This Boundary Will Not Bind Us: Night Gem by Erica Xenne (Book Review)

This Boundary Will Not Bind Us by Erica Xenne with Elliott Lash – Details

Book Title: This Boundary Will Not Bind Us
Book Author: Erica Xenne with Elliott Lash
Series: Night Gem, Book 1
Date Published: February 21, 2022
Number of Pages: 787
My Rating: ★★★★

Night Gem – Summary

In the dystopian society of Ynas, young Aera feels like she is different. Against all odds, she befriends two other people who feel similarly. A boy named Cyrrus who wants to be worshiped as a God one day and a mysterious woman named Vaye.

While the rest of society chants “We are all the same,” Aera is able to learn secrets about the world that challenge everything she’s been taught.

Night Gem- Book Review

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book grabbed my attention right from the start. It opens with Vaye, a mysterious healer, saving the life of our main character Aera when she is a very young child. Vaye immediately knows more about Aera’s destiny than she is willing to share and this is just the beginning of the mystery of Vaye. Of the whole book, the mysterious Vaye is my favorite character.

Aera grows up living among her peers, but never feeling a connection with or acceptance among them. One day, she does notice that one of her peers, Cyrrus, seems to feel the same unjust feelings about society that she does. The two quickly become friends and start sharing secret knowledge with eachother.

For the most part, Cyrrus teaches Aera. He wants to one day rule Ynas and be worshiped as a God. He’s arrogant but Aera does learn a lot from him and she seems to love him despite her annoyance with his attitude.

For the most part, I liked this book. I thought the world was really well developed and that the histories of different societies were really intriguing. I believed the feelings that Aera felt and really enjoyed reading her story and watching her develop as a character as she grew older.

The pacing was good until Cyrrus started teaching Aera how to read a secret language found in a banned book. The details of the languages and knowledge of other societies were so detailed, that I was taken away from the story and lost in trying to remember everything I was reading. I think the main points could have been hit upon without so much depth, but I do praise the authors for giving so much here. They really took time to build a well thought out world.

I didn’t know when I first started reading this that it would be a part of a series. In my opinion, 787 pages is too long for a book that just ends on a cliffhanger. Book #2 isn’t out yet and I normally try not to read a series if I have to wait a long time for the next book. Personally, I would have enjoyed if the information about all of the different societies was shorter here and filled in more during the next books in the series, placed in where they are needed.

Also, the footnotes aren’t clickable. Normally I don’t worry about footnotes, but in this book, there were parts that were in another language and the translation was given as a footnote. It was meant to be read to fully understand this book. Because I was given this book as a PDF, it was difficult for me to go back and forth between sections, so I ended up skipping the translations and other important footnotes.

Again, overall, I liked the story. I liked the characters. They were well developed. Even the characters I didn’t like had substance to them and were developed well. I didn’t like them because I wasn’t supposed to like them. I really enjoy reading books where you know the author poured their heart into the story. This author definitely did that.