Book Review: A Sharpened Axe by Jill M. Beene

I’m always looking for new fantasy romance novels to read, so in the spirit of #FaRoFeb (Fantasy Romance February), I dove deep into the depths of ebook-landia to see if I could find something new and fun (a challenge, as it is an understatement to say I’m well read in the sub-genre, haha).

I came across A Sharpened Axe by chance in my search, and it was the cover that caught my eye. Very simple, and with more of an art (drawing/painting) feel than many of the illustrated covers currently dominating the market, it looked intriguing. It reminded me a bit of the cover for Heart of the Fae by Emma Hamm (another phenomenal fantasy romance that you should check out).

A cursed nation. An unlikely heroine. Deadly stakes. This love could kill...

A jaded fae princess and a few words whispered in the dark...that’s all it took for the prosperous country of Leiria to fall under a curse. Disease, famine and calamity followed. Fifteen years later, Samiris is one of the Chosen, a group of young women brought to the palace to try and break the curse. But if they fail, one of them will die.

Unlike the rest of the girls, who see living in the palace with the Crown Prince as an exciting privilege, Samiris is indifferent to the social whirl and offended by the sumptuous wealth present in the capital. She just wants to go home to take care of her sick father and younger sister.

Can Samiris survive the social intrigue at court, deadly plots against the Chosen, a seemingly unloveable Crown Prince, and a stubborn adversary to break the curse?

After reading the prologue, where—minor, early-on spoiler here—a young woman is burned to death by magic because she reveals her love for the king, I was sold.

Now, it should be mentioned that A Sharpened Axe had a high chance of success with me, as it hits all my fantasy romance buttons: a strong, outcast heroine who is determined to do the right thing (but not in an obtuse, reckless way), and a smart, patient-ish, (and, of course, gorgeous) hero who reluctantly helps her on her journey until he falls for her. But with a fun twist! Their land has been cursed for the last fifteen years, and the only way to undo it is for a young woman to fall in love with the frumpy king… or die trying. Sort of a Selection by Kiera Cass vibe, but fighting for the king’s heart and courting death, as had the 15 girls (one for each year) before you.

As I said, sold.

And I had a blast reading it! I never know whether authors will take it as a compliment or if it will hurt their soul a bit when I tell them I read it in one sitting. But Jill, if you ever read this, definitely a compliment!

Your writing was fun, fast-paced, and I adored getting to know Samiris and slowly watching her fall in love over antics, banter, and just a pure want to help. *Swoon*

I do hope there is more fantasy romance to come!

****MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD**** You’ve been warned.

As many of you might know, I’ve been suffering from edit-hangover, which means I haven’t been able to shut off the “editor” part of my brain to be able to just enjoy a book. Ohhhhh, no. My brain has questions. And thoughts. And radical ideas.

Which, if you ask any of my authors, they will tell you is a dangerous(…ly fun) path to go down.

And with A Sharpened Axe, I just couldn’t help myself to want to know more, and ask why.

SO!

For those of you that are going to go read the book *STOP HERE*
Go read and come back to me because I want to discuss!!!!

Or, for those of you who will hopefully read it down the line, don’t mind some major spoilers (seriously, I’m about to ruin the ending for you), and want to see an example of questions that could come up in a developmental edit, please continue on.

One quick final note—as I mentioned above, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think the author did a great job. There is no author/book bashing tolerated here, and anyone doing so will get the boot. The below are casual musings of an editor and no more.

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My biggest want with this story was a deeper dive! There were so many interesting, minor plotlines that the author weaved in throughout that didn’t end up coming to fruition. Now, granted, there is only so much room on the page, but part of me could help but want more! More on:

• The politics and intrigue of the world in general, but especially more on those that wanted to keep the curse. I love the idea that there were people profiting from it, who didn’t want the world to change back. But the story didn’t take it much deeper than that. We see Samiris hear about the possible assassination, but it is quickly forgotten until Narcise is killed (poor Narcise!). Could we have seen more of Samiris investigating this/worrying about those keeping the curse from being lifted? Or at least letting Artem know? We really only had the one suspect in this—the Marquess of Brizelle—were there others that wanted the curse to stay as it was, to give a bit more mystery there?

• The consequences of Samiris’ actions—she was now single-handedly feeding the kingdom that had been starving for years, and I loved it. But part of why that was such a risk was because of the gentry that profited from selling the overpriced goods to those in need. Samiris effectively ruined that shortage, and we saw no ripple effect in their economy, politics, or moods within the court. I would have loved to see them scramble to try and figure out who was killing their well-laid plans, as well as maybe see Samiris have to deal with some consequences of those actions.

•  Along those same lines, it would have been so interesting to see what it meant for the kingdom and Evanora (not that we knew of her treachery yet), once they figured out how to grow more of the rare flower to be able to make the potion for all those with the sickness. This, and their ability to give it away for free so that others couldn’t charge outrageous fees, was a massive change for the kingdom, but we didn’t see much improvement or change other than to Samiris’ family. Did this ruin Evanora’s plans? Or was the sickness just an unintended side effect?

•  Speaking of Samiris’ family, it was a massive deal at the beginning of the book that her Vanover side of the family had rejected her parents because of their marriage to each other. To the point where Samiris even refused to be called by that name as she was announced at court—what a moment! I loved her stubbornness, but I kept waiting for her family to make an appearance—for it to cause issues now that she, a regarded Chosen one, had risen so far past their expectations. But not only did we not see them—which, granted, would be an added and probably unnecessary plotline—BUT the biggest thing that caught me was that the curse at the end addresses her by her full name. Sure, not the time to object when you are possibly about to burst into flames, but with that, it made me wonder why that was in there. I wanted more!

•  I would have loved to have seen Cyra last longer within The Chosen, possibly even make it to the last few young ladies left. I loved the twist that her beliefs (pressured by her family) made her kill the king, to the point where she was even willing to kill Samiris to do it! I was so disappointed that we had such a major revelation, we saw such a rebellion within the worldbuilding, and it just faded away as if it had never been there. It could have been very, very powerful to keep Cyra until closer to the end and have that betrayal hit all the harder, and to have seen more of a resolution between Cyra and Samiris.

•  I dearly wish we could have seen more of Lady Evanora as well. She was such a great bad guy, but we don’t find out much about her until the very end. Of course, that is partially because we’re not supposed to know the Princess is still around. But I think seeing more of Evanora in general—having her get closer to Samiris, or maybe be a confidant of Artem (?), seeing some of her emotions and motivation before we find out who she truly is? Could have been sooo good. More betrayal! More twists!

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. So many great details! Maybe there will be a book two?!

Have you read A Sharpened Axe? What did you think? What was your favorite part? Do you agree or disagree with any of the above? Let’s discuss!

If you haven’t read it, what was your latest fantasy romance read that you’d recommend? I’m always looking for new stories to live in…. I mean read.