I have to say that I am struggling greatly to put down a synopsis of this book so i'm going to be lazy in my review today and give you the blurb instead as it will probably do a much better job than me!
She will become a legend but first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning . . .
Diana is desperate to prove herself to her warrior sisters. But when the opportunity comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law to save a mere mortal, Alia Keralis. With this single heroic act, Diana may have just doomed the world.
Alia is a Warbringer - a descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery. Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies, mortal and divine, determined to destroy or possess the Warbringer.
To save the world, they must stand side by side against the tide of war.
From the outset this is a book that I purchased over hype. I had never read a book by Leigh Bardugo before but I was seeing this book everywhere so I decided to give it a try as it was a standalone by this author and if I enjoyed it I would check out her other works. I think that was probably a bad move on my part. Another bad move is that I had absolutely no idea about the Wonder Woman back story so a lot of the nuance went over my head completely and I think anyone reading this should do a quick wikipedia - seriously other than the lasso and the wrist bands I was clueless.
Saying that though it was a book that I did mostly enjoy. I found the first half very difficult to get into and I almost shelved it but I'm glad I kept going. The book has an about change and it goes from a slightly plodding retelling to a full blown, non stop page turning adventure. From the first half of not wanting to pick it up, I really then couldn't put it down. Bardugo can really write action and then some. Full of twists and cinematic set pieces - I just wish I knew which were Wonder Woman staples and which were from her own imagination.
Character wise there are plenty of strong and sassy females, Nim is just amazing and Theo has just the right amount of snark. Diana herself took a bit of time to grow on me but eventually she did ;)
I think this was probably the wrong choice as a first read from this author as she is writing her words around someone else's story, however, even when the story was not grabbing me the writing style did so I shall be definitely checking out more books by her, just the ones that are 100% her ideas.
4 out of 5 Stars
