Avery

The Chronicles of Kaya #1

by Charlotte McConaghy

The people of Kaya die in pairs. When one lover dies, the other does too. So it has been for thousands of years – until Ava.

For although her bondmate, Avery, has been murdered and Ava’s soul has been torn in two, she is the only one who has ever been strong enough to cling to life. Vowing revenge upon the barbarian queen of Pirenti, Ava's plan is interrupted when she is instead captured by the deadly prince of her enemies.

Prince Ambrose has been brought up to kill and hate. But when he takes charge of a strangely captivating Kayan prisoner and is forced to survive with her on a dangerous island, he must reconsider all he holds true . . .

In a violent country like Pirenti, where emotion is scorned as a weakness, can he find the strength to fight for the person he loves . . . even when she’s his vengeful enemy?

Avery is a sweeping, romantic fantasy novel about loss and identity, and finding the courage to love against all odds.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult, Magic, Paranormal, High Fantasy, New Adult

384 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2013

About the author

Charlotte McConaghy is the author of the New York Times, USA Today, and Indie Bestseller WILD DARK SHORE, named Amazon’s Best Book of the Year So Far for 2025; as well as the New York Times Bestseller ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES, winner of the Indie Book Award for Fiction 2022; and the international bestseller MIGRATIONS, a TIME Magazine Best Book of the Year and the Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year for 2020.

She started her writing career with a number of SF/F titles for YA readers; MIGRATIONS was her first foray into adult literature.

Her books have been translated into more than 25 languages, and are being adapted for film and television. She lives in Sydney with her partner and two children.

Reviews

[Rachel E. Carter]

In that moment, he was young and wild and alive. He was laughing and howling, immersed equally in pleasure and pain.
And watching him, I smiled. I smiled. A girl who had been stripped of the ability. An impossible smile. A real smile, the first in years.

This book was beautiful. Romantic. Real. Heart-wrenching and happy and tear-your-heart-out-madness and then just lovely.

"You want to hate me. You desperately wish you could, but you don't."

This is the story of a girl who lost her soulmate ("bondmate") and somehow survives, consumed by revenge & hate and has no fear for herself. The only thing that matters is finding a way to avenge Avery's -her first and only true love- death. She knows she will die on this mission, and the pain and torture she goes through is nothing -she is shut off from emotions and cannot possibly feel hurt or fear after all that she has gone through in suffering the death of her other half.

Ava (the MC) gets caught sneaking into palace by Ambrose (she doesn't realize until later on his position at court) and Ambrose is sent by the evil queen to escort the prisoner to an island for prison. She is in disguise as a boy and no one senses the truth. Along the way their ship wrecks & they have to survive on the wrong side of the island and endure their mutual hatred of one another. The author does not spare you Ambrose's cruelty and Ava's cold disdain. These two spend half the book struggling to survive and along the way a slow friendship is built between the two boys, and as time goes on Ambrose starts to fall in love with his friend. I love how this book does not give Ambrose any shame for thinking he is in love with a boy, and the way their eyes slowly shift colors into gold flecks as they begin to fall in love.

The book has only just begun. True identities are revealed and when they finally feel, Ava fights her love for Ambrose with every fiber of her being. She rejects the idea of feeling anything for Ambrose because it is a betrayal to Avery, her dead bondmate whose identity she has stolen. >> this is possibly what touched me the most. The way that Ambrose tries to heal Ava's heart and the pure emotion and turmoil Ava endures in trying to fight the truth. There are some moments that will break your heart, and you feel so much pain for Ambrose as you see him try to hold on the girl he loves who is trying to drown herself.

I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed as tightly as I could while she unraveled, wracked by violenty, painful sobs and whispering his name like a mantra that destroyed me."

This book deals with Ava in a way that is so real it hurts. And the way it plays out is so true to my heart it still bleeds. Seeing the villain's reveal & having Ava face the darkness consuming her, seeing the way she handles the end... it's all true. I didn't care for Thorne/Rosalyn POV's at all and though they added to plot, it detracted from the story for me, but there was enough Ava/Ambrose to heal my heart. FIVE MILLION STARS. I LOVE THIS BOOK. AND I WILL DEFINITELY READ THE AUTHOR'S OTHER WORKS. One of the best romances I have ever read for so many reasons.

"You're my talisman, Ambrose of Pirenti."

An amazing book, and one I will read again and again.

[Camly Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

So sad yet so beautiful. My fav of 2015 so far.

"We have no say in this life, on how hard things will be. What we can control is how hard we fight. How long we endure. How strongly we love."

Some say it's a curse, others say that it's a gift.The people of Kaya die in pairs. When one lover dies, the other does too and it has been so since the beginning of time.

But it didn't work for Ava. When her bondmate, Avery, has been murdered by the barbarian queen,and Ava’s soul has been torn in two, she is the only one who has ever been strong enough to cling to life. Having nothing left but the thirst to seek for revenge, Ava's plan is interrupted when she is captured by the evil queen's son and is forced to stay with him on an island, waiting for her death...

It's written in four POVs and you never get messed up.Every single character had layer after layers of secrets and all had a little something that made them special. So when McConaghy decided to put them all together and weave their paths in a uniquely complicated web, I was swept in from the first page and I couldn't let go until the end.

If I had to quote all the beautiful passages from Avery, I'd probably be quoting the whole book.
I absolutely loved it. I usually don't fall for books where authors just dump sad situations on me and ask me to cry like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but this book was on a whole different level. I felt my heart race and shatter continuously as if McConaghy was like " Oh, so you thought that this was going to be your average romance novel didn't you? Well, let me prove to you otherwise."... and IT WORKED. I've read it two more times just to make sure that my brain wasn't playing tricks on me and every single time that I've read it, I just fell in love all over again.

Get this book now. You won't regret it.

[Arielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Officially

You joined souls once in this life, and once only.
Leave, I told her through the bond.
Please. I need you to leave.
Not without you, she whispered into me. Never without you.

This book wrecked me you guys. Gah and I already am going to just go ahead and say sorry for all of the quotes I’m about to put into this review. I just can’t pick some and not include others.

Basically, I found this book randomly some months ago on another friend’s to-read list. The beautiful cover intrigued me, as did the synopsis. Mates that dies with one another? But not in this case—not with Ava. The reviews that I read spoke of unimaginable grief but also of healing and hope and finding love after thinking you were going to be incapable of ever feeling it again.

The people of Kaya die in pairs. So it is and will always be.

Me, being the romantic that I always have been and hopefully always will be—was interested. I have actually been in somewhat of a reading rut for the past month or so, just not knowing what to read or only wanting to re-read things. After stumbling upon this book again yesterday, and after reading some of those reviews, I knew that I needed to read this book. I needed to feel something new (even if was grief). Sometimes you just know that you need a book like that to really touch you in a way that others don’t.

“No Pirenti man or woman could ever imagine what the bond feels like—you see your other half, and you come to understand why it is that you’re alive in this world. All that you are is for them.”

I’m not going to lie, when I started this book, I was pretty skeptical. While I wanted to hold out to find out what happened, the writing was not my cup of tea at all. This book is a prime of example of a writer that does a lot more telling than showing. I was so disappointed in those first few chapters because good dialog especially is a really huge thing for me. I first found this to be a bit cheesy. When Ava, pretending to be Avery, is being escorted to the Isle with Ambrose the banter that they have seemed very unrealistic to me. Ambrose, who is supposed to hate the Kayan people, starts to call Avery, “Ave” as a nickname. Now I am a huge supporter of nicknames but there is NO WAY IN HELL that someone like him is going to start calling someone should be his sworn enemy by a familiar nickname, days after meeting/imprisoning him. Might be a little thing to some, but I was really close to just putting the book down.

“You are one of the most romantic men I have ever met, Ambrose. You can be generous and kind, when you are not forcing yourself to be otherwise, and I think one day you will find a very passionate love, and it will make you understand the futility of denying it.”

Before I get too carried away with all the feels, this is a story centered around four people—or five, I guess. In the beginning we are introduced to Avery and Ava, a mated pair who are on a mission to kill the Queen of Pirenti. Avery ends up dying (not a spoiler, you know it’s going to happen) and even though Ava should be dead, she survives. She is the only known Kayan to survive something like that. Two years later she, dressed like a boy, is captured by Ambrose (who happens to be the Queen’s son) who is charged with taking her to a prison. She tells him she is Avery and the first half of the book is about their journey to the prison and the start of an unlikely friendship. Parallel to that is a story about Throne, Abrose’s warrior/hard ass older brother, and his wife Rose whom very few people understand.

