REVIEW: Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

**I received an ARC from Netgalley. These are my honest opinions, and in no way was I compensated for this review.**

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

Release Date: October 9, 2018

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Summary: In the city of Eldra, people are ruled by ancient prophecies. For centuries, the high council has stayed in power by virtue of the prophecies of the elder seers. After the last infallible prophecy came to pass, growing unrest led to murders and an eventual rebellion that raged for more than a decade.

In the present day, Cassa, the orphaned daughter of rebels, is determined to fight back against the high council, which governs Eldra from behind the walls of the citadel. Her only allies are no-nonsense Alys, easygoing Evander, and perpetually underestimated Newt, and Cassa struggles to come to terms with the legacy of rebellion her dead parents have left her — and the fear that she may be inadequate to shoulder the burden. But by the time Cassa and her friends uncover the mystery of the final infallible prophecy, it may be too late to save the city — or themselves.

The summary for Beneath the Citadel was really the thing that caught my eye. Rebels, prophecies, and a ragtag group of misfits? Sounds like my kind of thing. Unfortunately, I did not love this book as much as I thought I would, although I did find it an enjoyable read.

I liked the world building, with its four subsets of magical (idk the word tbh) beings: seers, rooks, diviners, and sentients. It was interesting reading about a land that ran on prophecies. However, other than that, there wasn't much world building. Why do the people depend on prophecies? That was never really explained; we just had to go with it.

There were five different main points of view, which I liked. Each character had distinctive voices, which is always a good thing in my book. Also! Two of the characters had on-the-page representation using the words, which is so rare in fantasy. Alys is asexual, and her brother Evander is bisexual; Newt is never explicitly said, I don't think, but he has a thing with Evander so. Also! Alys has anxiety and is fat.

A lot of what I didn't care for was the writing and the pacing. The four of them would plan something, and then literally in the next chapter, their plan would be wrecked. I mean, that's fine and all, but that happened like three or four different times, and I got tired of all the changes they had to make.

The pacing was weird because we literally jump right into the plot. The first four chapters are each of the four being sentenced to death. And then? I thought we would flash back to why and how they started their plan, but we just kept going with a sentence or two to explain what happened before they were caught. It threw me off a little because it made it feel like the whole book had a middle and an end, with no beginning.

If you know me at all, you probably know I'm a sucker for romances, even in books where they're not really centered in the plot. However, I thought the romance in this book was a bit superfluous. Like, I did not care at all. I just wanted to move through the plot but we would get scenes of **spoilers** Newt pining for Evander and vice versa. And then after a major thing happens at the end, and you'd think we'd get chapters with them dealing with it? Barely any of that but we do get two full chapters of Newt and Evander getting together. Honestly, at that point I didn't even care anymore and just skimmed those two chapters.

And this is going to be a really random complaint but . . . I felt like this book was trying too hard to be like Six of Crows? It could just be me, unable to read anything with a band of misfits without comparing them to the SoC gang, but honestly there are so many comparisons you could make. Cassa is the leader who the rest of the gang follows and loves but also kinda hates. Newt and Wylan are basically the same character, right down to the daddy issues and crushing on another guy in the gang. The random flashbacks (the only time we would get any real backstory!) felt like it was imitating the pacing in SoC, except the flashbacks here were 4, maybe 5 pages of one-scene backstory while SoC actually built up over time. Yeah, again maybe all of this is just me reading too much into it idk. (EDITED because I no longer hold this sentiment.)

Beneath the Citadel is definitely a book you should pick up if you want a dead rebellion, a world built around prophecies, a lovable cast of characters, or all three. It's fast paced and the cast's interactions are nice to read. Check it out October 9!

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo

About the Author: Destiny Soria writes Young Adult fiction. Her debut novel IRON CAST was published by Abrams/Amulet in Fall 2016. Her second novel BENEATH THE CITADEL is slated for Fall 2018.

Destiny lives in Birmingham, AL, where she spends her time trying to come up with bios that make her sound kind of cool. She has yet to succeed.

Goodreads | Website | Twitter