Review: Daughter of Retribution

• Title: Daughter of Retribution

• Author: Wren Cartwright

• Series: Crescent Queen #1

• Genre: Adult Fantasy

• Rating: ☆☆☆

**Thank you to BookSirens and the author for the free copy of this ARC. This is my honest review.**

This book had the potential to be so much more. I could see what the author intended, and the idea for this world was ambitious but not executed well enough to pull it off. This is mostly down to the pacing. There was never enough explained before the next plotline and thus it made not only the happenings in the book, but the relationships fall flat. I found this very disappointing, as often I was confused about what was happening or who was around and doing what, as I was still trying to process what had just occurred. On more than one occasion, I couldn’t understand the reaction of Aeryn, the main character and her emotions as they jumped around quickly in time with the rapid pacing. Again, the characters had the set up to be something great, but as the book went on, it was clear there was never going to be enough time spent on what was happening to make them realistic. I agree with another reviewer that mentioned this would make for a great middle grade read if all the mature content was removed. Sadly, for what it was intended for, it didn’t meet the mark. The romance didn’t make any sense to me as it bounced back and forth so much before settling into something quite hot and heavy. I didn’t feel any connection between Aeryn and Azael, and I found their moments together somewhat uncomfortable to fathom when they became intimate just because of how much their relationship lacked in built substance. Daughter of Retribution is a shorter book and easy enough to get through. The cast of characters is diverse enough, and there is a good show of found family attempted throughout. I found the concept of the immortals and the gods/goddesses to be very interesting and would have loved it developed more as it did intrigue me. I think this could have been a fantastic novel with more guidance over pacing and better-built scenes. This was a debut novel, and I could see the author’s potential, which is why I gave this 3 stars.