Incendiary (Hollow Crown #1)

Imagine a story where a character has no one to talk to. After an exciting beginning, Incendiary loses its way with a “meh” main character who gets stuck with a ragtag group of heroes who hate her. And when she gets “captured” she deals with more people who hate her. Hundreds of pages of people hating someone just isn’t fun to read. It’s a shame because the universe is cool, but the story fails to deliver on nearly every level. As for the ending, it’s plot twists up the wazoo, and it all ends up too contrived and undos the previous 300 pages. A cool concept but not worth your time.

What I Liked: Renata – I really enjoyed how unconventional a lead character Renata was. She isn’t the strongest, she isn’t the leader, and she isn’t even the bravest. Renata’s existence is a constant point of contention. The Whispers may have claimed her, but there is a lot of distrust, even amongst those closest to her. They have never forgotten the time she spent in the company of one of their greatest enemies, the Justice Méndez. For most of her life, Renata’s been used by others and never truly accepted. This is one of the reasons she is so drawn to characters like Dez, who believe in her when much of the time she doesn’t believe in herself. Her wounds are often openly displayed, even when she wants to hide, she simply can’t. Renata’s magic has never been neat and she’s never been confident in her abilities. She learned early that her magic was dangerous and hasn’t had very many people tell her otherwise. She’s constantly been told who she is and has never been allowed to choose who she wants to be. I loved the beginning of her journey to discovering the answer. World-Building – Córdova’s world is loosely based on the Spanish Inquisition. King Fernando is determined to rid his kingdom of the Moria, a people born with what he deems as unnaturally magic abilities. He and his predecessors have all but driven the Moria out of the land. Not only that, but they are determined to wiped out every trace of their cultural and religion. The Moria have done their best to maintain their ways, but they are slowly dwindling in number. Magical System – The Moria are gifted with different magical abilties. Some are able to create illusions, while others are able to manipulate emotions. Renata is one of very few Robári, whose magic is tied to memory. As a child, she was manipulated into working with Justice Mendez, the right hand of the king, draining prisoners of their memories and turning them into Hollows. Unpredictability – One of the things I really enjoyed about this novel is how multilayered so many of characters were which made the story incredibly unpredictable at times. Renata struggles to find who she is, especially when so many of her memories are distorted. This makes her point of view somewhat unreliable. She very much wants to believe certain people are just evil, but learns that isn’t always the case. Many of her preconceived ideas about people are proven false or incomplete and I am really looking forward to seeing where the story goes after some shocking revelations. What I Didn\’t Like: Pacing – The novel sometimes felt uneven. The first third of the novel could have been its own separate novel because of how much happened. Things then come to an abrupt halt and I spent so much time wishing the story could capture the excitement of the beginning portion. But then suddenly we are thrust into the latter part of the novel, going full speed and ironically, this is where I wanted things to slow down. Particularly because there is a lot of buildup to meeting a certain character who I wish we could have spent more time with. Final Verdict: With surprises at every turn, Zoraida Córdova’s Incendiary is a great introductory novel to a new fantasy series that will sweep readers away and whose ending will leave you begging for more.

This book is a solid start to a new series. The prologue was so interesting, and frankly, Renata and Castian are two of the most tortured people I’ve read about in a while, and I hope they get to interact way more in the sequel, because anytime they shared a page I was eating the words up. There’s just something to be said about a haters to lovers romance and I really hope that’s where this is going. With that said, after the prologue, the book takes more of a slow burn pace. It sets up this world we find ourselves in and introduces us to several supporting characters, like Dex, who is soon murdered, and which provokes our heroine Renata into seeking revenge in the only way she knows how – by going back to the palace, the place she spent the majority of her childhood, and getting involved with her former guardian to ingratiate herself to the king so she can get close enough to presumably take him, and his son, out. From there, she begins collecting memories, trying to find a secret weapon and learn all she can about Castian in an effort to kill him in revenge for Dez’s murder. However, as might be expected, not everything is how it seems. Honestly, I don’t even care about the war between Puerto Leones and the remnants of the Moria. The king of Puerto Leones and the justices are your typical evil bad guys, and we aren’t given any solid reason for their actions except what seems to be world domination and a shallow religious excuse, which, in the end, does reflect the Inquisition pretty well. The Moria don’t seem much better, though, at least from where Renata and Castian are sitting. I would say this story is definitely more driven by the secrecy and drama surrounding these two characters than the war, which just seems like a reason for all the secrecy and drama to be happening. I am looking forward to the next book in the series!

I started this YA high fantasy novel knowing that it was the first of a duology and that the world-building was based off of the Spanish Inquisition. I got 30% into the novel feeling like I understood who the female MC was and what the stakes were for her and their world. Yes, there\’s good vs. evil, yes there\’s an oppressive force trying to squash a rebellion. THESE ARE THE MAIN INGREDIENTS OF YA, PEOPLE. A skilled author will take these things and make them entertaining somehow. I got to the 30% mark feeling confident, then a male character was killed and I was SHOOK. I\’ve been raised on YA tropes and I did not see that one coming, not so soon, not like that. The rest of the book was one trope twisted after another. The evil prince has a compelling past, the sidekicks are helpful and hurtful, the female MC gets tested and makes mistakes. The magic system isn\’t your typical elemental magic. I found myself wrapped up in the story and I can\’t wait to see what Zoraida will surprise me with in the sequel.

This is a fantasy novel and I loved it. I loved the different take on magic and how it was used. The book have enough suspense and twists to keep you interested. There is nothing I can say needed to be better. The plot was good. The scharacters were well developed and you create emotional ties to them. The book was not predictable but kept you guessing about what would happen next. I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes fantasy – magic books.

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