Title: Wren and the Tarnished Tiger (Game of Gods #1)
Author: E. M. Leander
Blurb:
Orphaned Wren is content with her predictable job as a lighthouse keeper – but when war comes to her country, she finds herself shoved into the unknown. Bound in an unlikely partnership, she will find the gods have bigger plans for her than she could ever have imagined.
Handsome and arrogant Aris is descended from a line of Shields, animal shifters whose sole purpose is to guard their paired Mages. His desperate quest to regain what he has lost will drive him to make a risky arrangement – one that will change their world. As the story unfolds, the influence of the mercurial gods will take Wren and Aris on an incomparable journey through magic, betrayal, and love.
Wren, an orphaned daughter who has run the same lighthouse for years with an affinity for animals.
Aris, a golden-boy warrior drowning in grief and gambling.
When those two meet, who knows the connection that will form.
Wren and the Tarnished Tiger was just simply…solid.
In the ever-popular genre of fantasy and the increasing saturation of adult romance within it, Wren and the Tarnished Tiger provided a refreshing yet somewhat mediocre young adult take. Released on Jan 10, 2023, E. M. Leander dipped her toes into young-adult fantasy with her 3rd ever book. Within this duel-pov coming-of-age novel, the characters explore a world of magic and animal shifters.
On Goodreads, the book has a rating of 4.77 out of 5 stars and is free on Kindle Unlimited.
The plot starts off cute. New characters and a new world. But slowly it gets darker. Between being an outcast and getting cuffed with magic inhibitor manacles, Wren has to fight for her freedom.
Even the characters are lovable; uneducated, untrained Wren is paired with gruff, tiger-shifter Aris. Wren is understandably unqualified and an outcast in a country she’s never even been to, as she rarely leaves her lighthouse in the small town she had grown up in. Despite the squabbles between the two, Aris and Wren always end up bringing out the best in each other, learning to respect each other’s boundaries, and portraying the clashing cultures.
At first, Wren’s innocence and naivety were charming. But as the book progressed, Wren was so naive and innocent to the point where she became annoying and reading became a chore. Even when clues are shoved in the reader’s face, the main characters didn’t realize until many, many infuriating chapters later.
Although, I did enjoy the fast pace. Conflict after conflict happens, sometimes feeling like whiplash, but allowing the reader to wonder “what is next?”. The type of eagerness that keeps readers engaged, so much so that I almost read the whole book in one sitting.
The writing was also very smooth yet a little whimsical, describing interesting details while still allowing the reader’s imagination to, of course, imagine.
Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy and romance, but something about the world inside the book was off-putting.
Maybe it was the surprise of finding out about animal shifters.
Maybe it was the lack of epic world-building or action that has become expected in modern-day fantasy novels.
Maybe some time has passed, and I don’t like it as much as I did while reading.
I don’t put the book’s simplicity against it because it was probably written with a younger audience in mind.
Overall, Wren and the Tarnished Tiger is all-around solid—perfect for young teens or readers who want to ease into the fantasy genre.
Don’t be sad that Wren and Aris’s story isn’t over yet—be excited because the second book is in production!
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