ApollyCon 2025 Recap: Day One

Yes, I am finally getting to my 2025 ApollyCon recap posts. I apologize for the wait. Life isn't necessarily crazy, but it just goes by too fast sometimes and I forget to write up posts that aren't reviews, hauls, or monthly wrap-ups. But I need to get this ApollyCon recap up before I forget everything because there was a lot.

 

First, I'm gonna share the 24 books I brought with me to get signed. They included Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland, Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose Darling, The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owens, Furyborn by Claire Legrand, Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley, two Nalini Singh Guild Hunter books, Quicksilver by Callie Hart, Conquer the Kingdom by Jennifer Estep, Heart on Fire by Amanda Bouchet, Desire in His Blood by Zoey Draven, Trial of Sorcerers by Elise Kova, three J.R. Ward BDB books, Bright Heart by Emma Hamm, and A Touch of Poison by Clare Sager. I also brought House of Pounding Hearts by Olivia Wildenstein, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, Bite of Loyalty by R.L. Caulder, The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen, The Ever King by LJ Andrews, and Tempted by Kristin Cast. However, I didn't get those last six signed either because I didn't have time and/or the author didn't show up. I actually also didn't take The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport with me, since she canceled right before I left. Overall, though, this meant taking a much heavier suitcase, especially considering I also had to pack my book cart to drag around all of my books. It went in my checked bag, along with some flattened boxes for shipping books back.

While last year, my friend and I did some sightseeing around the convention hotel, we didn't really have the time or energy for that this year. Also, we stayed at an off-site hotel for the first night. To get to D.C., I had to get up at like 3 a.m. to arrive at the airport at 5 a.m. for a 6 a.m. flight, so I wasn't in the mood to be too adventurous. My dad drove me to the airport once again. Thanks, Dad. Ha ha. But, needless to say, I was very tired once I finally got to the hotel. I DoorDashed some Quiznos, as I hadn't had that in a looong time, and waited for my friend to arrive so we could go wait in line for registration at the convention center. Thankfully, our first-night hotel had a shuttle to take us there for free.

 

 

As you can see in the pics, the registration line was crazy long. We had actually arrived early, but they made us move, so we ended up being near the end of the line instead of the beginning, where we would have been if they hadn't made us move. It was frustrating, especially since they were late to start registering people. Like an hour or more late. I don't understand why, since the year before they had been on time and everything ran smoothly. It was kind of weird. I think it had to do with another event being in that space right before theirs, but if that was the case, why didn't they push back registration time in their schedule in advance? The registration line and the wait for JLA's signature line on Friday were probably the worst parts of the entire weekend, and they're both kind of related to each other. Since we were so far back in the registration line, we didn't get good numbers for JLA tickets, which meant we had to wait to get her signature until 8 p.m. on Friday. It wasn't fun. Oh, and you can kind of see JLA handing out water in the registration line in the pic right above this paragraph. She's standing in the doorway area on the left.

 

At registration, we got our Primal ticket-holder bags. They each came with a 10-year anniversary yearbook, the Born of Blood and Ash event edition, a Callie Hart Quicksilver cup, an Arcane edition of Torn, a paperback edition of The Return, and a few other books. My other books were The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch, Revolt by K.A. Knight, A Curse of Scales and Flames by Max Walker, and Heart of Defiance by Eva Chase. I originally received a cowboy romance in my bag, but while I was waiting in line for the next event, I was able to trade with the person sitting next to me for the Max Walker book. I was sad when it didn't come in my bag originally after the author said it'd be in the bags, so yay for being able to get it!

 

Now, I do have some nitpicks with this year's Primal bags. The big one is that, while I understand having an anniversary edition of The Return in the bag since that series is the one ApollyCon is named after, I had already purchased the hardcover version of these that were for sale on the website. Why did they make an edition of something that they already sold? It baffles me. I'm actually selling mine. There's no reason I need two copies when the paperback doesn't have a slipcase or sprayed edges like the hardcover. The other big thing was that the BOBAA copy is not foiled, so it doesn't match the other three books in the series. GRRRRRRRR. I will never get over this. It's also like a quarter of an inch taller than the other three too. More GRRRRRRRR. But! The Arcane edition of Torn really helped make up for the issues the other items presented. It was just confusing to get the second book in the bag instead of book one, though I was able to get the sequels eventually.

