Stag’s Run by Zaya Feli
Rating: 3 Stars ***Warning: This review will contain spoilers for the book.*** Review: I enjoyed the book, though I had a few issues with it. One was that the story seemed too rushed. There was quite a lot to happen in a short amount of time, so it didn’t really give time to get to know the characters or build the world up, which I consider a must with fantasy worlds. A small thing that bothered me is that the story constantly talked about the Lowlander’s accent, but never actually described what it sounded like. I didn’t really feel connected to any of the characters, save maybe Anik. I wish it would have spent more time fleshing out Ren’s brother Hellic because besides the boar hunting scene they didn’t really seem to have any scenes that would have made them close. Secondly, my issue came from the slaves in the story. I sort of understand that since Ren came from royalty in what I can assume is a medieval setting that he possibly thought slaves would be okay, but since his father is (presumably) one, I thought that maybe he would have a bit of a different attitude towards them. I can tell that the author intended Anik and Ren to eventually become a pairing, and I really hope that Ren’s attitude towards slaves changes before then, and also that he stops considering Anik his slave because that creates a weird power imbalance. Next, I thought that the interactions between Ren and Anik were strange. They were said to hate each other, but it didn’t really seem like it. Also, Ren kept saying that Anik was overly rude to him, but through his interactions, he didn’t seem so much as ‘unnecessarily rude’ as fed up with Ren’s attitude and his upset at his opinions about slavery and Lowlanders (which was evident in the scene with the Butcher). The ‘betrayal’ wasn’t that much of a twist and was pretty obvious when Niklas joined them. Also, the last bit with the Stag Run seemed a bit too rushed. There were also some spelling and other errors, but I didn’t focus on them as much. In conclusion, I think that the book could have benefited from a bit more editing and more detail. The term ‘show, don’t tell’ seems to come to mind for the interactions between the characters. Some exposition and a bit more build up could have made it a lot more devastating when the king and Hellic were killed, and also showing character in Ren and Anik. I wasn’t sure if I was going to pick up the next book, but since it’s only a dollar I probably will and give Zaya Feli another chance with her book. I do hope that some of the issues addressed were fixed in the next book and that the dynamic between characters improves. If you’re looking for a fantasy mm story, I don’t know if I would recommend this book since there really isn’t any romance in it, but it’s free on Kindle so it’s not like you’re going to waste any money picking it up.
