Received an arc from Net Galley for an honest review.
Expected Release: April 2nd 2019
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I read the description for this book and I was hooked. I put the release date on my calendar and prepared myself to wait. But I ended up not having to wait. I put in a request for an arc on NetGalley, fully expecting not to get it, but I am very grateful that I did. This is my first ever arc and my second (If you don't include Michelle Obama's audiobook) five star read of 2019.
Tyrants cut out hearts. Rulers sacrifice their own.
Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to avoid her responsibilities of the crown and dreams of an unremarkable life. But when her father, the king, is found dead, she's thrust into power. Now that she is the queen of a surprisingly unstable kingdom she has the power to take to trial the one thing on her mind; Her father didn't naturally die, he was murdered and the killer is someone close to her. Hesina's court is packed full of dissemblers and deceivers eager to use the king's death for their own political gain, each as plausibly guilty as the next. Her advisers would like her to blame the neighboring kingdom of Kendi'a, whose ruler has been mustering for a war. Hesina is determined to find her father's actual killer and does something desperate: she gets aid from a soothsays - a treasonous act, punishable by death, since magic was outlawed centuries ago. Using the information provided by the sooth, she finds Akira, a brilliant investigator who's also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. Hesina is unsure whether she can trust her own family and the future of Yan is at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?
I can't get over how much I love this book. I bet I'm not the only one that struggles to express emotions after reading something that makes you full of them. Everything about this book is amazing and it deserves so much more than what I will say about it. The characters all have so much depth, I felt connected to all of them. The backstories and relationships between all of them are so delicate but deep. None of the relationships felt forced, they were pure and real, like Hesina and her mother or her (blood) brother. The world was also very intricate and I built up Yan in my head with all the details I was given within the book, it was as beautiful as it was written to be even though it was falling apart at the seams as the book went on. There were magical family secrets and twisted political games that were intriguing and irritating all at the same time. However the one thing that really made me mad, in the best way, were the plot twists. There were things I never expected to happen and right after reading one, another one happened! It was almost too much (it wasn't, but it had me triggered a lot).
There was really only one thing I didn't like about the book and it was the very very beginning. It seemed the beginning started out abrupt and I was very confused about what was happening and who was who. It seemed like an odd place to start, but of course that's my own opinion. Once I understood what was happening and who everyone was, I started on the path of a phenomenal book.