A Broken Blade (The Halfling Saga #1)

Melissa Blair

Adult Fantasy

The BookTok sensation from debut author Melissa Blair—now with exclusive bonus content!

“Gripping and fierce. This is much-needed fantasy with its fangs honed sharp by the power of resistance. Melissa Blair has built a tremendous world.”
—Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights

My body is made of scars,
some were done to me,
but most I did to myself.

Keera is a killer. As the King’s Blade, she is the most talented spy in the kingdom. And the king’s favored assassin. When a mysterious figure moves against the Crown, Keera is called upon to hunt down the so-called Shadow. 

She tracks her target into the magical lands of the Fae, but Faeland is not what it seems . . . and neither is the Shadow. Keera is shocked by what she learns, and can’t help but wonder who her enemy truly is: the King that destroyed her people or the Shadow that threatens the peace?

As she searches for answers, Keera is haunted by a promise she made long ago, one that will test her in every way. To keep her word, Keera must not only save herself, but an entire kingdom.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

My body is made of scars, some were done to me, but most I did to myself.

4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) Keera is a halfling (part fae) in charge of the King’s Shades who are assassin’s and spies. She is sent to infiltrate a kingdom to gain more information and kill the Shadow who is causing a rebellion against the king.

Ok first off, this has a lot going for it. I love evil kings, rebellions, strong female leads and assassins. I can’t help it, they’re exciting! So when Libro.FM offered me this one, I snatched it up.

Can we talk about that cover? Love it. It gives me all the vibes of tough female lead that I so love.

It took a bit to get into the story and I’m not sure if that was a slow beginning (part to blame) or the narrator. It took a few chapters to get used to her. The voice didn’t match what I felt Keera portrayed but I found later in the story it wasn’t an issue. I either warmed up to the voice or got sucked into the story enough that I didn’t notice anymore.

You know me and tough female leads! Keera was great for this. In contrast, she was very flawed and quite broken, which just made her more real. She has a serious (pretty intense) alcoholism problem and I found her want to drink, drinking, or thinking about drinking got excessive. She realizes what a problem it is and how different she is without drink so that got better as the story continued. It did play into her backstory a lot also. And her backstory was intense! It took quite a while to get each piece of it but it ended up accentuating the story so much.

This had quite the cliffhanger! It’s exciting and I can’t wait to get my hands on book 2!

General content summary: From author note: alcoholism, addiction, colonialism, depression, systemic violence, self harm, suicidal ideation.

From my listening experience: F words: 7, self harm, suicidal thoughts and depression, physical violence/torture, killings (throat cut, weapons), assassin, alcohol and alcoholism (multiple times), “beatings and mental torment” (multiple times), genocide, prostitution (no details), corpses hanging, physical violence and death with weapons (multiple), kisses, explosion and injuries, previous f/f relationship (no details), passionate kissing, detailed intimacy, captivity (drugged). 

Thank you to Libro.FM for the gifted copy!

The book is out now!

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*