Book Review: Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller
Title: Warrior of the Wild
Author: Tricia Levenseller
Series: None
Published: February 2019
Publisher: Feiwel Friends
Pages: 352
From: Barnes and Noble
Rating: 9/10
I started the Tricia Levenseller book Warrior of the Wild on a whim because I sometimes get book ADHD, and I needed a bit of a break from one of my longer novels I’ve been working on. But, I am so glad I did take that break because this book was super good and so entertaining.
Warrior of the Wild, a standalone by the author of the Daughter of the Pirate King duology, is the story of Rasmira, a female teenager in a fantasy world inspired by Viking history. Rasmira and the others her age are going through their final trial to become part of the guild or profession of their choosing. Rasmira chose to be a warrior who will protect her village from animal attacks. However, she fails her trial and is cast out into the wild to complete a special task. If she kills an evil god, she will be allowed to come back.
While in the wild, she befriends a pair of boys who were banished the year before and have not completed their special tasks. In order to succeed in her task, she enlists their help by helping them complete theirs. And thus, our character grows.
The character development was so strong in this book. I really enjoyed reading Rasmira’s story because it showed a badass female main character could be a warrior and still have the feminine emotions she had. It showed a female can do whatever she put her mind to, just like any male in any previous novel in the literary fantasy and scifi worlds. It was fun seeing Rasmira grow from who she was at the beginning of the novel to the even stronger female she was by the end.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the world building. It was a completely fantastical world vaguely inspired by the Vikings. The animals and plants were generally made up, and I liked how there were different forms of basic things that we as humans understand, but the characters didn’t.
I did feel sometimes the character seemed slightly immature at the beginning, which I understand is part of the character development, but it did annoy me her thoughts in the prose. And, I felt there should have been more detail about her family members’ relationships to each other. I was so curious why her father was the way he was, and I felt there was not enough information about her mother, either. They were two important characters to the story, and to our main character, that it seemed too light on the details.
Overall, though, I really liked this story. I like the standalone feel, because I feel we aren’t getting as many of those as we have in the past, and it was a very well paced, well plotted story. I can’t wait to read some more of Tricia Levenseller’s novels in the future.
You can find books by Tricia Levenseller at brick and mortar stores like Barnes and Noble, as well as anywhere online, such as Amazon and Book Depository.