It hit me then—who was I to love a creature like this? I didn’t deserve her, and there was no lifetime in which I ever could. She loved a man I not remembered—a man with black hair, who had stood straight at his death and died for his country. A man who had known the line between right and wrong. And here I sat, a complicated mess of compromised beliefs and stretched morals. All I had left, all I possessed, was this stupid truth.

That was a super shitty synopsis but I just don’t want to give much away. By the time I was about 40% of the way though the book—I was hooked. Either the dialog gets better or by that point it just didn’t matter because the story came and wrapped me up. The romance was so swoon-worthy and believable because none of it was super rushed or came out of nowhere. Sometimes in a book with multiple POVs you like one more than the other. In this case, since it was four people but only two storylines that you can tell are going to meet up by the end, I was entranced by both.

I’d never presume to deserve you.

Ambrose and Avery/Ava. When these two first started out on their journey, you could tell right away that Ambrose was fascinated by the pretty Kayan “boy” but that he didn’t really know why. Through many different instances of saving one another’s lives through accidents the two became friends. Ambrose started telling Avery little snippets of his life and Avery started telling Ambrose why she had only half a soul (and who was to blame for it). Neither one of them knew each other’s true identities. What was cool about this story compared to others that have been set up slightly the same way, is that Ambrose falls in love with Avery/Ava even when he still thinks she is a boy. He loves who she is as a person, not for whatever gender she is. Yes, he was mad at her at first for being lied to but that’s really because he spilled all of his guts out and for the fact that he’d been beating on a girl who took her punishments with ease..it probably got him right in the pride. Their romance is a thing of beauty to watch unfold.


Ava of Orion was not a ghost. She was very far from it. Regardless of how wrong it was, all the threads of my life now came down to a simple fact: I had to have her.

HOWEVER, there were parts that reallllly frustrated me, pretty much all of them dealing with Ava. See, ever since her mate died, she literally has only had half of a soul. So there are a lot of things she can’t feel anymore. When things start progressing with Ambrose anyway though, there are like four or five times that she literally just runs away from him. By the last time I was like what in the actual F, Ava. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose my boyfriend, let alone half of my soul in the process, but I’d like to think I wouldn’t just run away from this living man who loved me with everything he had over and over again. UGH.

It was life bursting back into my soul. It was life and pleasure and touch and so much need I realized I truly had been dying, I had been wasting and now I could breathe because his lungs were working twice as hard, and they were giving me air, just as his heart was beating strong enough for the both of us.

Thorne and Rose are our parallel couple in this story and had been married a few years by the time this book started. There is a pretty fucked up relationship at first. He’s part berserker and literally can’t control his rage (and wouldn’t know any other way of life even if he could) and Rose…I suspect that in our everyday life she could maybe have some form of autism. She can be whip smart and would speak with total clarity at some points but there are others where she was lost inside her mind. Thorne and Ambrose are the only ones that understand her but even while her husband gets it, he doesn’t understand that she loves him and that he really does love her too..I beg you all to hold out for these two because you get to see something really special bloom between them eventually.

“I have to hold on to Avery for as long as I can.”
He stared at me, time slowing, stretching. “But what about me?” he murmured. “I’m the one who’s still alive. I didn’t leave you and I never would. Can’t you see that?”

Okay so confession time. This review has been about all of the..happy parts of this book. There are a few things that happen that are going to rip your heart out. Mine currently feels the effects even twelve hours later. I guess what I personally think is cool about this book is how it goes into how a person really can grieve for someone they love. How much of a toll it can take on them. It also kind of shows the different kinds of love Ava experienced and showed that both were right for her. One was destined to be her mate from the beginning, one became her mate after weeks of hating each other and hardships and getting to know one another first.

I have always been a believer in fate, because I think it’s mysterious and strange and interesting. However (and this is very contradictory) I have also had the belief that you can also be in charge of your own fate with the decisions you make. Ava may have been destined to have Avery for a mate, but what she couldn’t wrap her mind around at first, was the love that she grew into with Ambrose. That was not chance. That was two people coming together and opening up to one another and just simply needing each other. It was a pretty beautiful thing.

Finally, as with other reviews, even though this is insanely long—it in no way does justice to this story. This is really one you need to read for yourself.

“We have no say, in this life, in how hard things will be. What we can control is how hard we fight. How long we endure. How strongly we love.”

[Kathylill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so sad and so full of hope at the same time, terrifyingly beautiful and bittersweet.

This is me reading the book:



Avery has it all: dark magic, villains, heroes, flying horses, a dramatic plot with turns and twists, characters that you adore and villains to hate and last but not least a hauntingly beautiful romance. It’s a magical and dangerous world where Kayans and Pirenti look with prejudiced hatred on each other and wage a centuries old war. The story is told from 4 different points of view, where Ava’s and Ambrose’ journey builds up the main plot. Thorne’s and Rose’s perspective gives you more insight into the Barbarian Queen’s court. Thorne, the elder Prince of the Pirenti (and Ambrose’s brother) and his wife have their personal struggles. Their journey to understanding and love was so sweet and sad. But all four give emotional insight into the world of Kaya and Pirenti from different angles.

Pirenti soldiers look nothing like Kayans – these men are huge and beastly, and there is a deep sense of wildness to them. There are no women in this hall of soldiers – here women are considered inferior and would never be allowed to fight.
All but one, of course: The Barbarian Queen wages wars from her blood-soaked throne, demanding always that she be surrounded by men, and men only.

Ava’s bondmate Avery was killed by the Barbarian Queen. The people of Kaya die in pairs. With the forging of the soul magic, so is forged an unbreakable bond between those in love. When one dies, so shall the other, and forever will it remain so … But Ava survives even though she should have died. Now, a miserable despaired half-soul she doesn’t feel anymore, doesn’t have a taste, can’t smile or laugh or feel pleasure. Her family and friends look at her with mistrust. The only thing that that remains for her is vengeance. Execute vengeance upon the Barbarian Queen – the one that murdered her mate.

She’s captured by the younger Prince of Pirenti. On the way to a prison on a remote island, he falls in love with his captive. And by doing so, he starts to help her heal.

The water was icy cold – knives-all-over-my-body-cold. I surfaced amidst the shock, my heart and soul wide open to the vastness of the sea I’d just entered, and turned to see Avery smile at me. And as I looked at the naked beauty of the expression, I fell in love. It was that simple, that complicated.

I cried a river over this book. All the characters in the story handle love, loss and an endless ocean of grief in such a realistic, emotional way. And the author has a way of making me care, of not only telling me that Ava is sad, but making me feel her longing for her mate, her confusion at realizing that she started to care for another, her shame at having betrayed her dead mate by laughing again.

Alone in my room, I curled into a ball and cried.
If you were here I’d run my tongue along your skin and taste you, and I’d say I’m sorry for the piece of life I remembered without you, and how for a moment upstairs I forgot the shape of your hand against my back and the look on your face when you ate something you liked. I’d tell you how hopeless I feel, how very sad. I’d kiss you, because I never kissed you enough. I never had enough of you at all. I never got the years we spoke of, the life we planned. I never had the children we were supposed to, the family you promised me. I never got enough of your laughter.

All the journeys depicted in this book are so excruciating and hopeful at the same time. It’s not only Ava who has to let go of her longing for a dead mate, her wish for vengeance and start living and loving again. It’s also Thorne and his wife Roselyn. It’s also Ambrose who loves Ava so fierce, to oblivion and back:

I let my fingers trace her lips, all the delicate, soft lines of them. I wanted to keep touching them for every second of the rest of my life. I wanted to kiss them until they bled, until neither of us could breathe. I wanted a life that was not my own, one I’d never be entitled to because I came from a damaged, violent country.
It hit me then – who was I to love a creature like this? I didn’t deserve her, and there was no lifetime in which I ever could. She loved a man I now remembered – a men with black hair, who had stood straight at his death and died for his country. A man who had known the line between right and wrong. And here I sat, a complicated mess of compromised beliefs and stretched morals. All I had left, all I possessed, was this one stupid truth.
“I love you as a women. I see you as you are, Ave – broken into pieces and suffocating – and I love all the pieces of you, no matter how small they’ve shattered, nor how far they’ve been scattered.”

