A Song of Wraiths and Ruin – Book Review!

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

Author: Roseanne A Brown.

Format: Hardcover.

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Page count: 466.

Release day: June 2^nd 2020.

Genre: YA, Fantasy.

Rating: 4 stars.

What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)

For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.

But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.

When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?

The first in an fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess and a desperate refugee find themselves on a collision course to murder each other despite their growing attraction.

Rating:
Characters: 8/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Writing: 8/10
Plot: 7/10
Intrigue: 8/10
Logic: 7/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Average: 7.57 (which means 4 stars!)

My thoughts:

The main reason why I was drawn to this book was the fact that it is inspired by West African folklore, of which I don’t think I’ve ever read a book! And I definitely did enjoy that aspect of the book!

I really enjoyed our main characters, Malik and Karina! Especially Malik, since often with the male main character he is only there to be the love interest. Which was definitely not the case in this book, there was so much depth to him. He was not the standard muscled guy, he actually was not and dealt a lot with anxiety, and I think it was portrayed very well. And this made him a strong character in a totally different way! The only thing that confused me a bit about Malik was that in the first couple of chapters it really sounded as if he was like 12 years old, then more like 15, but I think he was supposed to be at least 17..

Karina was a bit more of our standard ‘strong’ female character, but I still enjoyed her. And really liked seeing her love for her family!

I really loved the world and the magic! Although I would have loved to see even more from the magic, but it makes sense it was limited in this book. It mostly got explained near the ending of the book, and that was definitely one of the reasons why I could not put the book down at the end of the book. I definitely expect to see more from the magic in the sequel!

The middle part of the book dragged a little bit for me, since it felt like the plot was taking the ‘expected’ route, and I was not really looking forward to that.

BUT then, there were twist and turns and betrayal! And I just could not put the book down! I flew through the last 100 pages of this book!

I enjoyed the writing. I’m a bit bumped that we probably have to wait another year for the sequel! I definitely recommend this book to fans of YA fantasy, this one had some nice twists, and it is always nice to see something from different folklores!

Have you read this book? What did you think?