Rich, vivid world!

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jessie sedai of the black ajah Avatar

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Wow, the designer of this book was a stylistic genius! Every aspect of this book feels diligently crafted, almost sacred. Opening it feels like cracking open a divine tome, something archaic and beautiful. The weight of the book, it's thick pages, and a stunning cover make it all just so lavish and tempting it's hard to hold without peering inside.

And I was not disappointed with the contents. There is a vibrancy to this story that is undeniable. The cultural inspiration creates a vivid scene that is wonderfully unique to anything I've ever read in the genre. Ximena is a decoy condessa, a fake leader - it's her duty to pretend to be the leader of the Illustrians, a refugee group exiled by a usurper king. When a deal is struck to marry the tyrant King to promote relations, it is Ximena who is imprisoned in the enemy fortress until their wedding day, hoping to steal an artifact that will give her people an edge in overthrowing him.

Ximena is not your picture perfect protagonist - far from it. She makes a slew of mistakes as a leader that she pays dearly for. Violence, torture, death of characters abound, and Ximena's journey towards self-discovery is paved with hardship and grief. Most of the book is actually pretty bleak, which makes it all relatively the same tone. I found myself not being able to exhale, take a breath, because Ximena's situation was always just so tense.

But there were so many moments that made it all worth it. I loved the introduction of El Lobo into the mix. It reminded me of Princess Bride meets Zorro, and I loved not knowing for certain who the man under the mask was but dying to know.

Oh, and the fact that one of the love interests was known as the "smelly grump" but he was still irresistibly appealing? Now, that's just good writing right there.

This is definitely worth a read!