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Charlotte McConaghy has created a vibrant magical world full of emotions, fleshed out characters, kick-ass action and a bittersweet love story.

[Kaila · Rating 5 out of 5]

RE-READ: June 2018

5/5 stars

“The people of Kaya die in pairs. So it is and will always be.”

I just love this book so much, it is definitely one of my all time favourites. The concept is so captivating and intriguing to me, I was so interested in it even though this is my second time reading it. The characters are so three-dimensional, charming and completely loveable. Each and every one of the main characters hold a special place in my heart and I adored them. In my first read I loved Ava and Ambrose’s story most, especially the romance. I still adored their story and their relationship, but I seemed to love Thorne and Rose’s chapters the most during this read through. There wasn’t one chapter that I didn’t feel intensely interested and emotionally invested in the story. This book has a complex fantastical world, amazing characters and a fantastic romance....ie. it is pretty darn perfect to me.

The people of Kaya die in pairs, that is until Ava. When Avery, Ava’s soul-mate was killed she was sure that she would die too. Instead, her soul was ripped in two and she was left alive, with sort of her soul missing and a chip on her shoulder. Shunned from her society, she dedicates her life to seeking revenge on the woman that killed her bondmate, the Queen of Pirenti. Her plans are thwarted when she is captured by a prince of Pirenti and she is condemned to be locked away on a prison island. Prince Ambrose was taught by his mother to hate and kill all enemies. When things go south while accompanying the Kayan prisoner to the island, Ambrose and Ava must help each other to survive. In the process, Ambrose realises that not all Kayans are enemies and Ava comes to the realisation that maybe she still has a soul.

"We have no say in this life, on how hard things will be. What we can control is how hard we fight. How long we endure. How strongly we love."

I think this book is character-driven as well as having a very strong plot and world. The characters are all complex and their relationships are even more three-dimensional and dynamic. I fell in love with these characters and how they interacted with one another. The romantic relationships, the family and the relationship between enemies drives this book, and I loved every moment of it. The interesting concept of Kayans dying in pairs and the magic system in this world was equally as interesting to me. On top of it all, there are warring nations and a plot that attempts to overthrow this, which which is also phenomenally well constructed and fascinating. This book altogether has everything that I could possibly want in a fantasy.

Even though this is my second reading, this book spared none of my emotions. It was truly an emotional rollercoaster that I experienced from both complex and emotional storylines. During my first read I really focused on Ava and Ambrose, who had an amazing romance and story, but this time I felt equally towards Rose and Thorne’s story. I seriously admire the emotional complexity of this book as these two storylines are so strong by themselves but are even more perfect as they intertwine.

“I love you as a women. I see you as you are, Ave – broken into pieces and suffocating – and I love all the pieces of you, no matter how small they’ve shattered, nor how far they’ve been scattered.”

Ambrose and Ava have a very angsty relationship that is also full of healing and beauty. I absolutely loved watching their relationship unfold. This book has some of my favourite tropes of hidden identities as Ava hides her gender from Ambrose and also the enemies to lovers trope. This brought even more angst to their story, which was amplified considering they were both quite tortured souls, especially Ava. I especially loved how Ambrose admitted that he was falling in love with Ava even though at the time he thought she was a man. I feel like this showed the truthfulness and strength of their relationship as it wasn't asked on appearance or gender. Basically, I am complete trash and loved all the angst of their relationship.

This time around, it was Rose and Thorne that resulted in my river of tears. Seriously, I was so torn up by their storyline as it emotionally abused my poor heart. Thorne was the oldest son of the barbarian queen and he also had Berserker blood in him. He was hateful, angry and violent, even towards Rose. On the opposite spectrum, Rose was quite, timid and strange. All she wanted was for Thorne to love her. I'm not going to romanticise it, and neither did the author, this was an abusive relationship, but the characters were very self aware about it. It was Thorne’s attempt to better himself and change as well as Rose learning to become strong and empower herself that really got to my heart. Their storyline truly destroyed me as they grew to better themselves, they also grew together more. Even thinking back now, my heart hurts to think of them.



2015:
This book is absolutely amazing! This is definitely one of my absolute favourite books! This book is so full of hope and redemption and the way the characters build throughout the book is mesmerising. This is action packed, romantic and heart wrenchingly beautiful!

I loved the moral that's I found in this story. The way the characters fell in love with each other's souls and not their gender or their face! I absolutely recommend this book to everyone!

[Amy Norris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gah this was so frustrating for me. I had such high hopes for this book and the potential was there but ultimately it just had too many issues to be anything higher than a 3 stars.
The writing and characters were fantastic. The world was promising but the world building didn’t do enough for it to work. The actions of the characters were at times stupid and unbelievable and the plot itself had many issues like pacing. It felt like this was a solid first draft that needed a strong developmental edit.

[Minni Mouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

#1.) Avery: ★★★★
#2.) Thorne: ★ ★ ★ ★
#3.) Isadora:: ★ ★ ★ ★

Well gooooodbye, book slump. Avery was the book I've been deliberately avoiding for years and it ended up being a pretty close hit to the kind of deeper, Adult Fantasy Action/Romance I'd been looking for these past several DNFs. The greatest disservice to this book is its marketing because despite Goodreads insistently recommending this book to me for years, I always pushed it aside because the cover looked like a contemporary romance and the blurb sounded like Daughter of Smoke & Bone, neither of which appealed to me in the slightest.

Having finished it, I'll say the enemies-turned-lovers game was strong. Was it terribly romantic? Heart breaking? For me, no...but could just be I never identified with the characters. Instead as a whole I'll praise the overall action, character narratives, and prose.

This book had the deeper writing prose of Laini Taylor, the very prolonged (and increasingly far fetched) woman-masquerading-as-a-man scenario of Princess of Thorns , the rapidly downward spiral explosion of a Sanderson ending, and the very melancholy grief and loss of, well, a short story that I myself wrote, haha.

THE STORY
The book is about and named after the character of Avery, a young man who dies immediately in the prologue. What makes this a solid four-star review is the clever and multi-layered attempt to still put Avery at the center of almost everything crucial to the character ARCs but in a secondhand, indirect way. The closest comparison I can make is how The Golem and the Djinni developed its main character through the eyes of other characters.

'A toast,’ he murmured, his voice rough.

I thought Ava would refuse to drink with us, with me, but she simply turned to Ambrose and asked, ‘To what?’

He met the girl’s eyes, and he gazed at her in such a way that it made me embarrassed to witness it. ‘To Avery,’ he said, ‘the man who brought us all here.'

Slanje va, brother.

NOTABLE QUOTES
Some of these are hogwash, in my opinion, but I give the author props for trying to be profound and lyrical about it.

“A woman’s beauty is in her strength and her passion. Think of her form, the sensuality of a woman’s body – it’s not a vessel for you to steal your own pleasure from – it’s capable of awakening passion for the both of you. Sharing intimacy with a woman and allowing her to feel pleasure will satisfy you in a way you’ve never imagined. Trust me on that.”
_____

“It seems to me the deepest betrayal of our sex to hide yourself the way you do."
_____

“I loved you when you were a man, and I love you as a woman. I see you as you are, Ave – broken into pieces and suffocating – and I love all the pieces of you, no matter how small they’ve shattered, nor how far they’ve been scattered.”
_____

He met my eyes. ‘When you first looked at Avery, you bonded with him. It was easy and it was simple, and it was beyond any choice you could make. But when you and I first met, we hated each other. It was slow and it was impossible, and it happened against both our wills, despite everything that was put in its way. It was like we clawed at love with every ounce of our strength, like we held our breaths for it until no air existed in the world. So tell me – which do you think more real? Something you didn’t even choose, or something you had to fight for?'
_____

I shook my head. ‘What would you have me do?’
‘Leave him.’
‘You don’t leave the people you love,’ I told her simply.
She stopped, considering this. ‘But when they hurt you, Rose? No one is allowed to hurt you. Not ever.’
I didn’t know how to make her understand. ‘I know that. I agree. But have you ever been in love?’
Ava smiled brokenly. ‘Yes.’
‘And if that person hurt you, would you leave?’
She didn’t say anything.
‘The pain of his absence,’ I murmured, ‘would hurt me more than anything he could do to me.'
_____

It was easy to love someone lovable – easy to love a man who was gentle and kind and understood everything. It was much harder, much more courageous, to love a man who was flawed and frightening and who didn’t understand. I’d thought I was brave for enduring Avery’s loss, but Roselyn was the bravest person I’d ever met, simply because she wasn’t afraid to love an impossible man and get hurt in the process.
_____

I’d killed people, plenty of them. I was aware of that, but until now it had never occurred to me that I’d destroyed someone’s soul. I’d never seen the evidence of my destruction beyond the execution room. I’d condemned this girl to a half-life, a life of emptiness, and in doing so I’d condemned my brother to the agonising task of loving such emptiness.
_____

“Because the truth is – I want to kill all the time. Every second of every day. All I want to do is shed blood. My instincts scream at me to do it – to stake my claim on the things I own and fight for my territory. I’m more animal than man, after all. Sometimes I allow my beast his reign, but so much of the time I fight him. I keep him locked up when I long to set him free."
_____

These blows, from men twice my size, were mind-boggling. It made no sense to me – how I could survive such violence. Another part of me wanted to howl with glee at their pathetic attempt to harm me – didn’t they know what I’d been through? What I’d lived through? They could hit me as much as they liked and it wouldn’t be iron-hot brands against my skin and a leap into sea. It would not be the death of my bondmate, a blade thirteen times in his chest.
_____

And some sick part of me wanted it to be true, wanted Ambrose to be just as brutal as me, just as guilty. I didn’t want to be alone with my sins. If we shared one, the greatest sin of all, he would never be able to leave me.

Now, it seemed very likely that I had lost him for good, which hurt, because I’d always loved him best of all.
_____

I looked around at the faces closest and it seemed to me then that they were tired. All day they’d watched people kill each other – listened to screams of pain, seen the spill of blood and the tearing of flesh – and now they were faced with a simple-minded, idiot girl as she was slaughtered for being nothing more than what she’d been born. They were tired. Somewhere along the way we’d become a weary, hopeless country.

THE BAD
1) I couldn't decide if half the writing was either deep and profound or thinly pretentious, unable to be backed by character depth.

2) Thorne and Rose were not respectable as individuals and not healthy as a couple for a good majority of their time. Again, I can't decide if the author was trying to be profound or satirical with the depictions of their spousal abuse and his anger management but either way, I didn't like their narratives until the very end. And even then, I could have done without Rose.

3) The writing and world building and character connections are strangely detached and aloof from the reader. Only Pierce Brown and Marie Lu -- and somewhat Kate Quinn -- can pull that off.

4) Unanswered questions. So many of them.

THE VERDICT
I didn't find this very romantic or hopeful or light. It struck me as a very sad, forlorn story of bitterness and grief and character flaws up the wazoo. The end was so much that I couldn't even cry -- I was so numb and tense. And I loved every moment.

Am I reading the sequel? I surely am.

[Mei · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book from Netgalley for my honest review.

WOW!!! It has been a really long time that I’ve enjoyed a fantasy book this much!

It’s strange. It’s refreshingly new! It’s romantic in a painful way. It’s violent. It’s… it’s… it’s GREAT!!!

"The people of Kaya die in pairs.
With the forging of the soul magic, so is forged an unbreakable bond between those in love. When one dies, so shall the other, and forever will it remain so..."

Such a romantic premise… But the beginning of the book is very violent and gruesome.

Avery, Ava’s soul mate her been killed in front of her eyes. Half of her soul died with him, but Ava didn’t die. She’s an abomination to her people, who first cried her as dead because they expected her to die as per tradition, but when she survived she was cast out.

They started planning my funeral, and mourned me while I was still there, lying paralysed in my childhood bed. But weeks went by, and then months, and still I didn’t die. I wasn’t the same – I was barely a shadow – but my body held on for some torturous reason. At times I thought it was punishing me. My own form had started to feel very foreign – a halfsoul in a body not its own. It was no wonder I became an outcast.
When the people in my town realised that I hadn’t died, they hated me for it. A petition went up banning me from entering public areas or shops. When I braved the streets, I was spat upon and called a demon. They said I was disgusting and inhuman, and they tried to drive me out of town – throwing things at the house and drilling holes in my father’s fishing boat.

She’s bitter, she’s alone, she’s a half soul person and she wants vengeance!



Instead she get’s imprisoned by the second son of the hated queen! She hate him too and her hate starts to grow more when he, Ambrose, who thinks Ava a boy because of her disguise, mistreat her and beat her.

Ambrose has made himself stop feeling anything. He’s trying to be a true son of the Pirenti, where any signs of humility or softness is a sin and where callousness and cruelty and highly valued, but during his journey with Ava will fail glamorously.



Two damaged souls, a gruesome journey, an impossible love… Wonderful!

The story is told from 4 POV: Ava/Avery (her name in disguise), Ambrose, Thorn and his wife Roselyn.
When I started reading it was strange and I had to get used to it, but the more I read the more I liked it! It was very refreshing and unusual, but so, so good! You get to know in depth all four characters: their whys, their how – simply brilliant!

Thorn is like a big brute. He’s completely in love with his wife, but he doesn’t realize it at all – he doesn’t even know what the word love means! He punishes her because she’s not conforming to his idea of wife, of woman. He wants her to be want he wants and not what she is. He’s struggling because his ideas of what to with her are confusing him. His experience and his upbringing do not give him means to cope. So he reacts and reacts badly.



Roselyn is strange. She has issues that run deeply. She knows that she do not have to do something, but she does it all the same. She’s afraid, she has obsessive-compulsive behaviour, she’s lost, but she knows that her most important wish is her husband’s love. But she also doesn’t know how to get it, how to ask for it.



And through the story emerges the character of the evil Queen. A woman so dead inside that she breathes death, that she raised her children to be monsters without feeling, without conscience, without life…

Thorn and Roselyn:
He swallowed. ‘Did you know she was making me like this?’
I frowned, confused by the question. ‘Yes, of course. She tries to make everyone like her. It is how she rules. Cruelty and violence and fear. You are her greatest weapon, Thorne.

---------------------------------

Ambrose:
‘I can’t change the fact that my mother is a monster, and she was so cruel to Thorne that she turned him into a beast. I can’t change how she enjoys hurting people and wants us to be the same.’

It’s very sad when first Ambrose, and then Thorn realise that she is the root of all their evil acts. When they understand that she is the monster not them. Nothing is so destructive than that!

Ambrose is the first to free himself from this destructive relationship when he realise that he’s fallen in love with Ava. But it is Ava who doesn’t want to acknowledge that the bond with Avery is no more. And Ambrose has to fight…

‘When you first looked at Avery, you bonded with him. It was easy and it was simple, and it was beyond any choice you could make. But when you and I first met, we hated each other. It was slow and it was impossible, and it happened against both our wills, despite everything that was put in its way. It was like we clawed at love with every ounce of our strength, like we held our breaths for it until no air existed in the world.’ He paused, and his eyes reached inside me. ‘So tell me – which do you think more real? Something you didn’t even choose, or something you had to fight for?’

Thorne’s freedom comes slowly through his growing love for Roselyn…

Roselyn, at the end, is the strongest person of them all… Her strength lies in her truthfulness…

‘We have no say, in this life, on how hard things will be. What we can control is how hard we fight. How long we endure. How strongly we love.’

And then, there are those magical creatures: the Pegasi. Winged horses of the Kaya.



Their bond with their riders is similar to the bond between the Kayans. It is a bond of love…

And then I knew. Just like that – a breath of air, a moment of deepest clarity. I opened my eyes and turned to where I knew he would be, and as I waited for him I could barely breathe with the force of love pounding through me, love with every one of his wing-beats.

There are twists and turns, world-rocking revelations and poignant moments. It’s pure fantasy!!!

A wonderful, wonderful book! It made me feel like I was a child again reading my fist fairy-tale!!!

