Hello friends, happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a great week so far! Today I’m posting my review of Rachel Hartman’s novel, Tess of the Road.

Tess of the Road by: Rachel Hartman: In Goredd, a very old fashioned town, is where Tess lives with her family. They are taught that women are ladies and men are their protectors, meanwhile dragons can be who they want. Tess is not a lady and does things her way, this is what has gotten her into trouble on multiple occasions. Her family feel the only way to deal with her is forcing her to the nunnery. Tess despises that plan, so the day she is set to join, she runs away. Only she’s not running away but toward something; something she has yet to find. The title of this novel truly tells the story of what this book is about. As much as the reader really enjoyed reading about Tess on her journey to find herself; this felt like it went in and on and on. The reader liked the plot; they liked reading this expedition that Tess found herself on. She didn’t know where she was going, nor did she have to know, but it was really beautiful to see her through all these different places and figuring out who she was as she did this. It was great character development because the reader felt like they really got to know her. She started off as a very one dimensional and predictable character, to a very rounded and multi-dimensional one. That was what the reader really loved about this, and seeing Tess at the end, actually chose herself instead of falling back on old habits, was so good to see. What the reader didn’t care for, was how long this felt. It wasn’t like Tess went to one or two places and did things there, no she went to at least three or more and it just made this plot drag. The writing was fast-paced, which was good because it helped us move through the story, but it didn’t stop it from carrying on for as long as it did. It felt like we read a few books in this one volume. Each place held a different experience for Tess, which, again, was great for her character. The way this ended has the reader curious where the sequel is going to go. Is Tess going to go back home, and if she does, what is going to happen now that she has all this life experience on the road. Lastly, this also took place in the same world as Hartman’s Seraphina duology, it was really good to see Seraphina again. Knowing that there were dragons and other mythical creatures made this a fun read, but sometimes the world building lacked a bit, but that’s not going to stop this reader from picking up the sequel. As for this novel, it was well done, the reader just thought it was a lot to take in, in one book.