Full Review by mthombs
I received an advanced copy of this book from Pen Pinery in exchange for an honest review, and I am left feeling pretty torn about it. Tell Me: Reign of Krovavy by Layla Cornell is a solid 3-star read for me. It is a very middle-of-the-road book that has an incredible amount of potential and is actually really well-written, but the execution just didn't totally hit the mark.
The setup is what initially hooked me. The story follows Talia, a widow who gets assigned to a brutal mountain soldier named Timur—known as "the Bloody One"—after a massive force invades and uses a cold, calculated AI system to pair people up. I absolutely loved Talia as a main character. She is smart, practical, and has a quiet strength that makes you root for her survival. The author does an amazing job setting the scene, too. The cold, harsh mountain environment feels incredibly real and atmospheric, and the writing style itself is beautiful and kept me turning the pages.
Where the book lost me a bit was the main relationship and the pacing. This is a very dark story, and Timur is incredibly cold and harsh. He doesn't really soften or change, which made it hard for me to feel any genuine connection between them, and it made the romance feel pretty one-sided. On top of that, the middle of the book felt like it was dragging a bit with the day-to-day survival stuff, only to end on a massive, abrupt cliffhanger just as the plot finally started moving.
Overall, it is a well-written book with a great concept, and the author clearly has a lot of talent. It just didn't quite come together perfectly for me. If you like really dark, gritty survival stories with zero sugar-coating, it is definitely worth giving a shot, but for me, it lands right in the middle.