First Impression Friday – Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood

Welcome to another First Impression Friday. In case this is your first time, here’s the rundown:

• Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions
and predict
what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think
you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so I can enjoy reading all the
First Impression Fridays out there!

 

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.

But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.

But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

Let’s talk about The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood.

This is a big, beefy book that I received as a digital ARC. It’s certainly not the biggest book I’ve ever read, and probably not the biggest I’ll even read this year, but it’s still intimidating. Especially because every single character has a name that I’m too dumb to be able to pronounce without the help of the pronunciation guide (which is about 15 digital pages long!)

But beyond all my crybaby nonsense, this book is gripping. The chapters are long and the description is thick, two things that usually drive me away, but in the case of this book I just want more and more and more.

An odd concern that’s never come up before, and probably won’t apply to most readers, is that I can see where it might be heading and it’s in a very similar direction to a book idea that’s been dominating my free thoughts for the past month. For someone trying to bust into the writing world, that’s very concerning. What if my ‘original’ idea is just like this book?!

I’m just hoping that it steers away from that direction and that I’m only seeing it as a possibility because of my own story. I’m also hoping that if it does prove to be just like my idea that the temper tantrum that will follow won’t affect my rating of The Unspoken Name.

My Prediction: 4 stars

Fun fact about this post: And before you ask, YES, I had this idea BEFORE I started reading this book. Sheesh. Give me a little credit.