About the plot:

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. Both Zafira and Nasir are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya–but neither wants to be.

War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the sultan on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds–and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.

Review:

Normally I write a separate review for each book in a series but it has already been a while since I finished the first book and unfortunately I don’t have it with me at the moment, so I wouldn’t trust myself to write an accurate review for it … and what is the review of a sequel worth without the review of the first book? Therefore, I decided to write one review taking into account both the books. Seeing as this is only a duology and not a longer series, I think it is still possible to do both books justice.

I have to admit it took me quite some time to get through the books but this was mainly due to my life having been extremely busy for the past few weeks, with moving out and needing to adjust to life in a new city, so naturally I didn’t have that much time to read. Also, I don’t know if any of you know this feeling, but after weeks where I barely read or didn’t read at all, even if I have the time I am much less likely to pick up a book and read just because I am no longer “used to it”. Anyway, enough about my excuses for taking ages to finish the books and onto my thoughts on them.

I quite enjoyed reading both of them, although I enjoyed the sequel a tad more than the first book, partly due to being more familiar with the characters and the world, partly due to the type of story that was being told. I have promised to always keep my reviews spoiler-free, so I won’t go into detail about what happened in each of the books but the first book was focusing on a quest while the second book was more about the bigger picture and the overall situation of the country and also added more layers to the conflict, which I personally enjoy more. Also, that might just be me, but the first few chapters reminded me a bit too much of The Hunger Games with Zafira, the main character, being a huntress while her younger sister is a healer and them living in a poor village and needing her hunting skills to survive. As the story progressed those similarities faded away and the story didn’t remind of a fantasy version of The Hunger Games anymore, making it much more enjoyable, but that’s another reason why my rating for the first book is a little lower than for its sequel.

I really enjoyed the direction in which the author took the story and the way new layers of the conflict were introduced and tied together. It is only a duology, so there are limits to the complexity a plot can have without making everything seem rushed or hard to follow, yet the books found a great balance between not being too straight-forward and at the same time not trying to fit too many strands into one story. While the ending didn’t really surprise me, the journey wasn’t predictable and did come with quite a few twists and revelations.

The world-building was also done incredibly well in my opinion. Once again, the world wasn’t too complex but that didn’t mean it wasn’t well-developed. On the contrary, I felt as though the author managed to weave in her creative ideas into it without needing to overcomplicate things. The world was familiar in its basic set-up but unique in its details, easy to get into but still thrilling to discover. As the book(s) progressed there were always new sprinkles of information about the country and its history and not all that I thought to be true in the beginning actually lasted.

The books also have an enemies-to-lovers subplot which does play an important part but doesn’t completely take over the story. First and foremost, the books are detailing the fight of a group of people to make magic return to their country, the romance happens along the way. What I really liked was that not only the romantic relationships were fleshed out but so were the relationships between family members and friends. The same goes for the individual characters. They weren’t just the love interest, the friend or the sister, they were their own people, had their own thoughts and opinions and their own goals they were working towards. Overall, the author created a group of multi-dimensional characters, each with a distinct personality unlike that of the other group members and still, or maybe exactly for that reason, they fit together so well.

Throughout the books there were some great quotes and the writing resonated with me a lot. While reading the first book I actually started tabbing quotes I liked but quickly grew tired of it because there were quite a few sentences that stood out to me and I didn’t have the patience to stop reading each time and stick a tab to the page. I guess I am not one who likes to annotate books… but even when I finally gave up on tabbing, there were several instances where I paused for a moment to appreciate a sentence or a description. In hindsight, I now regret not highlighting at least some of the quotes in the second book too because I will probably never find them again, after all it is nearly 600 pages long. But too late now, I guess. Anyway, if you have more patience than I do, you will surely find some great quotes in there.

One thing I have to say about my personal reading experience is the same complaint I have with 90% of the books I read: I wasn’t able to form an emotional connection with the characters and thus many crucial events had less of an impact on me than they could have had. I have tried analysing the books that did manage to make me feel something for the characters and to find out what those authors did differently, but I honestly still have no clue what decides on whether or not I will develop feelings for a fictional character… my only guess is that it is a mixture of the way the character was written, the type of character it is, how much time I spent with said character, which role they play in the story, their relationship to other characters, at which time I am reading the book and in what mood I am. In other words, I have no rational explanation. This is not really a criticism of the book, since obvioulsy emotions are incredibly subjective and perhaps this looks completely different for you. It is just a note on the way I personally perceived those books.

Overall, I highly recommend this duology to everyone who is looking for a YA fantasy read that is not too much of a commitment but still has a layered plot and a great cast of characters.

Have you read this duology? What were your thoughts?

Please remember to keep the comments spoiler-free or add a Spoiler Alert beforehand so everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the reading experience without already knowing everything that happens.