I soft DNF this back in May. I was overly stressed out and I thought after reading the first chapter or so that I was going to like it but I didn't have time for it.
Interestingly, I thought from that first chapter or so that I knew where this story was going. It actually seemed like a fairly predictable romantasy where the exiled girl and the guard assigned to make sure she stayed exiled would fall in love an escape. I was ready for that.
But no.
The exiled girl stays exiled. And our first plot twist emerges just pages into this tome. I should have realized at that point that this was not your average "Romantasy" where the Main Male character burns the world down for his love. I didn't.
Instead, our main character is the woman who penned the exile order. Not the woman who decided she should be exiled. Simply the woman who created the documents for the task. In this day an age where a lot of people bark out that they were "just doing their job" the repercussions of this one act of "doing her job" are interesting to examine as they unfold over time.
But, I digress a bit. This is really a bit of an EPIC fantasy novel. It is over 600 pages, and because I had a 2 week audiobook loan, I listened to this one pretty much non-stop to be sure I could return it on time. In the end, I put all other projects aside to finish because I wanted to know what happened and returned the book 9 days early. It really was that good.
Readers are taken to a land where dragon magic is real, wild and dangerous. We arrive as seven exceptional warriors, philosophers, strategists are joining a traditional series of trials to replace the current ruler. Each competitor represents the best of their "house". Houses are tied to various animals and it's said that the people reflect the values/skills/attributes of their animals. If that all sounds a bit strange, well- it is, but it works, and the best thing to do is just jump in and enjoy the journey. Ultimately each contender- and the people aligned with the contenders are all seeking power.
Who will win? What will winning look like? What will be the cost of the win? Will it be worth it?
5/5 stars I wish I had read this one sooner.
STATS
First Published 4/15/2025
Pages: 672
Available as an Audio Book : ~ 24 hrs
Trigger Warnings: violence, blood, body injury, death, Genocide, Xenophobia, drug use, mild sexual innuendo, death of child, death of parent, supernatural animals.
(this is not a full list, read responsibly)
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