Tattered is an intricately woven fantasy story. Politics, gender roles, family relationships, deception, mystery, slow-burn romance, magic, and revelations dominate this first book in the series. The chapters alternate between the two female MCs whose perceptions of events tell the story. Alba and Olympia are not meek female characters existing in a male dominated story. Their thoughts are communicated to the reader through LiAnne Kay’s excellent narrative style and showcase the strength of women as they struggle to overcome obstacles, moderate disappointment, manage others in a crises, and meet goals they set for themselves and others. Neither character is perfect, which is nice. Flawed characters who sometimes question their choices are far more relatable than perfect characters. Alba, in particular, frequently questions her own decisions and wonders how she can do better. Over the course of the story, she evolves into a more confident young woman as she grows and learns from past experiences.
The world-building is excellent and requires attention to detail by the reader. A gorgeous map is included in the text to help orient the reader to the geography of this new world the author has created. Equally important to the world-building is the understanding of the politics of the main kingdoms and the royal families involved in this tale. The author has thoughtfully provided a guide to the members of the two royal families, as well as a glossary of names with pronunciations in order to assist readers in getting the details right. The author’s writing is extremely clear throughout the story, so I didn’t find I needed to refer to the list of main kingdoms and their royal families, but I did refer to the glossary of names in order to learn how to pronounce the names of several characters. Keeping up with these details is important as the author slowly introduces influences from gods. There’s a lot to learn about this world, and the author’s writing style is clear and informative which is essential for the reader. A less adept writer might have left the reading audience confused as they tried to keep up. This is not the case with LiAnne Kay. She does an excellent job of guiding her readers along.
The writing style of the story is elaborate with details that describe imagery as well as the thoughts of the two MCs, Alba and Olympia. Each of their internal dialogues help readers to get an understanding of the other characters. Alba and Olympia evaluate the overt actions and possible motivations of those they are interacting with which keeps readers informed as to what is going on. Each of them notice small, but telling details about those they are interacting with. Important details such as body language, tone, and even dress that help paint vivid pictures of interactions.
The story follows the slow-burn enemies-to-lovers trope, and the author takes her time in this area to develop a strong relationship between the characters. The slow-burn aspect extends to the overall plot of the story and the political dynamics between the warring kingdoms. My expectation of the second book in this series would be that a lot of satisfying revelations and resolutions will occur. The story is left unresolved at the conclusion, but readers will be happy to learn that book two in the series called Awakened: The Bond Between Us 2, is available at Amazon. Readers will definitely need to get the second part to this book series!