The next event we waited in line for was the anniversary panel with JLA, J.R. Ward, and Nalini Singh, hosted by Jillian and Liz from Blue Box Press/1,001 Dark Nights. And, honestly, this event truly saved the night for us. After the disappointment that was registration, seeing these authors make hilarious jokes and answer fan questions was a boon to my reader soul. They joked about what an honor it was to have readers who stuck with them over the years, and J.R. Ward got up and walked around with the mic because she can't sit still when she answers questions. A lot of people had never seen J.R. Ward's animated answering before, so that was fun to watch people realize how funny she is. I've posted a video clip of it below, but I don't know how well it will show up, so if it doesn't, I'm sure you can find some clips on TikTok or YouTube somewhere.

 

Well, that was all for the first day. It mostly consisted of travel, registration, and one fun panel, so Thursday is the day when things really got going. Plus, we get to move into the convention hotel, so that makes life easier. Stay tuned for the Day Two post coming soon!

Stacking the Shelves: The April FairyLoot Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

It's almost mid-May now. That's crazy. The year is going by so fast. I think it's because my work life has been pretty chaotic since February. But, things are slowing down now, so I think the summer will be pretty chill. *Knocks on wood.* Other than work, I've just being doing the same stuff. Eating, sleeping, working out, etc. I have been cleaning a little bit more than usual to try and catch up from how I was ignoring everything before ApollyCon. Hopefully, I can really get some organizing done over the Memorial Day holiday too. I'm excited to potentially have a clean house soon.

For this week's haul, I have a good amount of stuff. My April FairyLoot books arrived, and my dad brought them to me when we went to see the Thunderbolts* movie last weekend. It was pretty good, just FYI. I had fun with it, though the ending scene was a bit cliche. Anyway, the FairyLoot April Romantasy book was The Wind Weaver by Julie Johnson and the Adult book was This Monster of Mine by Shalini Abeysekara. I had barely heard of either of these books before I realized FairyLoot was doing them, but they are very pretty editions. I hope they're good.

 

 

 

I technically didn't buy these books, so yay for free! Well, not free. I did a trade, so I had to pay for the shipping to send them a PrettyGal Pin card deck. But in return, I got the Books Know No Age FBAA dust jackets, which I cannot find secondhand anywhere! This was a listing on Mercari that someone was selling for a ridiculous amount. Thankfully, the person I traded with was desperate enough to pay a lot for these, so they could get some SJM cards.

 

 

Next up, I have part of my Amazon order from last week. I think I mentioned that I had to do a return because one of the books came in damaged. It was this one, A Shaodow in the Ember, which I needed because it has the foiling on the hardback from the new print run. I now have my copy despite the damage setback, and it's in great shape, surprisingly, since it was left out in the pouring rain. It rains here all the time now, which is ridiculous and awful since I order so many books. Books and water don't mix. I don't know how exactly the Amazon box kept the book from getting soaked, but somehow, someway, it did.

 

And lastly, I have the ebooks. Two are from Kindle Unlimited, Direbound by Sable Sorenson and Empire of Flame and Thorns by Marion Blackwood. I've heard great things about both of them, and though I'm trying to focus more on my physical TBR right now, I do want to pick these up at some point. I also used some Kindle credits to purchase Forging Silver Into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer. I got it for like $1.99, I think. Also, why are Kindle books so expensive nowadays? They were supposed to stay under $10. I saw one for almost $20. It's nuts! But anywho, I think Forging Silver is technically a spinoff of another series of Brigid's, Cursebreakers, which I've only read the first book of, but I'm hoping I can go into this one without reading the other two books, as this one just sounds better to me. 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

April Wrap-Up & May TBR

I feel like I'm still recovering, both financially and mentally from ApollyCon. Huge emphasis on financially. But, other than that, life has been fairly quiet. I'm trying this new TBR rule that is proving to be good and difficult at the same time. Basically, if I bring a book into my house, that means I have to read something off my physical TBR to even things out. Certain things don't count, though, like my JLA books and if I've already read the book. There are a few other rules, but that's the gist of it. I was doing pretty well, but all my FairyLoot orders decided to come in around the same time, so that'll be a disaster, But anyway...

In this wrap-up, I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received, and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!