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 3 out of 5]

Avery, the first book in Charlotte McConaghy's romantic fantasy adventure trilogy, The Chronicles of Kaya, introduces a nation divided by war. For centuries the people of Kaya and Pirenti have fought bloody battles for dominance. The Pirenti, ruled by the sadistic Barbarian Queen, have the advantage of size and strength, the Kyan rely on the magic of the Warders and the bravery of their people to fight the tyranny.
During a mission to assassinate the queen in her castle, Avery is caught and savagely murdered much to the horror of his bond-mate, Ava. The people of Kyan die in pairs, and his passing should condemn Ava to death, but instead she is the first of her kind to survive. With her soul ripped in two, and cast out of Kayan society as 'unnatural', Ava assumes Avery's identity and plots her revenge on the Queen but her plans are thwarted when she is captured by Ambrose, the Pirenti Prince.
Ambrose, like his elder brother Thorne, has been raised by his mother to hate the Kyan, scorning their physical weakness and soft emotions. A fierce and merciless warrior he is nevertheless beginning to question his mother's cruelty and the endless bloodshed. Tasked to transport the Kayan boy he captured to the Pirenti prison isle, and then shipwrecked during the journey, he slowly comes to admire Avery's courage and tenacity, challenging all he has been taught ...and his barren heart.

Unusually, the narrative of Avery is carried by the first person perspectives of Ava and Ambrose, as well as Thorne, Ambrose's elder brother, and Thorne's wife, Roselyn. The focus of the tale is on the emotional journey of these four characters, struggling to reconcile their expectations and desires. The characters are quite complex and stir a mixture of admiration, pity, distaste and respect.

It wasn't until I began to organise my thoughts to write this review that I realised there were elements of the romantic relationships that made me really uncomfortable. There is the idea that a man's violent nature can be changed by love, that Roselyn's patience with her abusive husband, and Ava's endurance of Ambrose's violence, are eventually rewarded by that change. That the Prince's are excused because of their twisted upbringing, and eventually redeemed simply because these women love them. There is some attempt to mitigate the dysfunction with apologies, promises and redemption, but it is still a troublesome model of romance.

I did enjoy a number of other elements of the plot, particularly the twist that reveals the Barbarian Queen's secrets. The action scenes, even those that are quite brutal, are well written, as are the more intimate and emotional scenes. Avery explores a number of facets of love - the love of country, and the bonds between siblings, parents and lovers.

The world-building is fairly simplistic, I understood the Pirenti but didn't feel I learned much about Kaya. I did find I could easily visualize the Pirenti castle, the hazards of the Prison isle and Ava soaring through the sky on the back of her Pegasi.

Avery is a tale of love, hate, revenge and redemption. Though I have my reservations about the romance I did enjoy the story in the moment and found it to be a quick read.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 STARS!

I wasn't sure how I would like this book. I am so glad I had chance to read this! Fantasy is not my usual genre. But hey if it has romance I will try it. I found myself instantly absorbed into the magical world Charlotte McConaghy created.

While reading this story I couldn't help myself from thinking about:



AND



Seriously though, this story was awesome!

"The people of Kaya die in pairs.
With the forging of the soul
magic, so is forged an
unbreakable bond between
those in love. When one dies,
so shall the other, and forever
will it remain so..."

My Ava



Ava finds herself still alive after her bondmate is murdered. Cast out by her people, with only half a soul, she seeks revenge on the Queen of Pirenti.




Captured by the younger of the two deadly Princes of Pirenti, Ambrose, she finds herself on a journey of self discovery, new friendships and maybe even love for the enemy.


My Ambrose



Can two enemies become friends? Lovers?

I was laughing so hard when Ambrose thought he was gay!

This story is in alternating POV's from four characters. Though most of the story is from Ava and Ambrose, we also get the elder prince, Thorne, and his wife Roselyn story.

My Thorne



My Roselyn




If you love romance, alpha men( I mean really ALPHA men), magic, mystery and some down right epic fights than you will love this story! I will definitely be reading the next book in The Chronicles of Kaya!

*ARC supplied by Netgalley*

[Patrycja · Rating 5 out of 5]

**ARC courtesy of Random House Australia Pty via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**



Epigraph

The people of Kaya die in pairs. With the forging of the soul magic, so is forged an unbreakable bond between those in love. When one dies, so shall the other, and forever will it remain so …
– extract from the words of Agathon of Sancia

First Warder of Kaya
Forged in iron are men.
Bound for the earth are women.
– extract from The Song of Pirenti


Love. Passion. Revenge. Hate.

Avery is first installment in The Chronicles of Kaya by Charlotte McConaghy that will be fascinating, appealing and enchanting read for fans of high fantasy and unique romance stories. Every fan of Gracling Trilogy will swoon over this book. This exceptional novel will bring you to new world of passion and love that has no borders and start a journey you’ll never forget.

Ava is twenty year old Kayan who lost her bondmate Avery. she should die alongside with him, but something happened and she still lives without him. Now she has only half of her soul, doesn’t have a taste, can’t smile or laugh and feel pleasure. Her life is miserable, Kayan’s people look at her with disgust and hatred. Without Avery there’s nothing in this world for Ava. The only thing that makes her go on with her painful and lonely life is vengeance. She wants to kill Barbarian Queen – the one that murdered her mate.


Kayan’s people bond for life, love only one person and die in pairs, but Ava is an gruesome exception, abomination.

Dressed like a boy she’s captured by Prince of Pirenti and sentenced for prison. Little did she know that man she’ll hate will help her heal.

‘Don’t choose a memory over a flesh-and-blood man who loves you to oblivion and back,’


I can’t express in words how much I’ve enjoyed reading Avery, I don’t want to spoil you fun, so I can’t say more, and believe me, it hurts to keep my mouth shut about Ava’s journey. It is excruciating and at the same time hopeful. This captivating story got me hooked from the beginning. I have never read a high fantasy novel with so many feelings.

[Chess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edited:
This book has got to be one of my all time favourites though I feel that this is extremely underrated and people should start picking this book up! If you're a Sarah J Maas fan or simply a YA fantasy and romance fan, then this book is for you! I finished this novel only a few days ago and I still could not get over how painstakingly beautiful it was. I think the reason why I absolutely loved this book was because I could see a lot of similarities with A Court of Thorns and Roses which I loved so much as well. Both of them had strikingly similar characters and storyline, yet somehow they still managed to have different endings and plot twists.

The plot follows this girl named Ava, who had recently lost her mate, Avery, from being brutally killed, when they attempted to assassinate the evil Queen of Pirenti. Both from the land of Kaya, this couple is not destined to live without one another since Kayan people are known to die in pairs. When one lover dies - the other one dies as well. Years passed and she remains to be a half-walker, yet still alive and breathing. She then hopes to avenge her lover's death by pretending to be a man and infiltrate Pirenti once again and seek revenge. Ava was captured by Ambrose, Prince of Pirenti and he plans to take her to this forbidden prison located on an isolated island. As they go on this journey, they uncover secrets and mysteries of each other's past and somehow at the same time, grow ever closer than before.

What makes this book unique is that it's written in 4 POVs, in which all of them all tie and come together at the end. It was confusing and baffling at first since the setting and characters keep switching from time to time, but in the middle of the book, I got used to it and somehow enjoyed reading and knowing the characters in many perspectives. I think I was able to understand the struggles and demons of each character when reading from their own point of view, in contrast to just reading from one character, which could be subjective at times.

This novel is truly a masterpiece, and I thank the author, Charlotte McConaghy for writing this because it's full of adventure, romance and I gotta admit, the ending made me tear up. I definitely recommend this book to everyone! You will not regret it. Although maybe I'll warn you on the extreme emotional rollercoaster ride you'll experience while reading that might leave you emotionally unstable and a mess of tears at the end....

My favorite quotes and lines from the book:

“I love you as a woman. I see you as you are, Ave – broken into pieces and suffocating – and I love all the pieces of you, no matter how small they’ve shattered, nor how far they’ve been scattered.”

“We have no say in this life, on how hard things will be. What we can control is how hard we fight. How long we endure. How strongly we love.”

[Christa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This quote sums up why this book was such a disappointment much better than my ramblings ever could.

