The Tiger’s Watch by Julia Ember
Sixteen-year-old Tashi has spent their life training as a inhabitor, a soldier who spies and kills using a bonded animal. When the capital falls after a brutal siege, Tashi flees to a remote monastery to hide. But the invading army turns the monastery into a hospital, and Tashi catches the eye of Xian, the regiment’s fearless young commander.
Tashi spies on Xian’s every move. In front of his men, Xian seems dangerous, even sadistic, but Tashi discovers a more vulnerable side of the enemy commander—a side that draws them to Xian.
When their spying unveils that everything they’ve been taught is a lie, Tashi faces an impossible choice: save their country or the boy they’re growing to love. Though Tashi grapples with their decision, their volatile bonded tiger doesn’t question her allegiances. Katala slaughters Xian’s soldiers, leading the enemy to hunt her. But an inhabitor’s bond to their animal is for life—if Katala dies, so will Tashi.
I received this a copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I was so excited about this book. The plot line was what drew me into reading this book. I love reading books that incorporate animals and magic so I clicked on this so quick when I saw it on Netgalley.
Very early in this book I discovered that our main character Tashi is non binary and that was awesome and I really loved seeing the rep and They were really well fleshed out. I liked that Tashi was who they wanted to be and the plotline/ biggest struggle wasn’t about their identity. Tashi was a really interesting character to read about they had a lot of character development in this book even thought it was only about 180 pages.
Besides, Tashi the next character I was really interested in was Xian. Xian I have mixed feeling about much like Tashi but while reading this book I really felt like he reminded me of Prince Zuko for Avater: The Last Airbender. Who I adore and I am really curious to see more of him through out the this series. I felt like he has a lot of hidden pieces inside of him and I’m really excited to how his character develops.
I really liked the concept of Inhibators! Bonding to and animal for life and only having their life span is really unique but I didn’t really understand why they could or would want to. We get a little bit of information on how they are able to but we never understood why they do. Again the book was really short which I feel is probably why we didn’t get all of the explanations that I wanted.
The pacing of this book was pretty quick. We immediately started the book off with action and there was always a lot going on which was why I read this in one sitting. However I feel like the book ended rather abrupt and felt like one story was written and they randomly picked a place in the story and chopped it there to keep the reader wanting to read the next book(s).
With all of that being said I really enjoyed this one and I recommend it! It was really fasted paced and easily a one sitting read. The next book is told from a different point of view and I’m really curious to see the world from their eyes.
I gave this book a 3.5 stars out of 5 stars.
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
