Leah’s Review of “The Executioner of Yrecep Forest” by Laura DiNovis Berry

By: Leah

Originally posted on Leah’s Books.

The Executioner of Yrecep Forest

• Author: Laura DiNovis Berry
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: August 4, 2023
• Publisher: Indies United Publishing House, LLC

Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: death, gore, blood, prejudice, murder, grief, self-mutilation, torture, violence

Plot Summary

Pesdari grew up in the Coven, a place of murder, ancient magic, and sacrifice. When an opportunity arises to escape she must make a choice — betray her only friend for a chance at freedom or face the threat of becoming a sacrifice to the gods?

Overall Impression

I love supporting indie authors, because sometimes you really find some great hidden treasures that way. In fact, several of my favorite authors are Indies. The only trouble is, you’ve got to kiss a bunch of frogs to find a prince. But when you find a good one, they tend to be really, really good. So I always try to accept as many indie offers as I’m able to, even if it takes a while for me to get around to them, which the authors are gracious about.

I went into this book without knowing too much. The summary doesn’t give a lot of information, but to be fair, the book is relatively short (only 164 pages). Instead, we’re thrown into the action right away, and introduced to two young brothers who don’t seem relevant to the story, but I promise that they are.

After that, we meet our MC, Pesdari, and get to know her. She is a part of the Coven, the only life that she’s ever known, but it isn’t the life she sees herself living forever. Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to leave the Coven, even if it’s hard to stay as part of this brutal lifestyle that she’s known her entire life. It comes down to a heartbreaking decision that she’s forced to make—stay in the Coven and risk losing her life, or try to break free but have to turn on the only friend she’s ever had.

The plot hooked me immediately, and kept me intrigued until the very end. It’s a fast-paced story, and it makes for a fast read. The characters are intriguing, and I liked seeing how they interacted with each other as well. There’s even character development, which isn’t easy to squeeze into such a short book. And the pacing felt pretty even throughout the story. As for world-building, it was intriguing and avoided info dumps, which was appreciated. The magic system was a bit confusing to me, and wasn’t explained in great detail, so I would have liked a bit more clarification there, but perhaps that would be more appropriate in a longer book.

Overall, this was a great short fantasy read that works well as a standalone, but could easily be built up into a more richly explored and detailed world as well. It delves into loss, grief, betrayal, morals, and friendships, without really getting too deeply into any of these themes because there wasn’t enough time in this novella. There were a number of spelling and grammatical issues that took me out of the story, and I felt that the book could have benefited from a more thorough proofreading job, but other than that, I highly recommend this short, immersive story. And the cover is absolutely stunning.