‘You don’t deserve his cruelty,’ Ava told me gently. She reached out and ran a finger over the fading purple bruises around my neck. ‘Don’t you understand that?’
I shook my head. ‘What would you have me do?’
‘Leave him.’
‘You don’t leave the people you love,’ I told her simply.
She stopped, considering this. ‘But when they hurt you, Rose? No one is allowed to hurt you. Not ever.’
I didn’t know how to make her understand. ‘I know that. I agree. But have you ever been in love?’
Ava smiled brokenly. ‘Yes.’
‘And if that person hurt you, would you leave?’ She didn’t say anything.
‘The pain of his absence,’ I murmured, ‘would hurt me more than anything he could do to me.’
‘If he loved you, he wouldn’t hurt you,’ she said stubbornly.
‘That may be true,’ I agreed softly. ‘But I can’t give up on him’

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ava and Avery are a bonded couple from Kaya, a land where ancient magic ensures that, once bonded, one cannot live without the other. So when Avery is killed while on a mission to assassinate the evil queen of Pirenti, the northern country with which they have been at war for as long as anyone can remember, Ava is expected to die as well. But she does not, she lives on, though with only half a soul. Vengeance guides her back to Pirenti where, two years later, disguised as a boy called Avery, she is caught by the second prince, Ambrose, and sentence to life on the prison island. But when their ship is wrecked in a storm, Ambrose and Ava must work together to survive. In the process, despite their vast differences, a friendship develops. That friendship soon grows into love, even with Ambrose believing Avery is a boy - when their secrets come out, can their new-found connection survive? Is it possible to love your enemy, or love at all without betraying the man who took half your soul with him into death?

I have several problems with this book. First off, Avery is marketed as 'adult fantasy' but I cannot in good conscience call it anything other than Young Adult, despite the 'adult themes' and excessively violent, often gruesome scenes that occur. It's in the adolescent tone, the way the characters speak, especially. It's not just that they - well, the main character, Ava/Avery, in particular - sound so immature, it's that words like "whatever" and "gross" belong more to badly written teen fanfiction than published adult fantasy. That might make me sound like a snob, but it's not that - you write a novel set in another world, a fantasy world, which has its own, decidedly foreign, cultures. You cannot then make your characters sound like cliches from Clueless and hope that your fantasy world be taken seriously. The culture that created such colloquialisms as 'whatever' is not part of this world, and the effect is incredibly jarring. My ability to suspend disbelief was too often hampered by such lazy writing.

The writing is also lazy in the world-building. This was perhaps the biggest flaw of the novel. The details of this world just never quite made sense, or weren't adequately explained. Geography, as well, was out of whack. Pirenti is a northern country perhaps geographically akin to Russia or Canada; in the north are the 'ice caps', which appear to be a permanent, year-round hostile environment. Yet, at the same latitude is the prison island, which is described as a jungle. How does that work? While we're on the prison isle, world-building gaffes abound within the secret 'village' of escapee Kayan prisoners - it's not the incredible cliffside dwellings carved out of marble that they've brought from a nearby quarry that I struggled with, believe it or not, but the fact that they have glass in their windows, luxurious apartments (even for unwanted guests) and eat things like cheese. This place is home to Kayans who, they say, escaped the Pirenti prison. No one knows they're there and they can't leave. They have no animals or livestock (so, no milk for cheese), and if they want to remain undetected they would have to be careful of the amount of noise they make (quarrying for rock with no tools?? or do they use their sole Warder's magic - it's never explained what these people are actually capable of) and of smoke, say from a kiln or other super hot oven? Where do they get their clothes from, the materials for everything? All highly unlikely.

Distances and timeframes were also liberally dispensed with when required by the author to maintain her swift pacing. It all reminded me of cheesy action movies, as if they were used as the model for many of the scenes - especially the fight scenes. Plot holes abound here, too, such as when Ava escapes from a dungeon, taking not the guard's sword but his bow and arrows! A dungeon guard, carrying bow and arrows?? In the highly militaristic and violent country of Pirenti, they would know better.

I could keep going, but I think you get the drift. Really, though, this is a character-driven romantic fantasy, so I should be discussing the characters. When she isn't talking like a rather lame contemporary western teenager, Ava is solidly drawn and has some charisma, as does Ambrose. The other two main characters here are Ambrose's older brother, Thorne, and his wife Roselyn. All four alternate in first person narrative voice, and this is handled quite deftly. Roselyn is a nicely distinctive character, and Thorne is clearly a different person from Ambrose. The problem for me lies in the way domestic violence is handled. While it's wrapped up in a broader theme of power and women's rights, and while the denouement ensures that Thorne's violence towards his wife is not rewarded by the author, Roselyn's quiet, steadfast and loving loyalty to Thorne remains a distinct problem. While one fictional character should not a message make, Roselyn's refusal to leave her husband or do anything but love him makes her a difficult character to respect. That said, the characters are the strength of this novel, that and the swift pacing.

Pirenti is a violent country, so the violence does have some context, but it was a bit excessive and rather unrealistic at times. (Also, marble stains something shocking - how do you have a "killing room" lined in marble and keep it spotless?) Not being afraid of spilling blood and tearing minor characters apart does not make for a more mature novel or more sophisticated ideas. Rather, it becomes too much and, then, too ludicrous. My ability to suspend disbelief - necessary in all fiction, television and film, to varying degrees, but especially in fantasy - was tested time and time again, and often failed under the weight of plotholes, inconsistencies, over-the-top violence and I have no idea what was going on with Ambrose at the end. The romance aspect fell completely flat there (plus, it had finally started to drag by then).

A disappointing foray into a newish Australian voice in fantasy fiction, for me.

[The Urban Book Thief · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my lordy! That was the craziest ride I’ve been on for a while – I’m exhausted. Someone fetch me my Valium and a tumbler of gin! This world is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Not only is it full of bad-assery, but it’s also heartbreakingly sad and full of eloquent expressions of love, suffering and the human condition.

“I loved you when you were a man, and I love you as a woman. I see you as you are, Ave – broken into pieces and suffocating – and I love all the pieces of you, no matter how small they’ve shattered, nor how far they’ve been scattered.”

How’s that for a bit of light entertainment on a Sunday afternoon. Sheesh! From this quote you may have noticed that Ambrose (our hero) had some confusing times to deal with about his sexuality. It was that old chestnut – a plot device featuring a strikingly beautiful woman, a handful of hair pins, some strategically placed bandages, introducing herself to her enemies as a he and then falling head over heels in love with the enemy’s son. Oopsie.

Ava


Ava is Kayan, from the south of the country, where it’s warm and lush and women are given free birth to be as kick-ass as they want. Kayan’s hold a special kind of magic and spend their lives looking for their bond mate, their one true love. Ava is lucky because she meets Avery at a young age and they fall head over heels for one another. Tragedy strikes though when they enter the kingdom of their enemy, the Pirenti, to kill the barbarian Queen who has been raging war with them for years: Avery is caught and killed before her very eyes.

This should have meant instant death for Ava with their mate bond in place. But strangely, she lives on as a broken shell of her former self and plans revenge on the Queen and her villainous offspring.

Maybe if she had caught a glimpse of the studly Princes before plotting her revenge she would have changed her mind. There’s no shame in it, I definitely would have changed mine.

Ambrose


Prince Ambrose is the second son of the Queen. He’s a son of Pirenti, the cold country in the north where bloodshed and murder go hand in hand on a daily basis. To show any signs of humility or softness would mean your death. Ambrose is violent, introspective and braw with a sweet soft marshmellowy thingy going on around his major organs.

The violence of his life and his people are gradually wearing Ambrose down and he craves to live a life of his own, to be true to himself and those that he loves – his older brother Thorne and his brother’s wife Roselyn. So when his men capture Ava (or Avery as she calls herself for the first half of the book) and her assassination attempt on the Queen fails, Ambrose argues for a prison sentence rather than an execution, and as punishment he is made to transport her to their island prison himself.

Nice going evil Queenie.

The book is a non-stop adventure of thrills and spills. It will make you laugh over misunderstandings, cry over atrocities and cheer for victims to change their fate. This fantasy world is frickin’ awesome and the things this author subjects her characters to is very brave. No one gets away unscathed. No siree.

“When you first looked at Avery, you bonded with him. It was easy and simple, and it was beyond any choice you could make. But when you and I first met, we hated each other. It was slow and it was impossible, and it happened against both of our wills, despite everything that was put in its way. It was like we clawed at love with every ounce of our strength, like we held our breaths for it until no air existed in the world.”

Darn. They might bring them up all cold and haughty-like, but god are they eloquent.

