Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller Published by Feiwel & Friends on February 26, 2019
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Epic, Romance, General
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
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Goodreads
An eighteen-year-old chieftain's daughter must find a way to kill her village’s oppressive deity if she ever wants to return home in Warrior of the Wild, the Viking-inspired YA standalone fantasy from Tricia Levenseller, author of Daughter of the Pirate King. How do you kill a god?
As her father's chosen heir, eighteen-year-old Rasmira has trained her whole life to become a warrior and lead her village. But when her coming-of-age trial is sabotaged and she fails the test, her father banishes her to the monster-filled wilderness with an impossible quest: To win back her honor, she must kill the oppressive god who claims tribute from the villages each year or die trying.
Why Did I Read?
This one had the sound of a survival story in the wild with fantasy elements and I was all about that! I was at Tricia’s signing when she toured for this book and she talked about Rasmira being a total bad ass axe wielding warrior and I was sold!
My Thoughts:
If you are hankering for a standalone fantasy, this is it! It’s not often we have a well rounded fantasy standalone so I’m always excited when that happens. I love series! But sometimes it’s nice to read a standalone.
Rasmira is the fiercest warrior and rocks an axe likes nothing else. Her battle prowess has her all set to take over as her town’s leader to succeed her father. However, her trial to take that position was sabotaged and now she’s exiled and tossed out into the wild, alone. A god lives out there, a monstrous entity that tithes each of the towns painfully each year. Her task if she wants to return is to kill said god. It’s essentially an impossible mission, one given as a death sentence to the exiled person but Ras is determined to complete it and earn her way back.
Her determination to take on what everyone in her village thought was impossible is one of the things I loved most about Ras. She faces each obstacle in front of her as a challenge to be dissected and completed one step at a time. She figures out the problem and comes up with a solution. She is undaunted and resilient. I rooted for her the entire way!
She meets two others out in the wilderness and I really enjoyed as she begrudgingly became friends with Soren and Iric. The evolution of their relationship was great and I so loved Soren’s cinnamon roll dedication to Ras. Her closeness with the two of them out in the wild when they have no one to depend on but each other contrasts sharply with her experience with her family and “friends” back home. I loved the depiction of her closeness with her sisters and was also furious at her parents.
The fantasy aspect of this world was very interesting to me and I was constantly intrigued by the different creatures that are revealed in the story. It’s an imaginative and lush setting that kept me engaged the entire time! I thought the story of the god and Ras’ mission was clever and well done – I only wish the end hadn’t felt so abrupt to me! I wanted maybe a tiny bit more at the end, but also that may just be the fact that I read too many series and am not used to standalones! Ha.
In Short…
A well told standalone fantasy featuring an independent badass heroine trying to conquer the wild: recommended if you love strong MCs, survival stories, fantasy settings and strong friendships.
My Rating: 
Have you read this one? What were your thoughts? Do you have any fantasy standalone favorites? Do you prefer standalones typically or series?
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A fantasy stand alone is a rare breed! Rasmira sounds totally fierce. I love reading about such strong, determined female leads.
Awww I love your header!
I’m always so wary of fantasy standalones but a lot of the recent ones skimp on something, whether it’s character development or wordlbuilding. It’s nice to find an exception!
Thank you!! I love it so much too 🙂 Yes – it’s so tricky for a standalone fantasy! There’s just so much to cover in one book.
This sounds like a fun read and I just may read this one, your review has me very interested.
I love this cover and this book sounds interesting. Great review!
Totally agree with you here! I didn’t expect to love this one quite as much as I did! The characters were great, and I love a good survival story, so that was a very happy surprise! Great review!
I’m pretty sure I have an ARC of this one that I never got around to reading. #fail
But yes!! I’m all for more standalone fantasies so I should read this soon. And ooh, it’s got creatures? I’m down for that!