The Life Siphon book review [ARC]

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Life Siphon by Kathryn Sommerlot
Published by NineStar Press on May 20, 2019
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads

A magical energy drain is siphoning life from the land and leaving a twisted, decaying wasteland in its wake.

Safely isolated in his forest home, Tatsu wants nothing to do with the drain or the other citizens in the kingdom of Chayd. The only people he cares about are his childhood friend and her strangely prophetic sister, but there’s no avoiding the threat once Tatsu is arrested and taken to the capital. The Queen of Chayd offers Tatsu his freedom—but only in exchange for sneaking into the neighboring kingdom of Runon and stealing whatever is powering the siphon.

Ravenous trees and corrupted predators lie between Tatsu’s team and their prize, but the drain’s destruction is nothing compared to Runon’s high mages, determined to protect their weapon. As the truth of the siphon’s power reveals itself, Tatsu faces an impossible question: how much is he willing to sacrifice to save one man’s life?

What if that one man could destroy everything?

(This revision includes an important new first chapter, previously unreleased.)

I have been on such a good run with my Netgalley requests this month. The Life Siphon was a brilliant read, I really enjoyed the character development and the magic system. I did think there were parts of the story that were definitely underplayed and seemed to have a lot of potential that wasn’t really tapped into. I would have really liked to have given this story 5 stars but this really hindered the way the story flowed. I think the way the plot ends up playing out was definitely different from what I was expecting. The ending was a little cliche but extremely satisfying, I think I’ll definitely be picking up the second in the series. Fingers crossed it holds up against this one.

I think the range of characters within The Life Siphon is my favourite part of the book. My only wish was that there had been more about each of them. I would have loved an in-depth back story for each of them especially as they are spending so much time travelling with each of them. I do think that the way the sexuality of the characters was handled was forced, I would have liked for things to have progressed naturally without the explanations. My favourite character was definitely Ral, I loved her involvement in the story and I’m so intrigued to see where her storyline ends up.

Watching the group walking through the Weeping Forest was one of my best bits. I loved the description about the absence of life and the trees hunger. It was really cleverly done and I would have loved for there to have been more based around that. My other best bits are any that involve Tatsu and Ral, I loved their relationship, especially the amount of patience he has for her and the time he takes to teach her about day-to-day things. It was not only heartwarming to see but also a realistic depiction of life. I don’t want to spoil The Life Siphon for anyone but the big battle was one of my favourites.

These are the reasons why The Life Siphon did not get a 5-star rating… the first one being that I had sussed the twist from the prologue. There was a moment where I thought I had it wrong but alas no. I also mentioned sexuality in this book and how I thought it was a little forced, it was almost like a disclaimer and kinda ruined the rest of the book, I feel like there was no need for the conversation to happen and it didn’t really fit in with the rest of the book. I wanted it to be natural and occur because of chemistry.

I would recommend The Life Siphon, definitely. The story held my attention and the characters were interesting and well rounded. I really want to pick up the next one to find out where they all end up and how everything works itself out. I have my theories but we will have to wait and see.

Have you read The Life Siphon? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!