Excellent debut fantasy

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Aside from the adorable cover, this book was a lot of fun to read. It was unexpectedly brutal in that the political climate felt very real. We don’t have villains going off on monologues. They kill brutally and swiftly. Something that I feel is not really seen in a lot of YA books.

I didn’t understand how tapestry magic works but you see more of it as the story goes on. Ximena and Catalina both have magic but we see them struggle to really understand the full potential of their magic. I think perhaps this might be because they were orphaned at a young age due to the war. Maybe they didn’t have that guidance to learn about it? Ximena begins to experiment more when she’s at the castle and through her magic we also get one of my favorite fantasy tropes: animal companions! And lots of them.

I don’t necessarily need detailed explanations of the magic system or the world but if you do this story might not be for you as it does not have much world-building. The magic system itself isn’t explained. In this world, some people have magic and some don’t. Having magic doesn’t seem to impact their social standing as Ximena’s maid also has abilities. But those who have stronger, more deadlier magic are in higher rankings in their service to the King. I feel like there is much about the world that didn’t get explained. It seems like Ximena and Catalina get their abilities from the moon or at least requires the presence of the moon. But Im not sure about others.

I really enjoyed so many aspects of the story: El Lobo (a masked vigilante), rich culture, decoy princess, magical abilities, princess in a tower, grumpy healer man, flirty teasing guard, political intrigue, etc. The romance was sweet but it focuses on the beginnings of a romance so it doesn’t get that angsty or intimate.

However, I did have a couple of issues with the book. First, Catalina’s character didn’t feel consistent. Granted we don’t see much of her since this is Ximena’s story, but her actions in the beginning of the story and later didn’t feel like the same person to me. This made for a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion to the book. The sequel companion novel follows Catalina after the events of this book so I’ll likely learn more about her.

The second issue is the pacing. The beginning is action-packed and exciting. It starts to meander in the middle with not much going on. We just follow Ximena in the castle trying to figure out what to do so it’s a lot of waiting around for something to happen. There is a battle scene at the end that was so good, though. I love fight/battle scenes and this was written so well. The book could be read as a standalone but it also ends quite abruptly with not much information on how the kingdom will continue on. It’s clear there’s going to be a sequel but since the sequel is a companion novel Im not sure if it will circle back to this kingdom to give more resolution. So in the end, I was left feeling like something was missing from the ending that would have made me really fall in love with it.