Review – Compass Points (Compass Points, Book 1) by Jillian Witt (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Length: 276 pages
Publisher:‎ Myth and Magic Book Club
Release Date: November 7, 2023
ASIN: B0CGCD2S82
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Compass Points series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for Review
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Rose ran from her grief and the fae courts to a reclusive life in a remote village. When the encroaching mist plague hits too close to home, her sword proves more valuable than she could have imagined—unfortunately, the handsome fae from the market notices, too.

Deadly and determined, Luc is more than he appears. While Rose may realize she’s the continent’s best chance for survival, his plan to hide her in plain sight as his romantic partner when he drags her back to the center of fae politics might take more convincing.

Together, they’ll unravel a history of selfish gods and corrupt leaders, and Rose must decide if Luc is her enemy, ally, or more as he threatens to uncover the secrets she’s kept long buried.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Compass Points series. I got a copy of this on ebook from NetGalley for review.

Thoughts: This was okay. I struggled with this book quite a bit; it just wasn’t that engaging or interesting. The story is fairly simple, and the characters don’t have a lot of depth. It is definitely an adult book, but the writing style was more like a middle grade level. I almost stopped reading this multiple times but wanted to push through since it is a review book.

The story follows Rose, a magical weapon maker, who is living a reclusive life on an island. The world around Rose is getting slowly devoured by a mist that leaves people in a deep slumber. One day in town a man named Luc accosts Rose, begging her to make magical weapons. Then when they are attacked by the mist, Luc’s true persona is revealed. This ends up reacquiring Rose to journey with him and revisit some painful events from her youth. These are events that may help save the whole world.

There was a lot in this book that didn’t make much sense. For example, the mist puts people in a deep sleep but what happens to the people? Do they die, are they magically suspended? The book made it sound like they could be revived, but what happens to their bodies in the meantime? Do they just lay out in the wild where they dropped and magically not die from thirst, starvation, or exposure? Then the mist attacks right when Luc gets there; was this coincidence? There’s a lot of this type of thing throughout the book. It’s an almost childlike take to an adult book where we just ignore huge gaps in the story. The book does improve maybe 60-70% of the way in as we get a bit more complexity around the magic and this world.

I think this is meant to be a cozy romantasy but I never felt like the two main characters had very good chemistry. Yes, they are cute and kind to each other. They are attracted to each other as well, and they make a cute couple. There just didn’t seem to be a lot of depth to their relationship or a lot of rapport. I mean the whole book happens over a week, so not a lot of time for them to get into a relationship really.

This wasn’t an awful story, but it wasn’t that good either; to me it was one of those completely forgettable fluff books. I have absolutely no curiosity as to what happens to these characters because I never engaged with them or the world, and the plot was just too simple. I do not plan on reading future books in this series. More character depth, better world building, a more complex plot, and more descriptive writing would have helped this story a lot

My Summary (3/5): Overall the premise for this was okay but I was left disappointed. This is like an adult romantasy written at a middle grade level. The plot is incredibly simple, the characters don’t have much depth, events aren’t explained in a logical or even plausible way. I just had no engagement with the characters or story. After writing this review, I am realizing there really wasn’t much I enjoyed about this so I should probably rate it lower. However, it was fairly inoffensive and has some cute and fun moments. I guess if you are looking for a quick and shallow romantasy read this might fit the bill for you; it just didn’t work for me.