The Gates of Golorath by R.M Garino

"The Gates of Golorath separate the lands of humanity from the realm of the Lethan'al." - Lethan'al are angels who have opted to leave heaven in order to play a more active role in protecting humanity from the Lo'ademn (demons). This novel follows Angus and Arielle, two Lethan'al who have entered their final year of military training at the Gates of Golorath. "But, as Angus and Arielle are drawn closer and the tensions between their squads mount, the Blademasters begin to fear that which was foretold long ago."

I'll be perfectly honest, the main reason I requested this book was the cover; because the cover art is absolutely gorgeous.

I also have to confess that I'm quite torn by this book.

On the one hand, I really did enjoy this book, and found myself getting lost in the past 'story' sections.

The characters were well developed, and had their own traits and quirks which made them feel really well-rounded; this, combined with the increasingly complex interactions between individuals and groups of characters, made for an interesting and dynamic novel.

I also enjoyed that it was a different take on the typical angels and demons saga, focusing on their societies being removed from humanity to a greater degree than is typically depicted.

Unfortunately, on the other hand there were some things about the writing which somewhat irked me, and just made reading it less pleasurable than it could otherwise have been.

For one, some parts of the story just felt like synonym tool had been overused. I would consider myself to have a large vocabulary, but there were sentences I found hard to follow because I was having to think about what the words meant and how they had been put together. However, I found this became less of an issue as the book progressed, so perhaps it just took me a while to get into the story.

Also, I found that there were a lot of terms unique to this series which were not necessarily explained, and it was only at the end of the novel that I discovered there's a glossary at the back. Most terms I was able to establish a basic definition of through context, but there were definitely some which could have done with some clarification throughout the novel.

The Gaelic accent initially frustrated me as I believed it to be a, somewhat lacking, attempt at writing a Scottish accent; however the author has since reached out to me to inform me that it's actually an Irish-based accent which is unique to the world of Chaos of Souls.

Personally, I found that the 'modern day' sections seemed to be lacking a purpose, but I'm hoping based on the content so far, that they are going to become the main focus of later books once the past has been fully explored.

*Spoilers*

Similarly, I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that "how evil 'she' becomes" and "what 'she' did" is referenced in the modern day sections of the book, as now I'm waiting to find out what Arielle does that is so terrible, which I feel is somewhat of a spoiler.

However, overall I found it to be an enjoyable read, and I will definitely read any sequels which come out, as I'm excited to find out what happens with Angus and Arielle next!

#GatesofGolorath #ChaosofSouls #Fantasy #Review #NetGalley