Blog Tour and ARC Review: Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin

“Be dauntless, for the hopes of the People rest in you.” 

Seri’s world is defined by very clear rules: The beasts prowl the forest paths and hunt the People. The valiant explore the unknown world, kill the beasts, and gain strength from the armor they make from them. As an assistant to Eshai Unbroken, a young valor commander with a near-mythical reputation, Seri has seen first-hand the struggle to keep the beasts at bay and ensure the safety of the spreading trees where the People make their homes. That was how it always had been, and how it always would be. Until the day Seri encounters Tsana. 

Tsana is, impossibly, a stranger from the unknown world who can communicate with the beasts – a fact that makes Seri begin to doubt everything she’s ever been taught. As Seri and Tsana grow closer, their worlds begin to collide, with deadly consequences. Somehow, with the world on the brink of war, Seri will have to find a way to make peace.  

• Title: Dauntless
• Author: Elisa A. Bonnin
• Publisher: Swoon Reads
• Publication Date: August 2nd, 2022
• Genre: Fantasy, LGBTQ+ 
• Source: Digital ARC via Netgalley / Publishers in exchange for an honest review
• Targeted Age Range: Young Adult
• Content Warnings: Abuse (physical, implied emotional), animal death, blood, violence, death, loss of a parent, loss of a loved one, murder, prejudice, illness, mind control (mentioned), animal cruelty (culling is mentioned and hunting is a common practice), descriptions of poverty and homelessness (character backstory), descriptions of starvation (character backstory), PTSD, gore
• Rating: ★★★★★

A huge thank you to Elisa A. Bonnin, Swoon Reads, and YourTitaKate for having me kick off this blog tour! You can head over to YourTitaKate to see the rest of the tour stops!

I have had Dauntless at the top of my TBR since October 2020, so to say that I am buzzing with excitement over the release date being just around the corner and receiving an ARC is an absolute understatement. As a kid, I don’t remember ever reading a book that had a Filipino protagonist, so any book that not only is written by a Filipino author but also features Filipino characters is an automatic read for me. Additionally, Elisa A. Bonnin is one of the kindest authors I’ve had the fortune of interacting with, and I just am so excited for her debut novel to be out into the world. 

And what a debut novel it is! Elisa is a born storyteller. Once I started reading I could not put this book down because I was simply captivated by it! The beginning of Dauntless is a little slow, but once you’ve learned about this world you see why. Bonnin takes time to explain how the world she’s created works, the dynamics and social standings, as well the challenges that the valiants/valor — a group of warriors from the known world — face. I am a firm believer that in order to have a good fantasy novel, you need to have detailed and specific world building. I don’t want to spend the entire story confused about what is going on because there are holes in the world building — Dauntless delivered on my fantasy story world building expectations and then some. It’s so clear that Bonnin spent a lot of time fully fleshing out this world, and I really appreciate her specificity! 

Truthfully, I could talk for hours about the intricacies of this world because I’m so fascinated by it. I’m already dying to do a reread so that I can immerse myself in it again — and I’ll for sure be annotating once I receive my physical copy! My favorite part of the world building was the valor itself; there’s just so much there. I love the small details, like how in order to get their armor, a valiant must kill 5 beasts, and then 5 kills become part of their armor. I also thought it was so cool that the armor grows and changes with the valiant and appears as a representation of what is truly in their heart. I was so drawn to that while reading and am still completely fascinated!

I can’t lie, sometimes I get super bored by battle scenes, not just in books, but in television/movies as well. I feel like they can drag out and become repetitive, but it didn’t feel that way with Dauntless. I thought that Bonnin did a great job of writing clear and descriptive battle scenes that were packed with action to keep the reader interested but didn’t make them too long. The battle towards the end especially had me on the edge of my seat and holding my breath because I was so nervous.

“When we become valiants, they tell us to be dauntless. They tell us we are the future of the people. but every single one of you is valiant’s whether or not you’ve gained your armor”

Oh, how I just absolutely loved these characters. Seri is such a wonderful main character, and so endearing. At the beginning of the book, Seri is clearly running from demons of her past and has a lot of PTSD because of what she went through. You can see that she’s a young girl who is lost and simply looking for a place to belong. I loved how the valor embraced her, even before she started her training. I was especially fond of the relationship that she built with Eshai — the commander of the valiant Seri is part of — and I loved her scenes with Raya.

It was wonderful to read Seri discover more about herself as she discovered more about the unknown world, and how her connection to Tsana led to a whole new world opening up to her. I loved that Tsana was on a similar path to Seri, but as the two had different backgrounds, their experiences and reactions to certain events really differed because of that. I thought that the two of them were very sweet together, and I really enjoyed how their relationship progressed.

While I loved Seri, my favorite character was Eshai. It’s so clear to see why Eshai is their leader – she’s strong, determined, intelligent and has a presence about her that you can’t help but respect. Whenever there’s some sort of army commander, or a character with that type of role, I always say that that character is done well if I would willingly follow them into battle. Well, let me tell you, I 100% would follow Eshai into battle, no question about it. She clearly deeply cares so much about valiant that she’s with, and she is confident without being arrogant. I just really loved her. 

And don’t even get me started on Lavit. Lavit my BELOVED. He brought some really nice comedic moments when things started to get a little too heavy, but he was never used as only the comedic relief or like he didn’t take things seriously. He was really good at reading people and their emotions, and was just so likable! I also absolutely loved Eshai and Lavit, I was fully invested in their relationship and would read a book about the two of them in a heartbeat.

I thought that the ending did a great job of wrapping up the story, but it also left things a bit open ended, so Elisa, if you’re thinking about possibly writing a sequel…I would not be opposed to that! 

If you want a fantasy book filled with strong female characters, please look no further, Dauntless is the novel for you! 

Links for Dauntless: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound