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A review by carrykyrie
Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares
adventurous
medium-paced
3.0
This book takes place in a post colonization Mexico where Lady Leonora, who is half Spanish and half indigenous, has been promised to the Prince of Spain. But she is also Pantera, a vigilante that uses her sword skills and magic to fight the injustices the Spanish crown is inflicting upon the indigenous peoples. While balancing these two lives, there’s also a prophecy that is threatening to become reality. I wish we could have actually seen Pantera in action more, I wanted to know more about how she came into this role. Be aware that the book does include snippets of Spanish (I recognized some from other books and a little bit from taking a spanish class in the past), but I used a kindle so it was easy for me to look up and didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. The pacing was a little weird at times, heavy dialogue and then heavy info dump. There were some awkward transitions towards the beginning. I also felt that there was a lot that was jammed into the book. The romance also just kind of felt awkward, maybe forced would be a better description? I’m not somebody who needs a romance subplot and I don’t mind if there is one, but it just really didn’t feel fleshed out.
There’s obviously quite a bit of Mesoamerican mythology that is included in this book (it really starts to come into play a little after half way) and I wasn’t too familiar with a lot of it, but this led me to researching into the mythology a little bit, which I really enjoyed too, since I’m a big mythology nerd. I worry that may discourage some people from reading it though, cause it’s a lot of information. But if you are willing to try something new and learn some new mythology, I think you would enjoy that part! I really started to enjoy it when the mythology picked up. I will admit I had to reread some areas where I got a little lost on what was going on. Again, I think the author may have been trying to do too many things in the book. I feel like this book could have benefited from actually being two books.
Overall, there were things that worked well and things that didn’t. I still think the setting was a bit refreshing, and I do appreciate that it was based off a place we don’t see a lot of in fantasy books. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
There’s obviously quite a bit of Mesoamerican mythology that is included in this book (it really starts to come into play a little after half way) and I wasn’t too familiar with a lot of it, but this led me to researching into the mythology a little bit, which I really enjoyed too, since I’m a big mythology nerd. I worry that may discourage some people from reading it though, cause it’s a lot of information. But if you are willing to try something new and learn some new mythology, I think you would enjoy that part! I really started to enjoy it when the mythology picked up. I will admit I had to reread some areas where I got a little lost on what was going on. Again, I think the author may have been trying to do too many things in the book. I feel like this book could have benefited from actually being two books.
Overall, there were things that worked well and things that didn’t. I still think the setting was a bit refreshing, and I do appreciate that it was based off a place we don’t see a lot of in fantasy books. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation