Uprooted (Book)

This thing exists wow!!

Last December I participated in a Secret Santa on the Books and Tea Discord server and my lovely Santa got me Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I had been interested in it for quite a while and last month I finally got around to reading it... And oh my god I loved it so much! Enough to bother writing about it to get all my excitement out of my system lol. This isn't trying to be like a review or even make sense, so good luck dealing with my rambling!

Agnieszka loves her village, set deep in a peaceful valley. But the nearby enchanted forest casts a shadow over her home. Many have been lost to the Wood and none return unchanged. The villagers depend on an ageless wizard, the Dragon, to protect them from the forest's dark magic. However, his help comes at a terrible price. One young village woman must serve him for ten years, leaving all they value behind. Agnieszka fears her dearest friend Kasia will be picked at the next choosing, for she's everything Agnieszka is not - beautiful, graceful and brave. Yet when the Dragon comes, it's not Kasia he takes.

As I already said, I loved Uprooted a lot and it's probably my new favorite book. All the characters were great in their own ways (except maybe Marek, but when you really think about it he was the perfect mama's boy so there's that). Agnieszka and the Dragon were great, one being the king of snark (the Dragon has a permanent case of "I'm surrounded by idiots") and the other one just not caring and then there's Kasia who I just picture as a beautiful warrior sylvari really. The villain of the book was basically just a huge evil forest that corrupts anyone who makes the mistake of walking in there, so can't get much scarier than that.

The way magic worked in the book was really cool and the spell workings were always so beautifully described. I liked that all witches and wizards seemed to have their own thing when it came to magic, and the Dragon and Agnieszka especially couldn't have had more different styles. Nieshka was all about improvising while the Dragon loves his specific instructions and it was great to see how well their magic worked together anyway. I probably paid a little too much attention to their relationship in general because I knew there was going to be a romance I spent half the book expecting them to get it on but it was great watching Agnieszka to go from just a little peasant girl to pretty much equal ground with her wizard lord and everything. Her and Kasia's relationship was something I definitely should have appreciated a little more too because those two would probably do anything for each other.

I've seen a lot of people saying some parts of the book feel slow but I have spent so much time reading the Outlander books lately that after the story really kicked off it felt like things were happening almost a little too fast. "Okay we're okay now... NOPE. Another twist!" The story could have probably easily been two or three books but it was pretty perfect as a standalone too, because there weren't really any loose ends or unanswered questions. It did leave me wanting more though, simply because I'm romance trash. Send help.