By Marie Rutkoski
Genre YA Fantasy
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Synopsis
Kestrel lives a highly privileged life as the daughter of a General. Her people revel in war and enslave those it conquers. As is tradition, Kestrel can marry or join the military but Kestrel dislikes both options. Music has her heart, that is until she inexplicably buys a slave who might love music too. Kestrel's life is about to be thrown into upheaval and she'll have to choose between her people and love.
First Sentence
She shouldn't have been tempted.
All my friends have been raving about this series....Like all of them. This made me very nervous. Usually when all my friends love a book or series I end up hating it. Luckily, this time was different. I adored this book. I got sucked in from page one and managed to inhale it in two sittings. Considering how crazy my life has been, it takes quite the book to steal what little downtime I have.
In fact, this is only the second book this year I've given 5 stars too. I'm very stingy with my stars, as you know, but this one deserved all 5 of them.
So, what did I love so much? I love these political intrigue books where much conniving and strategizing is going on but it's kept light enough for my little mind to wrap around. I also loved how the romance didn't take over the story and was very slow burning. I liked that there was resolution to this book but also a lot of setup for the books to come.
This book reminded me of old favorites like The Blue Sword by Robin Mckinley. Perhaps that's why I really loved it so much. Whatever it was, love it I did and I can't wait to read the rest.
Should you read it
If I'm not the last person on the planet to have read this one, I'd highly recommend you go pick it up. You won't regret it.
