Kamilah Cole constructed a world with all the home-grown ideals and morals that are drilled into Caribbean-ites from birth. She then smoothly threaded in fantastical elements of gods and dragons, which all built the story into an all-consuming fantasy you cannot put down until you know exactly what happens next.
Another plus to her writing is the way she allows us to see and understand the actions of all the characters and the reasons they are how they are. Even the main villain. Also, I cannot say it enough. Whitneyâs world building is fantastic! You might think including so many factions might be overwhelming, but it truly is not. She makes it all work, and work in a way that pushes you to dive headfirst into each book.
Small question, uhm, has a book ever taunted you? I know they can stalk us. Algorithms and such making them pop up everywhere. But I mean taunt. As in you see the book and you see people talking about the book and you feel like a little invisible tug on your soul that whispers, âYou should read me.â Just randomly, when you are looking over your TBR list and looking at the cover, you hear, âYou should read me.â
Author Nisha J Tuli had a video of hers go viral this last week (Over 3 million views viral), because she âincluded a highlighted and annotated look at the first line of the Trial of the Sun Queenâ. Nisha was laughing because so many of those views were from people freaking out that she dared to write in her own book. I mean, people going nuts because the author of the book wrote in one of her many copies of the book she wrote, is a sign that people are wound wayyyyy too tightly. We love our books, but as Nisha herself puts it, âYes. Stories are certainly precious. The actual books? Not as much!â
It is gut boiling. And to her credit, I felt it. That is the potency of Rebecca Yarros and her words. Because a good book, for me, is one that disrupts me. It takes me out of my lane, steals my focus, and commands my attention. Yes, I was upset while reading, but she had me. And in hindsight, Iron Flame is the perfectly laid conduit to transition readers away from Basgiath War College into the deeply engulfing world of The Empyrean.
This is the best kind of romance novel. Funny, swoony, full of wit and charm, and one with a Queen who understands her own worth and the worth of a man who sees you and loves you as you are. She also gives people who care about her heart attacks every now and again, you know, to keep things lively and spicy!
But what else can you expect when a sarcastic survivor is placed in jail as a child until she is secretly stolen away to compete for a queendom in a neighboring land? A competition, btw, that can be and has been, dun dun dun, deadly.
I had snark! I had independence! I had romance, but not the icky squishy kind; it was love where the woman could still be her brave, action sheroe self. I thought this was it. This is the goal. This is what I have been waiting to read and have access to read all my life. And honestly, I still love those authors. I comfort read their books, and I am always searching for authors like them. It is all AMAZING work. But. They are not my unicorn treasures.
Because you begin to unconsciously absorb what the âimportantâ people look like. What they sound like. What they think like. Your vision of the âright worldâ and the âright cultureâ is shaped by people who seem to not even know or probably care that you exist. Your subconscious begins to be unwittingly shaped into a very colonial controlled space.
I have never before read this kind of twist on the existence of Vampires, Fae, and Magical Humans. It was a refreshing take! The book is one of those that gradually slides new information to you, the reader. It feels as though petal by petal you are diving deeper into a story that is hiding major secrets.