The First Girl Child by Amy Harmon

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: The First Girl Child
Author: Amy Harmon
Published by: 47North
Release Date: August 20, 2019
Format: eARC
Pages: 391
Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Romance
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

From ​the New York Times bestselling author comes a breathtaking fantasy of a cursed kingdom, warring clans, and unexpected salvation.

Bayr of Saylok, bastard son of a powerful and jealous chieftain, is haunted by the curse once leveled by his dying mother. Bartered, abandoned, and rarely loved, she plagued the land with her words: From this day forward, there will be no daughters in Saylok.

Raised among the Keepers at Temple Hill, Bayr is gifted with inhuman strength. But he’s also blessed with an all-too-human heart that beats with one purpose: to protect Alba, the first girl child born in nearly two decades and the salvation for a country at risk.

Now the fate of Saylok lies with Alba and Bayr, whose bond grows deeper with every whisper of coming chaos. Charged with battling the enemies of their people, both within and without, Bayr is fueled further by the love of a girl who has defied the scourge of Saylok.

What Bayr and Alba don’t know is that they each threaten the king, a greedy man who built his throne on lies, murder, and betrayal. There is only one way to defend their land from the corruption that has overtaken it. By breaking the curse, they could defeat the king…but they could also destroy themselves.

My Review:

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4.5 stars — I don’t even know where to start.  I’m not really a fantasy reader, but there is something about the way Amy Harmon writes her stories that has me immediately grabbing for any fantasy novel she writes.  Her worlds are so vivid and unique.  And the emotions!  OMG the emotions.  I just finished reading this one and I was bawling!  BAWLING!  It wasn’t even completely sad bawling, it was “I FEEL ALL THE EMOTIONS!” bawling.  If that makes sense.  Probably not.  But whatevs.  Somewhere out there my emotional peeps are all “homey, I got you.”

ANYWAYS.  This story had so many facets to it.  It wasn’t a story told from one point of view, but from many actually.  Normally that’s not my thing, but in this case I felt like it enhanced my enjoyment of the plot, b/c I was always getting each new piece from the perspective that mattered most.  And with all those POVs, that also meant that it was more than just 1 or 2 main characters.  There were like…shoot, I don’t even know, 5?  With a handful of strong secondaries?  And I cared for them all!  Well, I mean, all the heroes, not the villains.  They were suitably evil…not caricatures or anything, but motivated by all the wrong things.  Our heroes were complex, and not without flaws, but with beautiful souls deep down.  I forgave them their mistakes, and loved watching them grow and fulfill their destinies (if that’s not uber corny to say).

Normally in my reviews I have a formula: I go into the main characters, and what I felt about them…but it’s hard in this case.  I don’t want to give anything away, and truly there are so many characters to talk about.  After that I might go into the romance, since I mostly read romance, but that was not the focus of this story…or rather, it was more complex than just that.  I will say that the love stories within this story made me both happy and sad, filled with elation and mourning.

I will say that there were so many aspects of the story that were woven together and came to mean so much more as we went through the climax and conclusion, and I loved that.  But at the same time the loss of half a star is purely because I felt like I wanted more from some pieces (like the daughters of Saylock, and each of their unique gifts).  But I’m greedy like that.  I also didn’t get all of Ivo’s hissing…it made him a very hard character to picture.

So yeah.  I’m not sure if my review told you anything of value.  I just really enjoyed myself, and will always be the first to one-click when I see Ms. Harmon posting about a new fantasy book…apparently she writes when I want to read.  Success.  The end.

COYER Summer Hunt: Read a book with a number in the title (it can be written out or numeral) — 4 points.