Books Read in April

The Raven Scholar: 4 stars (my review)

Changed: Mated to the Alien Alpha: 3 stars

A Court This Cruel & Lovely: 4 stars

Blood of Hercules: 3 stars

The Knight and the Moth: 4 stars (review to come)

Racing Hearts: 3 stars

A Kingdom This Cursed & Empty: 4 stars

I read seven books in April, which, I believe, is the most I've read in a single month this entire year. It probably would have been more too, if I didn't have ApollyCon taking up a week. Overall, though I did pretty good reading-wise. I read two physical Orbit ARCs this month, The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson and The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig. I enjoyed both of them. I also read four other books from my physical TBR, sort of. I read the first two books in Stacia Stark's Kingdom of Lies series, but I technically read them on my Kindle, though I do own physical copies, so it counts! It counts! The other two physical books were Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas and Racing Hearts by K.A. Knight, which I got at ApollyCon. The only book that won't count for my physical TBR is Changed: Matied to the Alien Alpha by Robin Moray, which was a quick, light Kindle Unlimited book I read before my trip. But yeah, it's super exciting that six of the seven books knock back some of those physical copies that are piling up on my shelves.

Books Bought/Received in April

Okay, I don't think I'll every have a month that's as bad as this one. There are books upon books upon books in this month's haul. It's nuts. But, that's ApollyCon's fault, not mine. Also, there were a ton of book sets that went on sale in April. I'm going to need book boxes to stop dropping sets that I want all at the same time, especially when I'm going on vacation. It gets very expensive. Overall, though, I bought 49 books in April (technically, I'm selling one, so I have it listed in the count, but it will be leaving soon), and I received 49 books, most of which were ApollyCon-related.

The 49 books I received in April that I didn't pay for in April consist of a mix of preorders that arrived, ApollyCon pickups, and ApollyCon freebies. I did have one Orbit ARC arrive, though. It was The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O'Keefe. Now, for things that arrived that weren't ApollyCon-related, I have 15 books: God of Pain (WM order from last month); The Raven Scholar (Illumicrate); Firebird, Blood of Hercules, Cursebound (FairyLoot); The Awakening (author edition); Obsidian and Onyx (Bookish Box); the Blood and Ash Arcane set 1-5; the German Chest of Fandoms A Fire in the Flesh; and Iridescent Fairytale FBAA.

And here we go. For the 33 books I received at ApollyCon, I have 10 I got for free and 23 I had preordered in previous months. The 10 freebies included an ARC of Stacia Stark's This Vicious Dream, The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch, A Hunger Like No Other and No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole, A Curse of Scales and Flame by Max Walker, The Return, A Shadow in the Ember ApollyCon edition, Born of Blood and Ash ApollyCon edition, Torn Arcane edition, and Heart of Defiance by Eva Chase.

 The 23 preordered books include The Wraith King by Juliette Cross, Till Death by Miranda Lyn, Fae Isles series 1-4 by Lisette Marshall, Lady of Darkness and Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa Roehrich, Curse of Ophelia by Nicole Platania, The Umber King by Jamie Applegate-Hunter, Court of Nightmares and Racing Hearts by K.A. Knight, Curse of Shadow and Thorns by L.J. Andrews, Kingdom of Lies 1-4 by Stacia Stark, the Books for Days Crate ASITE edition, the ApollyCon Titan series 1-4, and Kingdom of Crowns and Daggers by K.A. Knight Books for Days Crate edition.

Now, for what I bought. Bear with me, because it's another long list. Of the 49 books I bought in April, I received 23 of them, the rest were preorders that haven't arrived yet. Those 23 include some Barnes & Noble preorders, Shadow Princess by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, Blood of Hercules gold and white covers, The Never List by Jade Presley, Firebird, and the Lightlark boxset of books 1-3. There was also an order of the Dutch edition of BOBAA (and of AFITF, but it's the book I'm selling because I already had a copy. Oops.), God of Malice by Rina Kent from a FB resale group, the AKOFAF Walmart edition, and the FBAA paperback, the AFITF hardback, and two ALITF hardbacks from Amazon for various dust jackets I own.  I also traded some Prettygal Pins cards for five Hungary Blood and Ash/Flesh and Fire books. I counted it as a purchase since I technically paid like $6 to ship the cards. And while I was at ApollyCon, I only really bought three books: Invoking the Blood by Kalista Neith and the Wicked and Brave Arcane editions.

 The preorders are what caused some major wallet damage. There were 25 of them, and all of them were sets of three or more books besides one. Yikes. From FairyLoot, I ordered the first three books in the Gods & Monsters series, the Unearthly trilogy, and I had my monthly Adult and Romantasy subs that arrived in May, so they technically count in this category as well. I also preordered the Books for Days Crate Flesh and Fire series 1-4, the Acrylipics F&F series 1-4, the Book Addiction Captive Prince trilogy set, the Fall of Ruin and Wrath Bad Women edition, and the Bookish Box Lady of Darkness 1-5 set.

Currently Obsessed With

As for TV/films, it seems like all of the good shows ended in April, which was kind of a bummer. I'll have to find some other things to watch now. 

Both The Wheel of Time season three and Daredevil: Born Again finished up. I think both seasons were pretty solid up until the very last episode. But, I kind of knew Wheel of Time is consistently bad when it comes to season finales. It's just a thing for them. I am looking forward to season four, however, if it is ever announced. I've also been rewatching Home Improvement as my meal/background show. But that's pretty much it. It's been a quiet TV month, otherwise.

May TBR

I've finally made it through a lot of the same stuff that's been on my TBR for the past couple of months. Now, all I need to read and review in the next few weeks is Silvercloak by L.K. Steven and Arcana Academy by Elise Kova. I could include Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu on this list, but I think I'm going to hold off on reading that for a little bit longer. Shocking, I know. I also need to read Faebound by Saara El-Arifi for my book club. I'm keeping things pretty simple this month, so I can mood read whatever I want.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of April, plus some May sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!

Stacking the Shelves: The Illumicrate Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Ugh! I haven't posted my ApollyCon wrap-ups yet! I'm sorry! I'm waiting on my friend to send me the photos first. But, truthfully, I've just been really lazy. I'm also on a work deadline, so coming home to type more stuff isn't super fun after sitting on the computer all day. I'll get to it, though. It's coming. I swear. Other than work, life has been pretty much the same. I've bought way too many books. I've slept. I've worked out. I've eaten. Rinse and repeat.

For this week's haul, I have too much. Once again. During Barnes & Noble's 25% off preorder sale, I ordered the Lightlark series boxset, not realizing it was releasing at the end of April, after I'd already spent oh-so-much money on ApollyCon and the bajillion other things that were for sale that month. So, even though I wasn't ready to spend the money, I have them now. I also received my first Illumicrate subscription book. April's book was The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, which I've already read and reviewed. I'm not necessarily in love with Illumicrate's edition for this one, but it's not terrible. I was just hoping for something similar to their Amelie Wen Zhao set. I'm not sure if I'll buy the sequels to this one via Illumicrate, either. It'll depend on the design/price, I guess, since Illumicrate doesn't use a US distributor for their sequels.

 

 

I also purchased the Dutch edition of Born of Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout. It's the limited first-print run, so it has the pretty stenciled edges. It's also a brick of a book, if you can't tell. Speaking of brick books, apparently The Primal of Blood and Bone is going to be longer than BOBAA! Woohoo! I'm also excited it won't be the last Poppy book, as I learned at ApollyCon but was only recently announced to the general public. I knew there was no way JLA could wrap everything up in one book, especially if she had a hard time doing it for the Flesh & Fire series.

 

 

Next up, I have a bit of an impulse purchase, but not really. Crazily enough, I was looking at all of Ariana Nash's books that I've read, and I started thinking about buying them. Lo and behold, like a few days later, she says that the covers for the first three books in the Blackrose Brotherhood series are going out of print. The new covers aren't my cup of tea, so I immediately ordered the three older ones from Amazon, along with an extra A Shadow in the Ember hardback that arrived damaged and I have to return. Sigh. But yeah, now I have these three. I still have like 20 more Ariana books to buy, though. Eeek.