Now for the downer – this book is told from four different points of view!!!! For me, this story would have been a straight five stars. No questions asked. But four points of view? There were times when I wanted to bang my head against the wall in frustration. It was just too much for me and stopped this from being truly awesome to just awesome.

Read more book reviews with The Urban Book Thief here

[Sophie Masson · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The people of Kaya die in pairs. So it is and will always be. Which is how I know, as I seep onto the cool stone flaggings, that she too will die tonight.'

From those intriguing and spine-chilling first words, I was hooked by this beautiful fantasy novel which not only delivers surprises, suspense, a magical but dark world and great action, but also a moving and powerful exploration of love,loss and second chances. Avery and Ava are lovers who are bonded together, as all Kaya lovers are; and whether that is curse or gift, no-one can decide. All that anyone knows is that without fail, if one dies, so does the other. So when on a dangerous mission together to assassinate the vicious Pirenti Queen, one of the lovers dies--so should the other. Only this time, it doesn't happen, and Ava survives..
And it's lonely, being the first of your kind to survive. So terribly lonely that in a way you become the other, the lost beloved. And all you care about is revenge. And then you fall into the hands of your sworn and bitter enemies, into the heart of the realm of Pirenti. A barbarian realm of brutality and violence, where love is seen as weakness and power is the only strength. Nothing good can ever come from these people.
Or so the Kaya have always believed.
On the other side, Prince Ambrose of Pirenti has always been taught to regard the Kaya with nothing but hatred and contempt. Violence and rage are his birthright, his duty. Or so he's always been led to believe by his harsh, cruel mother, while his brother Thorne, married to the frail, lovely Roselyn, but unable to express his love for his wife for fear of being thought a weakling, is even more invaded by the darkness that plagues the realm. But when Ambrose begins to realise that the feelings he begins to have for the captured Kaya prisoner are not at all what he expected, a chain of events is triggered which will transform all their lives, and their realms, forever. Is there a chance for love, or will it be conquered by hate?
Beautifully written and grippingly told, this first instalment of the Chronicles of Kaya sweeps the reader into an unforgettable world.

[Lej · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the second time I've read Avery and I have managed to fall even more in love with the book and characters though I thought it impossible. I give my love to Charlotte McConaghy for writing this amazing book that makes my life worth living.

August 2020 I should stop rereading books. I feel like demoting this to a three star.🙁 the moral lessons were awkward in the dialogue and thoughts, it kind of stuck out like a sore thumb.
The romantic stuff was poetic but also didn’t fit in which just made it cringey.

There were so many plot holes that really stuck out to me. Eg. Ambrose still has his sword when he is meant to be a prisoner of the Kayans. The way Ambrose and Ava casually and repeatedly just lose their guards.

I suppose a lot of the book is there for story convenience at the sacrifice of realism, which ruined my suspension of disbelief and begun to annoy me.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

Wow.

This book just had me in awe. A few flaws here and there, but just wow. However, I don't like that the second book to the series is not a continuation of Ava, but of the crown prince .

[Rox · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first reread and I love it even more!

4.5 astounded stars

How is this book still under the radar??
I adored it.

Where to even begin?

Strength wasn't in someone's perception of you - it was in your actions.

We have two kingdoms at war - the Kayans and the absolute barbaric Pirenti. And by barbaric, I am being quite literal. It is a kingdom where men challenge one another when they want what the other has, in a fight to the death. Everything they do is about strength, looking weak is not allowed. Women are oppressed and objectified, possessions and nothing more. And the most barbaric of them all and the only women not oppressed - The Barbarian Queen.
The Kayans are more cultured and a lot less sexist. The countries hate each other and have been at war for years.

"Do you know why I don't let women rule in this country?" she asked me. "Why I don't allow them any positions of power?"
She is crazy. That's all I say.

For full disclosure, the romantic element is somewhat prominent in this book in all POV's. Not at all in a sappy-make-you-cringe way, in a subtle way that has me leaning a bit more towards adult than YA. More meaningful, I guess? It's all so complicated, and love on it's own is not explored. Love and letting go. Love and forgiveness. Love and grief.
Redemption, if you will allow it.

"It's simple, being hurt. But it's complicated, loving someone."

"Who has ever loved as boldly as he does?"

There is a plot - the fate of a Kingdom. Two actually. And it is intriguing. There are crazy twists at the end that had me gaping at my Kindle.
But this book is about four people, moments that change them, and how these changes can change everything.

We have Ava, a Kayan who's bondmate has died. And somehow, she survived. Kind of.
She is a half-walker. A person with only half a soul. She does not feel emotions as she should, and cannot find joy in anything. She's been cast out by her people. She doesn't know how she survived but she can only imagine it was for one reason - to avenge her bondmate. To finish what he died trying to do.
Ava is broken and bitter. But she is also insanely fierce and unimaginably strong. And though she has her purpose of vengeance, she has given up on life.

He was looking at me like... like he could see me, like I was a real, solid person with hopes and desires, and not the ghost I'd become. He was looking at me like I deserved to be noticed.

But then somehow, she's not dead anymore. But she still wants to be.

" And then I stopped thinking about Prince Ambrose of Pirenti, because he was destroying me."

Ambrose is the second Prince of Pirenti. On the outside he represents everything a man of Pirenti 'should' be - "a man forged in iron" . But he hates it. He does not agree with the brutal ways of his kingdom.
He is the perfect example of 'actions speak louder than words.'
He doesn't let his kingdom shape him, he has become a man of his own and fights small battles to stay his own man.
I loved the friendship that develops between these two, how honest they are with one another and how subtly they support each other. Their foundation is solid.

"I keep asking myself why this happened," I told him softly. "How you and I could have possibly ended up here, together. I think I'm supposed to help you realise."
"Realise what?"
"The man you will be."

Thorne, the Crown Prince of Pirenti is a very complicated character. You are going to hate him. You are going to want to stop reading this book because of the things he does. Don't.
He is the prime Pirenti specimen because of his size, fighting abilities and characteristics- cruel, brutish and unforgiving. In other words - he is the embodiment of toxic masculinity. His behaviour had me enraged and I wanted him gone. Look, the author has given us someone to hate besides the main villain. But I see that a lot of people are equally enraged that she offered him a little redemption. It's up to you to decide whether or not he was redeemed. She didn't make him soft and lovable, and Ava certainly still hated him.
So anyone who is not reading this because of reservations regarding this specimen of toxic masculinity and the abuse in the beginning of the book - please read it! There is a redemption arc which you are free to choose whether or not you accept. This is not the main theme or character of the book and this book has so much good to offer.
And for the record, I almost ended up liking Thorne because I saw him through Rose's eyes. But I did not forgive him, or condone his actions.
His arc challenged me as a reader and definitely took me out of my comfort zone.


"And that was when I realised I wasn't the strongest man in the world after all. I was the weakest."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how else to be."

Roselyn is the purest character I have ever had the pleasure of encountering. She is extremely endearing and you will definitely want to protect her. I don't agree with the decisions she made - love does not absolve abuse - but for the circumstances she was presented I can understand her.

In order to balance out the really big wishes, I had to make sure lots of little wishes came true.

A book I will always love and recommend.

So tell me - which do you think more real? Something you didn't even choose, or something you had to fight for?

[BabyMooSaysWhat · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Review :

***** 5 STARS *****

My first glimpse of this book was in one of my fellow bloggers Goodreads 'currently reading' update feed. She had written something along the lines of not knowing if she was emotionally ready for this book. I was beyond intrigued and immediately read the synopsis and decided that I needed this book in my life, although I absolutely couldn't fathom why she wouldn't be ready for this book.

.... And then, I began to read....

And no, I most certainly was not emotionally ready for this book.

It was a sucker punch to the gut that left me gasping.

Gasping for air, gasping past the rawness on my heart, gasping past the sobs in my throat.

No matter what I say, or how much I try to explain, some of you, will just never understand that this isn't just a book. It is an all encompassing feeling that has stormed into my life and I'm not sure if I'll ever be the same.

They called this book 'a sweeping romantic fanasty'. How aptly described. It swept me of my feet and swept the air out of my lungs.

This is a book filled with all the right amounts of perilous adventure, sarcastic wit, beautiful darkness and real live messy love. The author has written a masterpiece from the characters that are dangerously broken and beautiful to the multi-character point of views to the fast paced plot all the way to the raw emotion. It's beyond anything I can justly describe.

