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I’m back with another review for you guys! This book continued the, I-read-this-start-to-finish, streak that I have had with my slush pile this year. I’ve been super happy with the books I’ve gotten this year and to date (2/28/26) I haven’t DNF’ed any of my slush pile! This also means it’s going to make picking my semifinalists difficult. I’ll be handing over my semifinalists to Kristen for her to read, she will give me her picks, and then we send forward the one with the highest combined score. Onto the review!
At first, I was a little wary of this one since the opening scene felt like I had “seen this before.” We’ve got a woman running from a city since the place she called home has turned on her after she loses control of her powers and kills some folks. Enter the mentor who stays behind in an attempt to give her enough time to flee to safety. That said, the writing was solid enough that I felt compelled to read more… and then I started to enjoy myself more as the story went on.
Dela is on the run because she has a peculiar handprint on her chest, and sometimes during intense emotional situations, it ‘activates’ and she loses control of a power she doesn’t understand. She has to cross over a desert to get to a mountain range, but what she finds in the mountain range were things she thought to be fairytales.
This is a multi POV book, and the second POV, Cassius, and his inner dialogue, sold me on the book. He’s a commoner who once saved the king and finds himself as the Dominus (kind of like the king’s second hand) and he does NOT like the aristocracy. Some snooty politician enters the scene, and his inner thoughts were, “If I was ever to be the victim of a stroke, now would be an excellent fucking time.” Yes, sir. I’m on board. More of him, please. My reads up until now had very little humor and had been fairly heavy as far as themes and so I’ll welcome snark and humor. There’s a fair amount of politics going on, and since Cassius comes from a different people altogether, these folks are ruled by a king and a senate, which is not a common combination in fantasy. It manages to make things fresh instead of just being a story about a king, it gets real complicated when the subjects of the king have a bit of power themselves — especially when they take things too far. Cassius is trying to navigate the waters when the king is announced as dead in battle… and the named successor in his will is out in the countryside, and possibly dead as well.
These two POVS come together fairly quickly and to talk about the rest of the plot is actually kind of spoilery, so I’ll leave it there.
There’s a third POV, Greshen, who is also tied to Dela and is living in the city where she fled from. He’s trying to mount an insurrection against the “Elders” since he believes they are lying to his people about their origins, the Creators, and the Creator’s disappearance centuries ago. The Creators created both Greshen’s/Dela’s people and the Elders, but due to a bloody war, they vanished and Greshen is sure there’s a truth lying buried somewhere. The Elders are creepy, powerful, and kind of dicks about everything. There are strict rules that can be accompanied by death penalties, with the almost complacency and understanding of Dela’s people. Dela’s people believe they are prone to war and need to be kept in check by the Elders, and although the Elders can be cruel, it’s a ‘necessary’ cruelty. If Greshen is found out for his continuing efforts to overthrow the Elders, it would be a grim fate. This is definitely a book for people who enjoy learning about ancient cultures and secrets, etc.
There’s a very subtle and steady expansion to the world-building that was very easy to sink into and dropped new information at a pace that made it engaging and not overwhelming. I did pick up on a few inconsistencies, or what felt like inconsistencies to me regarding how long certain cultures had been out of touch with each other. The answer seemed to change between characters, I’m not sure if that was intentional or not. That said, the dialogue was engaging, and I could usually picture what was going on in my head. I can struggle with “head movies” or visualizing what’s going on in a book, so I kind of gauge things on how clear my head movie is. I’d say “pretty clear” with this book 🙂
As far as SPFBO is concerned, this book is safe!