Song of Silver ,Flame like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao – book review/blog tour

I’m so pleased to be part of the blog tour for Song of Silver, Flame like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao- YA fantasy

Once, Lan had a different name. Now, she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and spends her days scavenging for remnants of the past. For anything that might help her understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother.No one can see the mysterious mark, an untranslatable Hin character, except Lan. Until the night a boy appears at the teahouse.
Zen is a practitioner – one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom, whose abilities were rumoured to be drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Magic to be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.
Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And destroy the world.

Review

One of the things I love about blog tours is coming across books that would never hit my radar like Song of Silver Flame like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao and I loved this YA Fantasy filled with magic, loss and anger.

I received a copy of this book for a free and unbiased opinion.

Power was a double-edged sword- but not to have it that was to have no weapon at all.

While this is a book about magic with all the usual themes you would expect in a YA book such as complicated romances, identity and angst, this book has so much more. It is a book that captures the feeling of being powerless and what anyone would do to protect themselves and the people they love.

The book describes the horrors of colonisation and the slow erosion of local culture either deliberately or accidentally as a result.

Lan and Zen are the two third-person narrators- Lan is searching for the truth about her mother and the seal she left on her arm as she died and Zen,  one of the last disciples of Hin magic and his own dark, secret.

I loved the world-building, the descriptions of the tea houses, the towns and the terrains Zen and Lan travel through are beautifully described and vivid, The magic used by the Hin magicians isn’t unique but the use of seals to hide and perform magic felt fresh and different.

The Elantians (the invaders) did feel a little one-dimensional but the Winter Magician felt truly evil and threatening.

The story races along and despite the sometimes dark themes, there is a humour and some sensual touches. The main plot of Lan’s identity does have a resolution ( to some degree) but the overriding arc of the story continues in the next book which I can’t wait to read

This is the first book that I have read by the author but I will be adding her backlist to my TBR list.

Content warning

Threats of sexual violence

Perfect for fans of

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by Sue Lynn Tan, THE FINAL STRIFE by Saara El-Arifi, and IRON WIDOW by Xiran Jay Zhao. The Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Leigh Burdago

Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim- Book review

I loved this middle eastern inspired YA fantasy full of spice, magic, djinns, rebellions and magic tea- here is my review of Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim.

Review

We will fight but first, we will have tea.

I loved this middle eastern inspired YA fantasy full of spice, magic, djinns, rebellions and magic tea- here is my review of Spice Road, the first book in the Spice Road Trilogy by Maiya Ibrahim.

The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman- book review

I enjoyed this South-East Asian Inspired YA Fantasy featuring secret societies, dying magic, royal intrigue and four conflicting siblings. Here is my review of the Ivory Key – the first in a duology.

Vira is desperate to get out of her mother’s shadow and establish her legacy as a revered queen of Ashoka. But with the country’s only quarry running out of magic–a precious resource that has kept Ashoka safe from conflict–she can barely protect her citizens from the looming threat of war. And if her enemies discover this, they’ll stop at nothing to seize the last of the magic.
Vira’s only hope is  the Ivory Key, rumored to unlock a new source of magic. But in order to infiltrate enemy territory and retrieve it, she must reunite with her siblings. Each of them has something to gain from finding the Ivory Key.They must work together to survive the treacherous journey. But with each sibling harboring secrets and their own agendas, the very thing that brought them together could tear apart their family–and their world–for good. 

Review

I loved this South-East Asian inspired fantasy-The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman, the first in a YA duology.

Witherward by Hannah Mathewson Book review

I picked up Witherward by Hannah Mathewson when I saw the amazing cover showing London below  London on a table full of fantasy books for adults in my local bookshop. This YA fantasy was an enjoyable, but predictable book.

Series Book 1 Witherward

Book 2 Wayward (review)

Genre YA fantasy

Review

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman, has to be one of my all-time favourite books-  a perfect fantasy of a  London down below, with interesting characters and lots of humour which has now left me buying books that shows any premise of a city hidden with a city. Witherward, a YA fantasy, where there is a hidden London not quite like ours with its own season and political factions and, of course, magic.

Ilsa Ravenwood, a magician’s assistant, in our London with the ability to shapeshift is struggling to get by while hiding her abilities. One day, she is dragged through a portal to the Witherward and thrown into the complicated politics of six rival magical factions, her attraction to Elliot, a conflicted teenager, and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Gideon Ravenswood, the alpha of the changelings. Isla discovers, she too is a  changeling from Witherward, smuggled to the other London when she was a baby to keep her safe when her mother, the ruler of Camden, was murdered and Gideon is her brother.