Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! How are you all today? I hope you’re good!

Today I’m back with a review for you guys. And oh boy did I love this book!

And now without further ado, let’s start with this post!

Synopsis (Goodreads)

The task is simple: don a disguise. Survive the Labyrinth. Best the boys.

In a thrilling new fantasy from the bestselling author of the Storm Siren Trilogy, one girl makes a stand against society and enters a world made exclusively for boys.

Every year for the past fifty-four years, the residents of Pinsbury Port have received a mysterious letter inviting all eligible-aged boys to compete for an esteemed scholarship to the all-male Stemwick University. The poorer residents look to see if their names are on the list. The wealthier look to see how likely their sons are to survive. And Rhen Tellur opens it to see if she can derive which substances the ink and parchment are created from, using her father’s microscope.

In the province of Caldon, where women train in wifely duties and men pursue collegiate education, sixteen-year-old Rhen Tellur wants nothing more than to become a scientist. As the poor of her seaside town fall prey to a deadly disease, she and her father work desperately to find a cure. But when her mum succumbs to it as well? Rhen decides to take the future into her own hands—through the annual all-male scholarship competition.

With her cousin, Seleni, by her side, the girls don disguises and enter Mr. Holm’s labyrinth, to best the boys and claim the scholarship prize. Except not everyone is ready for a girl who doesn’t know her place. And not everyone survives the deadly maze.

Welcome to the Labyrinth

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Title – To Best the Boys
Author – Mary Weber
Publisher – Thomas Nelson
Genre – Fantasy/Young Adult
Release date – March 19th, 2019

Trigger Warning – dead bodies, violence
Edition – Hardcover (Fairyloot)
Pages – 314
Language – English

What I liked

Where to start? Well as it’s usual for me I will start with the writing style. This was such a great one to be honest. I loved every single word of this book and I didn’t have any problems understanding whatsoever. Weber did such an amazing job with this book and I’m so glad that it was in one of the Fairyloot Boxes!

To Best the Boys had a female badass of a main character. Rhen was one of my favorite characters and I can‘t get over her. She‘s amazing, she‘s smart, she doesn‘t care what others think of her (especially men) and she wants to become a scientist which is probably not a normal career trait for a woman in that period of time or in the province where Rhen lives. She is also a great friend and would do everything to protect them. Well sometimes she comes up with stupid ideas but nobody‘s perfect right?

Another thing I liked was the concept of this book. I‘ve never read anything comparable to To best the boys and the only thing I have to add is that it was such a great story!

What I didn’t like

Nothing!

Favourite Character

Rhen

Overall, I’d recommend this book to beginners in the fantasy genre. It isn‘t difficult to understand the main worldbuilding. I haven’t read the Maze Runner series but I suppose that this was kind of similar. If you enjoyed that one you will probably also enjoy To Best the boys.

And this is everything for this review! How about you? Have you read To Best the Boys or are you planning on reading it soon? Please let me know in the comments below!

The cover and information about the book come from their respective Goodreads page.