The Queen of Blood

[cornerofmadness]

The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This one got lost for a long time in my vast TBR pile which is a shame because I really ended up enjoying it with one world building issue in my head. renthia is a world where humans and spirits must share the land. In theory the spirits refuse to work with humans but if spirits are destroyed trees, water, fire etc die or just don't work because the spirits control it (can you see my world building issue? that's not how water and fire work) However, the spirits hate humans and will try to kill them (so I am curious if this is addressed in other books)

Daleina (one of three point of view characters, the others being the disgraced champion Ven and the current queen Fara) was one of the only people to survive a spirit attack on her home thanks to her power. Her family encourages her to go to the academy that trains women to take over as queen some day (so it has dark academia vibes).

Daleina quickly realizes she's no where near as strong as the other possible heirs but she keeps on training, making friends until one day Ven sees in her something the other champions didn't as they passed on making her their potential heir. He takes her on, training her physically and magically, playing into her strength: she can convince the spirits to do something they want to do (which usually is to build)

But at the heart of it all is Fara, the queen, one of the most powerful ever seen but nothing about her is what it seems.

I liked the story but I liked the ending a bit less, seemed too...easy in a way. I liked that when Daleina is injured there are consequences. Nothing comes free. I liked that it was a female forward fantasy which we are finally starting to see more often.



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