So, was I emotionally ready for this book?

Absolutely not....

.... and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

[Jas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow I’ve never disliked a book more than this. The relationship between Ambrose and Avery seems almost Pedophilic to me. I’m sorry but Ambrose’s age was never stated but I’m just getting the this wrongness vibe. Thorne literally treats his wife like trash (spoiler but nothing to do with the actual plot: he would throw her in the dungeon or slap her for doing one tiny thing wrong and think it’s OK because he loves her.). I honestly want to go get my money back (I can’t I bought it on kindle).

I don’t expect people to share the same opinion as me (please don’t get touchy and feel the need to express your opinions in the comments- keep em to yourself)

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

- - - -

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The people of Kaya die in pairs, it's been so for thousands of years until Ava's bondmate is murdered by the barbarian queen of Pirenti and she doesn't follow. Banished for her unnaturalness, Ava disguises as her bondmate, Avery, and spends two years training to enact her revenge on the queen. Before she's able to act, she's captured by the second prince of Pirenti and is sent to the horrendous prison isle to be tortured and starved. Along the way, their boat sinks and Ava along with the prince Ambrose are the only survivors. Ambrose is determined to finish his job, but he's also battling against his duty and what is humanely right.

I had a very odd relationship with Avery. I can say for certain that the first half of the book did not impress me at all and I was very close to DNFing it. However I soldiered on and was pleasantly surprised with the turn of events and how much the characters grew into themselves. I struggled with my rating because I hated the first half, but I really enjoyed the second...so a solid 2.5 stars it is. It was good, and I would read the next book when I have the time.

Despite the synopsis, Avery actually follows the story of four characters - Ava (aka Avery), Ambrose (second prince), Thorne (crown prince) and Roselyn (Thorne's whimsical wife). Ava is from the country Kaya, where magic exists in the form of warders. The other three are from Pirenti, a barbaric loveless country that values strength and masculinity. Both countries are at war but most citizens have forgotten the reason why. I really hate it when books skimp on the historical details because it just makes me feel disconnected to the characters' thought processes and what their motivation would be to continue the war. The worldbuilding definitely left me wanting more.

While worldbuilding may be lacking, the characterisation was definitely on point. You can see a change in all four characters as the story progressed and I was truly impressed with how natural this progression was. Roselyn is the weakest of all four characters. As a female living in Pirenti, she's bound to remain subservient to her husband Thorne, who abuses her for her oddities and mistakes, thinking it's a way to teach her to improve. She's fragile and scared of everything, using a counting mechanism to keep herself from going insane. Thorne and Roselyn are complete opposites as he's the most feared person in Pirenti, having been born with berserker blood. While abusive at times, I thought his actions were at times necessary to show the way his country has shaped him as a person. The changes he goes through in understanding what love and affection is highlight the stark contrast between the Thorne at the start of the book to the Thorne at the end. Roselyn also changes a lot throughout the book as she grows into herself and starts becoming stronger. Needless to say I enjoyed their development a lot more than Ava and Ambrose's.

Ava and Ambrose ends up on the prison isle after being ship wrecked. I found it a little unbelievable as they describe the journey takes two weeks but three days into their trip and after being shipwrecked, they manage to wash up on the isle? There are a lot of small plot holes like these throughout the first half, contributing to my dislike of the beginning of the book. Fortunately as the novel progresses, Ava and Ambrose also grows to rely on each other, having each saved the other's life. There is a bit of sexy time in the book which I welcomed, and applaud the author for including. I love that more and more NA books are featuring sex in other genres like fantasy rather than contemporary romance. It's a natural part of a relationship and I personally don't think it should be considered such a taboo subject.

What I enjoyed most about the book is the resilience and strength of all the characters. Like I mentioned before, all four characters were on point. Each had their own demons to overcome and it was so nice to see that they all slowly changed the way they viewed life throughout the novel. I'm also very impressed that McConaghy was not afraid to hurt her characters and make them experience pain. It just added more realism to the dire situations they were facing.

Despite the issues I had with this book, the last half really impressed me. If you've picked up this book but faced the same issues I had with the first half, I urge you to continue because it does get better. Avery has a shaky beginning but a very solid conclusion.

Thank you to Random House Australia for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Izzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a surprised it's been categorised as YA on the side bar genres.....because Avery is NA. For sure.

I loved and hated this book all at once. It was a torturous read full of hope and pain and gruesome details. I swear I've never read a book where the characters get so.....mutilated. Not what I was expecting. I loved the beginning, but the further into the book I read, the less I enjoyed it. But nevertheless it was a powerful read.

Ava was a strong character, but sometimes I wanted to bash her head in. She was rash, and so stubborn and fixated and scared of being disloyal to Avery. But you've got to move on woman! And I got really confused because didn't she and Ambrose bond? So why. Why was she able to reject him over and over. Oh, and as for ditching him and trying to go it alone? That was such a dumb move. And she paid the price for it. With loads of burn scars. Call me a superficial person, but I couldn't see her in the same light anymore. WHY DID SHE HAVE TO GET SO BADLY SCARRED? Jeez. Also, I thought her Warder magic was going to heal the scars! o.O

Then there was Thorne and Rose. Yikes. Abuse anyone? Their POVs were a nightmare to read. Also is it just me, or were those boys Thorne ripped apart Ava's brothers? *narrows eyes*

Lastly, I'm so confused. Did or didn't Ambrose and Rose have feelings for each other?

I did like the book, but I also had so many issues with it.

2 stars

[Cee (The Mistress Case) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Official Rating: 2.5 Stars
Let's make this quick. Avery was off to a great start, but it became a chore to read.


Likes
- the bond between Kayans
- the characterization
- the WRITING STYLE
- it was easy to connect to Ava's grief and blind revenge. Wouldn't your first instinct be to hurt the person who destroyed someone you loved? Who destroyed you?


Dislikes
- lacking world-building. The only place I can picture perfectly is the throne room.
- the four perspectives: Ava, Ambrose, Throne, and Rosaline. The perspectives were insightful, but too abrupt and short. Mainly, Rosaline's attitude was distasteful because it's "courageous" and "wise" to love and stay with someone who hurts you.
- Avery left me underwhelmed. With that being said, the story felt chaotic for me. So much was happening. The violence, the manhandling, the domestic abuse, the mental impairment, the endless secrets, the plot twists, the magic, the deceit, the death rate. I'm done.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely one to read. I found it slightly similar to Sarah J Maas. I think this was to do with the fact that the main female character had such a strong personality. However this book is definitely for grown ups!

There were bits that I thought could have been better; mainly the she hates him, he hates her tug of war they had going on which tends to annoy me. Oh and randomly a third of the way through they start referring to the main antagonist by her first name as opposed to the Barbarian Queen or Ma which they had been doing for the first part. I wasn't 100% sure they were talking about the same character at first.

I also would have liked the story to continue in book 2 with Ava and Ambrose as I think it might have been tied up a bit too neatly. Overall a really good read.

[Linda G · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some people may love this book, but it's just not my cup of tea. I started out loving the premise, but I was completely distracted by the spousal abuse and flip-flopping POVs. I felt like there was a story with real epic potential here, but it was muddled with meandering (and alarming) explorations of gender roles, domestic violence, torture, grief, and patriotism. A few tragic twists and gruesome action scenes couldn't even save this for me. I won't spoil it for you in case you want to give it a try - and I hope you have better luck than me! Maybe I'm just hung up on the casual way a certain woman gets backhanded and mistreated. I'm really sad I couldn't like this book.

[Maira · Rating 5 out of 5]

At last....after a very very long period of time i cam across this fantastic fantasy book. It was a pleasure reading it and i seriously couldn't finish it fast enough. The story and characters were awesome and i couldn't be more happy about the ending of the book. It was refreshing.

[&Rea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Milujem, keď nájdem takéto neobjavené klenoty!
Rozhodne jedna z najlepších YA fantasy kníh tento rok a Charlotte sa práve zaradila medzi autorky, ktoré budem veľmi pozorne sledovať... okej, ako sa dostanem teraz k dvojke? :D

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is everything I didn’t know I needed. I wish the price wasn’t so high because so many more people would be able to read it.

[Pau]

Why did I pick up a Young Adult ROMANCE?
LOOK.AT.THAT.EYE.LINER.