Uprooted by Naomi Novik

A mediocre plot can be amazing if delivered with great story-telling. Uprooted, however, is not mediocre. It was action-packed and there were so many things going on that readers would be constantly on the edge of their seats. I loved the story, I thought it was an amazing mix of fantasy and romance with a lot of beauty-tames-the-beast feels which every woman loves and don't you disagree. 

BUT! Issue #1: I think there are pages that the story can do without (maybe 50 of them? give or take?). I was about 10% into the book when I had to stop because the descriptions were repetitive. Specifically how the spells were cast. More specifically how they "let it flow out of" them. It was all over the book you can't miss it. That and there were just parts that I wanted to skip completely. I understand how there's a calm before the storm as in other-stuff-before-the-twist but I thought making a point about how politics worked and how the citizens in the capital were petty was too much. Especially since Sarkan already talked about it before Agnieszka went there.

AND! Issue #2: The voice used in story-telling is confusing. It's not because each scene calls for a different pace. It's experiencing a simple story telling using simple prose and vocabulary for one chapter and then suddenly going Alice in Wonderland feels. It didn't happen throughout the book. But it happened.
It was ...
Chapter 1: The ball is red. 
versus
Chapter 2: The spherical object is a of a color at the end of the spectrum next to orange and opposite violet. Like rubies and blood and it was scarlet.

I think I liked parts of this book but felt meh during the other parts.

Oh and apparently, 417 Goodreads users marked this as YA ... um ... no. Lol. Although I had the same first impression of the book due to the opening, there are other parts that are a bit too adult to be young adult. 

3.5 stars.