Storm of Ash blog tour review

The brand new novel from Michelle Kenney, author of the Book of Fire and City of Dust!

As Talia treks back through the treacherous North Mountains, she knows only three things:

Pantheon has stolen nearly everyone she loves;
Her blood is the only control over the Voynich’s oldest secret;
And Cassius won’t stop hunting Arafel until every last outsider is destroyed.

Will Talia finally face her legacy and defeat Cassius before it is too late?

I'm really pleased to join the blog tour for Storm of Ash! I only started this series recently and it's been so lovely to read all three books in a short space of time. I feel like I really got to know the characters and got absorbed in the world.

A real strength of this trilogy is that the action builds through each book and new details about the mythology are revealed. Storm of Ash wraps everything up and will take you through every emotion! These books balance different elements really well, from world-building and tense action to romance.

Talia is probably the hardest part of this series to let go of at the end. She grows so much and is such a decisive character with plenty of agency. I loved the relationships she developed with different characters through the series. There are so many memorable characters in this books (Unus and Eli are two of my favourites!)

I'd definitely recommend these books to fantasy fans and I can't wait to see what Michelle Kenney writes next!

Thank you to Harper Collins for the review copy and including me on the blog tour! My post wraps up the tour but you can still check out the previous posts using the banner below.

A Throne of Swans by Katharine & Elizabeth Corr

When her father dies just before her birthday, seventeen-year-old Aderyn inherits the role of Protector of Atratys, a dominion in a kingdom where nobles are able to transform at will into the bird that represents their family bloodline. Aderyn’s ancestral bird is a swan.

But she has not transformed for years, not since witnessing the death of her mother - ripped apart by hawks that have supposedly been extinct since the long-ago War of the Raptors.

With the benevolent shelter of her mother and her father now lost, Aderyn is at the mercy of her brutal uncle, the King, and his royal court. Driven by revenge and love, she must venture into the malevolent heart of the Citadel in order to seek the truth about the attack that so nearly destroyed her, to fight for the only home she has ever known and for the land she has vowed to protect.

I loved everything about this book! The writing is gorgeous, the characters are memorable and the world is well-crafted. It's one of my YA fantasies of the year, if not the last few years.

It's one of those books that I tried to read slowly because I was enjoying it so much. I think a lot of that is to do with the first-person voice, which feels completely believable and full of lyrical descriptions.

I thought the plotting was great too: it kept my attention and I enjoyed trying to put the pieces together alongside Aderyn. She's an interesting character, who has agency and makes mistakes. I'm looking forward to seeing how she develops in the second part of the duology.

I also really enjoyed the world building. The history of the world is well thought out and it made me wish I knew more about Swan Lake so I could fully appreciate all of the references!

The e-book is already out and the paperback will be released on 7th January. It's available to preorder now and I highly recommend it! I can't wait for the second book and I'm sure I'll be rereading this one in the meantime. 





Thanks so much to Hotkey Books for the review copy and lovely goodies that came with it!