Welcome to another week of Epic Epilogue! This week I’ll be talking about a recent fantasy debut that already has me anticipating the sequel.

Drumroll please . . .

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

Trigger warnings with this book: self-harm, anxiety, family death, panic attacks

This book was published on June 2nd, 2020 but it swept through the book world, and there was a lot of hype for it. I’m glad to say it defiantly lived up to it.

Here’s the synopsis, if you didn’t know what it was about:

“For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.

But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.

When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?” Synopsis copied from Goodreads.  

A popular and well-loved trope is the two-people-must-kill-each-other-but-fall-in-love-instead trope and I’m glad to see it done by a Black author! I did have some reservations with the romance and the development of the characters’ relationships, and I discuss it in my review. But that’s the beauty with series, there’s more development in later books, so I’m not worried about it.

This duology is inspired by West African folklore, and with Brown’s phenomenal writing, the events all played in my mind like a movie. It reminded me of the experience I had reading Children of Blood and Bone, rich culture with fantasy to make a story that is so breathtaking.

Another thing—and this is something I really liked—that the princess suffered from migraines. Which is funny because I had a migraine for most of the time I was reading this book (not fun, don’t recommend). Malik, the other lead character, suffered from anxiety and panic attacks. Both these things were dealt with very well.

This book is everything you need in a fantasy and more: lush world building, complex characters that’ll make you fall for them, fast paced action, subtle romance, a competition, magic, parallels to real life, and more.

The second book is called A Psalm of Storms and Silence, and it’ll be the conclusion to the duology. It’ll probably be published around June, 2021!

I hope you decide to read this book and enjoy! If you’ve read it, let’s talk about it in the comments.

Thank you for reading and see you next time ❤