Umbra

4⭐️.5🌶

I finished my ARC of Umbra by Catalina Matei last evening.  It was okay.  It is being marketed as book one of a new series.  Now that I've read some other reviews, (I like to go in blind and don't read reviews prior to reading books usually.) This is more like book 4 in a series, which is why I felt so lost at first.  We as readers are dumped into the thick of it twelve months after a pivitol event happens.  Nearly the entire book is told in flash backs to catch us up to where we are.  There is a bunch of info dumping and so much internal monolog.  It wasn't difficult to follow necessarily but it was not a style of storytelling I'm used to that's for sure.  It was difficult to connect with the characters as their grief felt more like whining because we weren't given a chance to connect with them emotionally.  We were constantly being buffeted from the past back to the present.  The bulk of the story was depressing as well.  Yva is literally invisible to those around her.  The only way she can interact with people is when she is in a dream state and can project her image with her magic.  So she's spent the last 12 months taking sleeping postions so she can function in society.  This is taking a horrible toll on her actual physical body and she knows she's at deaths doorstep.  Her lover Samthi is completely distraught because she disappeared without a trace.  She literally became invisible in an instant and had no way to communicate what had happened to her to anyone.  Samthi assumes she left because she didn't love him anymore.  They are both grieving and yearning for eachother.  But also because the story starts twelve months after she becomes invisible and eighteen months after they initially meet, there is no context for this greiving other than the statement I've lost the love of my life.  I enjoyed the writing even if it was repetitive and a bit too much exposition.  Once all the back story finally got fleshed out at the 75% mark the story finally got moving and got extremely intense.  Ultimately the last 25% of the book made up for the first 75% but to be honest the only reason I pushed through was because this was an ARC and I made a conscious effort to finish it.  If it had been a "normal" book I would have DNF around 30%.  I'm very conflicted on this one, mostly it was the pitch.  If the blurb had said this is a spinoff and you really should read the other books first; I would have.  But at the same time would I have hated this book for rehashing three books worth of events in the first three quarters of this one... I don't know.  Ultimately I don't think this really works.  Using flash backs to tell this much of the story was just disorienting and frustrating, it could have been told just as well in two chronological books or as part of the other series.  It was very different and I know there are people looking outside the current "copy and paste" romantasy offerings so this could appeal to that audience.  I think if you know going in you're going to be confused and numb at first, that may help.  The characters were well written, the plot arc came together nicely and the cliffhanger absolutely had me stunned and wanting more.  I do fully intend to read the next book, because I am now emotionally invested in these people.  So make what you will of this very wishy washy review.