A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin #1)

I screamed when I got to the end and realised it was the end. I just wanted to keep reading. Im so in love with this book. A glorious fantasy. I completely binged on this book and am dying for Book Two.

A story of duology. A romance. A battle of wits and wills and personal demons. Of magic and myths made real. A terrific read.

Malik and Karina couldnt be more opposite. One, a princess. One, a refuge. And yet both are on a similar journey to understanding their place in the world and the truth about their own personal power. And both are completely at odds with each other. Those desires act like two magnets. Pulling them together and pushing them apart at the same time. The conflict between their opposite needs sets up a clash of epic proportions. Malik who must save his sister and Karina who wants her mother back. Every step they take to achieve their desire puts them into further conflict with each other. A tragic love story. For each to win, the other must lose.

The story is told from both Malik and Karinas points of view and thus we are fully enveloped in their individual stories, and in their triumphs and tragedies. Each personality is gloriously alive and gripping in intensity, driving the plot forward with every ill-intentioned or forced choice. And with every choice, their path changes for better or worse leading them inexorably toward each other.

The worldbuilding is fantastic. A fantasy for the ages, beautifully visual and brimming with color. The magic is believable; dangerous and powerful. The worldbuilding and magic together weave a fantasy that is impossible to escape from. And you dont want to. As a reader I wanted more.

I cannot wait for the next book!

It arrived Saturday and I started reading it Sunday. I did my very best to take my time reading it, but the last two nights I kept turning my light on to read just one more chapter when I should have been trying to sleep. After going through the, “I’ll just read one more chapter before I go to sleep,” bit last night, I finally gave up and finished it. I was done at around 5:30 am this morning.

Pros) It is very fantasy with a well crafted magic system and lots of political intrigue in a setting that draws on African folklore. Yay for non-European settings! (Note: as much as I love European folklore, I feel that there is a dearth of non-European stories available and am enthused to find good stories based on cultures that I am less familiar with.)

There are plot twists that I did not see coming, but when they happened, they made perfect sense. It was definitely not what the blurbs led me to expect from the story. Did whoever wrote the teaser even read the book? Sure, there was attraction between the protagonists, but this was NOT a “romance.”

The world building is the very epitome of “show don’t tell.” Kudos for that!

Cons) The book contains a handful of editing errors (or are they printing errors?), which makes me think it was self-published (I have yet to read a self-published book that does not have editing errors). Some were relatively understandable (for example: there is one place where the word “onto” is used when the context indicates that it should have been the word “unto”).

There were three editing errors that were pretty blatant and I can’t understand how they could have gotten past the editing process. 1: The second time the word “obosom” is used, it starts with an “A” but every other time it appears in the story, it starts with an “O.” 2: On one occasion, some people make a gesture that somehow involves them touching their lips to their lips (this struck me as amusing, on other occasions when the gesture is made, the people use their fingers). 3: Near the end of the book, the word “heart” is spelled with two “R’s” (this should have been caught by spell check).

The story is good enough that I can forgive a few editing errors. The biggest down side is that its part one of a planned two part story, so now that Ive finished it, Ill have to wait for the second book in the set to come out to discover how the story really ends. Fortunately, it does not end on an actual cliffhanger as I’d feared when I saw that it was book 1 in a planned two book set.

Conclusion) Since the biggest issues I have with the story are a handful of editing errors and the fact that the sequel is not yet available, I have no hesitation in recommending it to everyone who loves fantasy stories.

Final score:
Story – 5 stars
Editing – 3 stars
Final score – 4 stars

Note: I am rereading the story and am finding things that made no impact on me the first time through, which now that I’ve read to the end have considerably more impact and increase my enjoyment of the story.

I was so excited to start reading this book. Then I started reading it and I was highly disappointed! There was so much detail that the story began to drag and I quickly lost interested. But I was motivated to finance because I paid for this book and we are reviewing it on our podcast. I will say that I loved the main characters and there back stories. I do wish that the book when have given more explanation about some rituals, countries and other magical things and basically other unfamiliar things in the story. It was a lot to take in because it was magic based in an unfamiliar country and culture. Some scenes carried on too long and were in too much detail and felt unnecessary and thats what bores me. But what saves this book for me was the ending. It was probable the last 8-10 chapters where the climax started to build up and things actually started happening and more information was revealed to help understand previous plot points. I wish that it didnt take so long to get to the good stuff, some of the storylines drug on for too long and felt unnecessary. But the ending so pique my interests in a sequel. I think that is because I fell in love with the character Malik.

I have to say I really enjoyed reading this book, I thought that everything from the setting to the characters to the plot to thecover design ALL OF IT it was all so much fun. Its exactly what I like in YA and I would absolutely recommend this to all the YA lovers out there who havent yet picked this up.

As usual, Ill make the disclaimer that I am a white woman and as such there will be aspects of this book that I may not have picked up on seek out own voices reviews alongside this one! But I didnt want to pass up the opportunity to bring this book to your attention.

This book is dual POV, we have the perspectives of Malik, the poor boy trying to carve out a place of safety for his family, and Karina, the princess who has to take on more responsibility than she had ever imagined. Normally in books like this I would gravitate towards one character and just be mildly annoyed at the other (usually the male character because I am predictable) but in this case I found both narratives to be really compelling. I liked the way this structure gives the two sides of the story, and its one of the few times where getting to see POV characters through the eyes of another character actually works and doesnt feelgratuitous. You get that sense of dramatic irony, knowing that while Karina may think one thing is happening Malik is in fact working towards a different goal and so on. Thats something I adore in fiction, mostly because I like to know more than the characters do. What I thought worked well in this story was the fact that the story went beyond these two characters and the plot that emerges between them. In similar YA narratives the entire story centres around that relationship and it can get predictable and annoying, instead this feels like two stories that connect as part of a much wider narrative.

What Im trying to get at here is that this book goes beyond the usual tropes I might associate with a dual POV book set up in this way.

This setting was wonderful, the different cultures, the city itself, the magic, all of the details were there without feeling like worldbuilding was being thrown at you. Some of my favourite aspects were the moments of storytelling within the story because I am always here for an exploration of oral history there are sung stories, stories that get told to crowds, stories in the narrative so many stories it is a wonderful time.

If you enjoy YA I would definitely suggest you pick up a copy of this book, it is familiar and tropey while still retaining a uniqueness that makes it feel fresh and interesting. Youll fall head over heels for Karina who is one of my favourite YA heroines of all time and youll then have to join me impatiently waiting for the next book!

My rating: 4/5 stars

I bought this book myself, all opinions are my own.

The beginning of this book was absolutely phenomenal, Browns writing is just this style that can be labeled as the calligraphy of styles, its gorgeous and fluid and connecting.

There is not one part of this book that does not fit, not one thing I questioned.

The world is not always as black and white, and of course, books are always so much better when theyre believable and that grey area of morality is a strong draw for me.

The world-building and magic were A+++ for me and they are usually the most important elements for me. But. That doesnt mean I didnt absolutely love the differences and variety in the characters. Malik especially, I mean, yes Karina is brilliant as well but I think Malik really stood out.

Anyway, this ended the way most of my favorite books do, with heartache, emotional torture, and a book hangover.

This book lived up to all the hype my friends put up to it, and thats always such a satisfying and great feeling as a reader. 5/5 cups of hot chocolate for me and its a 2020 fave release of mine as well as on my general favorites shelf now on Goodreads.

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