 

And lastly, I have the ebooks. Both are Kindle Unlimited copies. I downloaded the third book in the Kingdom of Lies series by Stacia Stark, A Crown This Cold and Heavy. I'd like to read this one right now, but I have an e-ARC I'm reading at the moment that I'd like to complete a review for soon. I also downloaded Steal the Wind by Jocelynn Drake, which I think I've borrowed from KU before and just didn't get to it at the time, I'm hoping to try again, though. 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The Thumb Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

I think I've finally recovered from ApollyCon, though my wallet and the bruise on my leg from my book cart don't quite agree. I'm not lying when I say I spent way too much money on books this month. Well, way too much money in general. Other than that, I've been working, going to the gym, and reading. That's about it. Life is boring again, and that's okay.

For this week's haul, I have a book I didn't expect to get any time soon with a photo that has my thumb covering the important parts of the book. It's the deluxe, sprayed-edge version of God of Malice by Rina Kent. After my Walmart order of this book was canceled and I searched reseller sites for it to no avail, I thought I'd never get my hands on the first book in the series with the matching edges. But some kind soul on on a Facebook reseller group page found a couple of copies in her local store and offered to send them to people. I immediately commented SOLD, even though I, once again, have spent way too much money on books this month. But now, the set matches and I can do a full read of the series physically versus via ebook. I don't know why, but that's the way my brain wants to do it, even though the entire series is on Kindle Unlimited and that's how I read the fifth book originally. (It's a series of standalones, so I purposefully skipped to book five.)

 

 

Next up, I have a Kresley Cole No Rest for the Wicked print from Rosie Scribbles. I actually won this in a giveaway that I'd forgotten I'd entered on Instagram. Rosie gave me the option of this print or one from A Hunger Like No Other. I couldn't decide because A Hunger Like No Other is the first book in the series, and I love it so much, but I also really like this artwork too. So, I let Rosie decide for me, and she sent me this one. Yay for not making hard decisions! And thank you, Rosie! Also, my print did get wet because of the torrential downpours we've had over the past couple of weeks, so it's kind of misshapen now. Lol.

 

And lastly, I have the ebooks. Both are KU downloads. The first is Forged in Blood by Sadie Kincaid. The reason I downloaded this is because there's a LitHaven sale for a special edition happening right now, and it's very pretty. I'd like to see if I like the book before I buy, though. I also got A Love Most Fatal by Kath Richards. This was a random TikTok recommendation that I decided I should immediately download. We'll see how soon I get to it. Ha ha. 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The Post-ApollyCon Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Well, I'm back from ApollyCon, and I haven't recovered. I need like a week of sleep, and then another week to put all my new stuff and my suitcases away. But alas, I have to work. Ugh. But, I will say, it was fun. Hectic and tiring, as always, but fun. I'll have my full recap posts up within the next few weeks, but right now, I'm just trying to mentally get back to my regular schedule.

For this week's haul, I had some stuff arrive while I was gone. I had my sister pick it up from my doorstep, since it was going to rain. I guess I should invest in one of those package dropoff boxes or something. Lol. My Barnes & Noble preorders for Blood of Hercules (the white and gold hardcovers), Firebird by Juliette Cross, and The Never List by Jade Presley came in. From Orbit, I also received an ARC of The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O'Keefe.

 

 

My Arcane Blood and Ash set also arrived a few days ago. They're really pretty, but I can't decide which side of the dust jackets to display. The original sides are really unique, as they have scenery depictions versus characters, but the character art reverse dust jackets are pretty. Ugh. Dilemmas. The order also came with a few Poppy and Cas prints. The only bad thing about all these Blood and Ash sets is I have to now find places to put them. Oof.   

 

 

Next up, I have something else that arrived while I was away: my Blood and Ash character cards from Imagine Books. I actually picked up the Flesh and Fire cards at ApollyCon, so you'll see those later. I really like the artwork for Poppy and Kieran on these cards. I'm also excited to get the Books for Days Crate/Imagine Books Blood and Ash set soon too.

 

And right when I thought I had everything photographed and ready to go for this post, my dad shows up with a FairyLoot box. My preorder of Blood of Hercules arrived. Yes, that means I have three copies of this book in one haul post. Yikes. I really need to read it and decide if I want to keep all of these editions. I actually have the paperback already and a couple more editions on the way as well. Double yikes. I'm on page 50, since we're reading this for book club, so I'll soon know if it's worth me spending so much money. My gut feeling so far is maybe not... It's reading a bit like Susan Ee's Penryn & the End of Days series but the main character's narration style is odd, so we shall see.

