AUTHOR: Naomi Novik

SERIES: Standalone

GENRE: Fantasy, YA, Romance

RELEASE DATE: May 19th 2015 

PUBLISHER: Del Rey

INDIE BOUND I BOOK DEPOSITORY I BARNES AND NOBLE

AMAZON I GOODREADS

SYNOPSIS:

“‘Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.’

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.”

Let’s Gab

Quite honestly, this was one of the best books I read last year. It was an amazing fantasy novel, with a sweeping story arc and complex characters. 

I listened to it as an audiobook, which I think added an extra layer to the reading experience. The narrator’s accent really emphasized the unique setting of the story,  which was really great. I think that sometimes the narrator had awkward pauses in the middle of words or sentences, but for the most part I liked it as an audio book.

I loved it enough that I ordered a physical copy about half way through! haha.
I really loved the folk lore / fairy tale aspect of the story, too. As I mentioned in last week’s Top Ten Tuesday, I seriously LOVE fairytale retellings and books inspired by fairy tales. This story was rooted in Eastern European folk/fairy tales, which created a really interesting setting that I adored. 

So the whole concept of the story is that Agnieszka lives in a small village, near a menacing woods that occasionally takes people and lets out unimaginable terrors. Their village is guarded by a wizard named the Dragon, who requires a woman to be taken into his castle every ten years. Agnieszka has grown up thinking it would be her beautiful best friend that would be taken, but instead it is her. Once in the castle, she learns she has magic, and he (somewhat roughly) forces her to develop her abilities.

The story that is woven is rich, involved, complex, but always interesting. The development of the plot began somewhat slowly, but I liked the pacing of the novel. I felt that there was a solid, steady pace moving the story forward, with just the right amount of moments of intensity. 

Agnieszka was such a strong, resilient character. Not only did she never expect to be taken, the twists and turns of the story aren’t always kind to her. The Dragon is harsh at first, which didn’t help at all. But every time something gets thrown her way, she handles it. I loved her, and I loved that I never had to worry about her doing wildly infuriating things, although she did definitely take me by surprise consistently.

Of course, the romance in this story is lovely. It’s a perfect, slow burn romance that I warmed up to as they warmed up to each other. The Dragon is just my type of male protagonist: quiet and reserved, somewhat snarky,but has a really great heart.

The action was incredibly engaging, and the story was masterfully unfolded as it went on. It is actually a fairly dark tale, especially when we get more into the woods. I loved the magic and history of the world in which Uprooted takes place, and every new bit of information and turn of events kept me on the edge of my seat. 

The best part was how satisfied I felt after reading it! I went through the whole process: learning the new world, falling in love with the characters, worrying and agonizing during the periods of uncertainty and trouble, and ending with a satisfyingly complete story arc. It is so very rare for me to be completely and utterly satisfied with a epic fantasy that is contained in just one book, but Uprooted totally accomplished that!

Overall Impression:

Have you read Uprooted? Intending on picking it up soon? Let’s gab about it in the comments below!