Fortuna Sworn by K.J. Sutton Review

Fortuna Sworn 

by K.J. Sutton

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Fortuna Sworn is the last of her kind.

Her brother disappeared two years ago, leaving her with no family or species to speak of. She hides among humans, spending her days working at a bar and her nights searching for him. The bleak pattern goes on and on… until she catches the eye of a powerful faerie.

He makes no attempt to hide that he desires Fortuna. And in exchange for her, he offers something irresistible. So Fortuna reluctantly leaves her safe existence behind to step back into a world of creatures and power. 

It soon becomes clear that she may not have bargained with her heart, but her very life. 

*I was sent this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.*

 

Fortuna Sworn is a book I was kindly sent for review that I couldn’t resist. It seemed right up my alley. Fantasy novels about Fae are really all it takes to grab my attention and I was looking forward to this book for several weeks while working my way through my TBR. 

The story kicks off and introduces the main character, Fortuna Sworn herself, in a stressful, dangerous situation that was meant to give readers an immediate, brief understanding of her supernatural abilities and character. While I understood what I was supposed to get from that introduction, it fell flat for me. Firstly, *minor, minor spoilers—barely a spoiler* no aspect of the stressful situation in the first chapter became relevant in the rest of the story. It was mostly used for two characters meeting for the first time. For a dangerous, high intensity situation, it felt less than dangerous and intense—it felt quick, easy, and like the point of the whole scene was that meeting between the two characters. This could’ve been fine if the rest of the scene had gripped me, convinced me of the danger and really showcased Fortuna’s ability in a way that impressed or surprised me. There’s a point to every scene but every aspect of the scene besides the main point should still seem relevant to the reader. While this first chapter was decent and laid out the basics of the world, it didn’t deliver the impact I’d expect from a scene like that. To hear the chapter’s events described simply, it may sound eventful but it didn’t hook me. Also, the initial bargain that set the story in motion was one-sided in Fortuna’s favor; it was never made clear why Collith made the offer.

Unfortunately, this unimpactful-event feeling continued throughout the novel. There was a problem with pacing that never really righted itself. Too much time was spent describing Fortuna’s coworkers at a restaurant and other duller moments but any time there was anything remotely important happening plot-wise, it was over too quickly. It wasn’t just a matter of pacing and time spent on plot points, it was that the important plot points had no real impact. Everything unfolded quickly and conveniently, to the point where many aspects of the novel came off as unbelievable. There are tasks that Fortuna must complete that are supposed to be so difficult that no faerie had been able to do them (at least recently—it wasn’t made clear when the last time someone was successful) yet when the time for the tasks came, they didn’t inspire any anticipation, suspense or concern in me and were completely rushed. There was absolutely no impact on the reader—they lacked a sense of real danger necessary to make readers care which felt extremely unbelievable seeing as Fortuna is not a faerie. Being a Nightmare could’ve explained this but her power felt unremarkable. So many times something important that should’ve been huge for the story had no weight. I took issue especially with solutions or valuable information that came out of nowhere at the right time. They weren’t mentioned, hinted at or alluded to for the reader’s benefit and only came up when it was the exact solution that Fortuna needed and it lined up just so. Details that are going to come into play in a major way need to be made known, or mentioned at least, to the reader beforehand for them to have any impact at all.

Predictability was an issue with this novel. Overall, this story didn’t go anywhere I hadn’t expected it to. The plot followed a familiar path and aspects I didn’t necessarily see coming didn’t actively surprise me or take the overall story in a direction I didn’t anticipate, which was disappointing. There was only one reveal I didn’t see coming that actually surprised me. It’s worth mentioning that there are a couple of extremely specific ideas and events within this book that I’ve read before in a popular YA fantasy series that went past common trope scenarios and therefore didn’t read as very original.

I took issue with the book ending where it did. It felt like an abrupt ending and one that didn’t quite fit the story. I am trying to avoid spoilers and will keep this as vague as possible, but the twist was not a fitting ending because it focused on a character that had basically no impact on other characters or the story at all. Was it surprising? Yes. Was it a relevant ending to the story? No. I don’t feel that this story wrapped up satisfactorily and, while a cliffhanger is a great way to grab readers’ attention, it needs to be relevant to the story you just spent several hundred pages telling. Besides the cliffhanger, I think there were too many loose ends and unanswered questions. The whole situation with Oliver was an interesting one that made me want to know more but it didn’t go anywhere and wasn’t explained and ultimately disappointed.

There wasn’t much I liked about these characters, but that doesn’t mean I hated them. I could certainly see people enjoying reading their story, however I found them typical and archetypal. Fortuna is someone I think fans of YA fantasy will recognize and possibly like. She’s got some attitude, which I like, but I just didn’t think she lived up to the way her power was described. She’s the last of her kind, she’s someone who grew up knowing about creatures like Fae, goblins, etc. all her life yet when it came down to it, she didn’t seem very intelligent about how to handle her situation. She agreed to things too readily and didn’t think things through which would’ve been fine if it had been a chaotic situation but I found her like this throughout the novel. Also, I was underwhelmed by her magical power. She didn’t use it as much as I would’ve liked, the faeries around her didn’t have the reaction that would’ve made sense since her power is rare and dangerous, and when she did use it, it wasn’t as brutal or, frankly, powerful as I’d expected. There were several examples when she used her power and it had pretty impressive outcomes but the problem was that it wasn’t believable or even logical based on the nature of her power or who she was dealing with. As for the other characters, they felt underdeveloped and two dimensional. I felt we never really got to know enough about them, especially Collith, who was another main character. He wasn’t totally unlikeable, but I mostly felt indifferent. He was inconsistently written, not an inconsistent character. He came off a certain way in the beginning–a little smug, confident, powerful–but lost all trace of who I’d thought he was not long into the book. He faded to something of a background character, with little to do or say that mattered. Had a change is his personality been shown as character development as Fortuna got to know him, it would’ve made sense. As it was, it just felt like an abrupt shift that didn’t match who he had been. Aside from being archetypal, I felt that nearly no other character did enough for the story. They didn’t move the plot along and only felt integral to Fortuna’s decision making process but had no agency of their own.

The world building in Fortuna Sworn was underdeveloped. I was excited and hopeful at the beginning because I think the basics of this world are great, if typical. Beings such as Fae, goblins, Nightmares, etc. are all known as Fallen and are descended from angels. They live among us in the modern human world or have their own world alongside ours, there’s a black market among them and a lot of potential for a vibrant, interesting, captivating world. However, that world was never fully delved into. It felt like readers were given just as much as we needed when we needed it, which left the wider world of Fae mostly untapped. I even had a difficult time picturing the setting of the majority of this story as it wasn’t described in detail. Physical world descriptions aside, there was also a severe lack of culture. Fortuna was among faeries nearly the whole book, living within the Unseelie Court, but I learned little about them as a people. In fantasy, culture and world building bring the book to life and are necessary for taking the reader fully into the world you’ve created. It was disappointing to learn, understand and see so little of the world Fortuna Sworn took place in. 

I could absolutely see many readers enjoying the writing, but it wasn’t to my taste and did little to really sweep me away. It often felt a bit stilted and, again, so affected other aspects of the story that it was difficult to sink into. It relied on somewhat cliched description and prose. More description would’ve enhanced the reading experience for more than just purposes of world building. I also think the writing failed to convey connections with characters that make a reader truly invested. I didn’t know any character well enough and felt that sometimes Fortuna’s relationships and opinions were difficult to keep track of. Several times I had to ask myself, “What’s going on with this character?” which means whatever interactions Fortuna had with that character hadn’t been memorable and didn’t convey the significance it was later treated with. Aside from having more meaningful interactions to begin with, this could’ve also been remedied by just having more interactions between characters to create the correct impression on readers. 

I was disappointed by this book. It had great potential but relied too much on tropes and archetypal characters and lacked the world building that could’ve brought it to life. I failed to connect with any of the characters, which made really caring about their story difficult. 

2/5

Thanks for reading, 

Madison