[ARC Review] The Elixir of the Green Willow Guard

✨ ARC Review ✨

📚 The Elixir of the Green Willow Guard by A.D. Uhlar

⭐ Rating: ★★★☆☆(3.5/5)

🏹 Genre: Fantasy, Romance

🎯 For fans of: Strong FMCs, Easy-to-follow stories, Stories containing romance but not overtaking the entire plot, Unfair hierarchies

Hi everyone, welcome to my first ever ARC review!

For those of you who don't know what an ARC review is, let me give you a brief summary:

ARC stands for Advanced Reader's Copy.

These are early versions of books that authors give out to a select group of readers to critique and review, typically before the book's publication date.

ARCs are usually used to create promotional buzz around the authors' new novels and to fix errors spotted by ARC readers before the book is published.

What I'm going to do is review this book critically, without giving away any spoilers.

So, before we get started with the review, let me introduce you to my rating system. I will be using a star rating system where I evaluate different components on a scale of 1 to 5 stars.

These are the different components I will be evaluating:

1. Character development

2. Enjoyment

3. Writing style

4. Pacing

5. Conflict and stakes

6. Worldbuilding

7. Clarity

8. Overall rating

9. Whether or not I'd recommend this book

Alright, now that you're all caught up, let's dive into my critiques.

Character development

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

In terms of characterisation, I loved it. Shylah, the 16-year-old girl, who was forced to grow up too fast. Durmad, the brave and heroic soldier. Trulian, the memorable little sister.

The characters' backstories were well explained. I enjoyed the way they responded to situations and their dynamics with each other.

However, I felt that these characters' developments were lacking. I felt that there was not enough discovery about themselves; most of their character traits remained the same from the start to the end of the book. Though Trulian's character developed over time, I was mainly hoping that Shylah's and Durmad's would, as they were the two main characters.

Enjoyment

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This book is excellent for casual reading. It is easy to follow and is very enjoyable. I felt that I was able to sit down for a few hours, simply reading this book. The story was not exactly very captivating. But what I liked most about it was how stable the story was, meaning that my enjoyment never wavered. The story was interesting from the first sentence up until the last.

Writing style

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I enjoyed the similes and comparisons used to describe the characters and the environment. I felt that adjectives were well used and sentences were well structured.

However, I spotted a few grammatical errors in the writing. I noticed that some of the characters' thoughts were not italicized. I'm not sure if this was intentional; this is simply an observation.

Pacing

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The pacing of this book was very well thought out. The book was neither too fast nor too slow. The aspect I appreciated most was the "breathing time" provided to process information.

Throughout this book, I had sufficient time to understand everything while remaining interested in it.

Conflict and stakes

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I enjoyed the context of the climax of this book. I felt that the backstory of the conflict made a lot of sense and made me more emotionally connected to the characters and the outcome of the strife.

However, I found the conflict lacking in excitement. Instead of being on the edge of my seat, eagerly awaiting the next development, I was simply reading the outcome calmly.

Worldbuilding

⭐️ ⭐️

The worldbuilding in this story is a bit disappointing. Worldbuilding is the key thing I look for in fantasy stories. I enjoy the feeling of being immersed in the world of the author's imagination.

Unfortunately, I found it hard to visualise the book in my mind's eye, as I could not wrap my head around the geography of the whole place.

Clarity

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This point overlaps a bit with the pacing of the book. Again, I would like to emphasise how much I appreciated the "breathing time" given after a chunk of information was unloaded onto me. Whenever new characters or terms were introduced, the narrative didn't overwhelm me with additional information immediately afterwards. This helped me to understand the contents of the book more, further enhancing my reading experience. I also liked the pronunciation guide at the start of the book; that was a very nice touch.

One suggestion I have is to space out the information provided, instead of simply unloading a whole chunk of information onto the reader. While there is enough time for understanding, presenting a large amount of information can make it challenging to understand the concept easily.

I also felt confused when multiple people were talking at the same time, as I could not tell who was speaking to whom.

Overall rating

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ✨ (3.5/5)

Overall, this book was an easy-to-follow and interesting read. I enjoyed the simple yet deep storyline and the depiction of each character.

Would I recommend this?

Definitely!

Thank you all for reading this review. Be sure to order your own copy of The Elixir of the Green Willow Guard. It will be released on 4th April 2025. I hope you're all as excited for its release as I am!

Lastly, I would like to thank the very talented author, A.D. Uhlar, for giving me this wonderful opportunity to read and review this advanced copy of her book!