~Summary~
Lagusa, a quiet village on the edge of a vast desert, is the only home Naira Khoum has ever known. Nothing exciting ever happens in Lagusa, that is until a woman calling herself the Mistress arrives with a hoard of Dambi, undead monsters under the control of Sothpike, a power hungry warlord. Naira doesn’t know what brought the Mistress to her village but she vows to do everything in her power to stop her, before it’s too late.
~My Thoughts~
Waking Fire marks the first time I have ever been sent a physical proof copy by the publisher in exchange for a review!! Thank you so much to the author and Harper360YA for providing me with a copy of this book ❤
I had been highly anticipating this book ever since I saw its gorgeous cover so when I received an arc I was nothing short of ecstatic! I’m so happy to say that this book did not disappoint. Fantasy has been hit or miss with me recently, I think I’m in one of those phases where they’re all starting to blur together, but this one was refreshingly unique! The story was so creative and the world-building rich and complex. There were lots of cool twists to the plot and the action scenes were awesome!
I loved Naira. Her character was consistently headstrong but always for the sake of doing the right thing. I really liked how, over the course of the book, her priorities and what she viewed as important shifted to reflect how the plot had advanced. There were just two things that held this was book back from being a five star read for me. The first was the gore. This is obviously a personal opinion but some of the scenes were just a bit too gruesome for my taste. And second, by the end I was getting tired of how almost every scene featuring Nez (Naira’s twin brother) contained some variation of him being elbowed or playfully slapped. Not a huge issue but it’s one of those little things that wears you down after awhile.
Overall though, this book was definitely a win and I already can’t wait for book two to come out next year! Happy Reading 🙂
The Art of Reading 