 

 

 

I don't even know what to say. These are all the books I got at ApollyCon. Not the ones I brought. They're just the ones I got at the event. The preorders I picked up included the Titan series in hardcover, Stacia's Stark's Kingdom of Lies special editions 1-4, Curse of Shadows and Thorns by L.J. Andrews special edition, the Books for Days Crate editions of A Shadow in the Ember and Kingdom of Crowns and Daggers by K.A. Knight, Court of Nightmares and Racing Hearts by K.A. Knight, The Umbra King by Jamie Applegate-Hunter, The Curse of Ophelia by Nicole Platania, Lady of Darkness and Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa Roehrich, the Fae Isles series books 1-4 by Lisette Marshall, Till Death by Miranda Lyn, and The Wraith King by Juliette Cross. 

 

Now, for books I got for free at the event, those include two Kresley Cole books, an ARC of Stacia Stark's This Vicious Dream, the ApollyCon edition of A Shadow in the Ember, what came in my Primal bag (Arcane edition of Torn, Born of Blood and Ash, The Return, Revolt, Nightmare Before Kissmas, Heart of Defiance, and A Curse of Scales & Flame). I actually traded a cowboy romance for A Curse of Scales & Flame, and I left a Sarah MacLean title for whoever wanted a free book. Historical romance just isn't my thing. Now, for books I bought at the event. I'm pretty impressed with my self-control, as I only bought three books: the Arcane editions of Wicked and Brave and Invoking the Blood by Kalista Neith. The Kalista Neith book was by far the most expensive. I didn't know it was $75, or I probably would have passed, since I don't know if I like the book.

 

As for ebooks, I only have one. I downloaded Stacia Stark's A Kingdom This Cursed & Empty, book two in the Kingdom of Lies series, from Kindle Unlimited after I finished book one, A Court This Cruel and Lovely. I'm about halfway through it now. It's a pretty fun fae romantasy series, and, since I got the spinoff ARC at ApollyCon, I'll be able to read that right away. Woohoo!

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Review: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

The Raven Scholar

Antonia Hodgson

(The Eternal Path #1)

Publication Date: April 15, 2025

Paperback, 672 pages, Orbit

Genres: Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads

From an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes The Raven Scholar, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth.

 

Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best.

 

Then one of them is murdered.

 

 It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.

 

 If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen.

 

We are the Raven, and we are magnificent.

My Review

As someone whose favorite genre is romantasy, I'm always pleasantly surprised when an epic fantasy is able to suck me in. The Raven Scholar is one of those books. After about the 50-page mark, I would pick this giant tome up and just read and read until I had to go to bed. The murder-mystery and political intrigue were addicting.

I went into this story thinking we were going to follow the main character from the prologue, but, no, we actually follow the second character introduced in the prologue, Neema Kraa, who went from a lonely scholar to being an assistant to the emperor because of a pretty questionable deed. Neema isn't necessarily the most likeable character, nor is she terrible. She's human, and she makes mistakes while also being wicked intelligent. Her interactions with the characters around her are what make her story so interesting. For instance, Cain, the fox contender, has some hilarious moments. Her interactions with Ruko, Bersun, and Yasila also have you on edge, waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

What's also interesting is the narration for this story isn't told just from Neema's point of view. It's actually an omniscient narrator type of style. However, the narrator is a character (or characters, depending on how you look at it) in their own right. Which brings me to Sol. He's a raven "animal" companion that truly reminded me of Mephi from Andrea Stewart's Drowning Empire trilogy, and while originally I was a little hesitant about him, he grows on you very fast. His antics had me laughing out loud multiple times.

As for the plot, it's all one giant whodunnit. Kind of in the vein of Knives Out or Glass Onion, just set in the backdrop of a fantasy world with some dangerous trials thrown in. The world itself is based off of eight animal gods/spirits that kind of inhabit the characteristics of each sect. For instance, there are the raven, fox, tiger, and dragon sects. The foxes are my favorites. They're so random.

All in all, I am truly happy I read this book and branched out from my typical genres. The Raven Scholar has made me eager to get back into reading non-romance-focused fantasy. Though, there is a small romance element in this book that kept my heart-eyes alive, thankfully. But, if you're looking for a fantasy mystery book that has the same vibes as The Bone Shard Daughter or the start of The Poppy War, I'd say you definitely want to pick this one up.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion/review.