author also considering the wider world we are also presented with a variety of characters who stand out in their own right.  The book is beautifully written and flows well but in the beginning it feels like a somewhat slow start, stick with it as the author giving this slower start actually makes sense due to the fact this is how life is in Starling (the home of Leah before she flees).  This is a debut author who has a great level of skill in weaving a tale and I believe that now she has developed her world the tales are set in that we will have books which don't have that slower start and are even more exciting than this excellent opening piece.