Hello friends, happy Monday I hope you are doing well! Today I’m going to be reviewing the first book in the A Song of Wraith and Ruins duology by: Roseanne A. Brown, A Song of Wraith of Ruins.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by: Roseanne A. Brown: The Solstasia festival has started and Malik sees this as an opportunity to leave home in search for a new life in Ziran with his sisters. But when a spirit kidnaps his younger sister, Nadia, the price to get her back is Princess Karina dead. Yet Karina has plans of her own; when her mother is assassinated, grief-stricken she intends to resurrect her mother with the heart of a beating king. In order to do this, she announces that whoever wins the Solstasia competition, wins her hand in marriage, yet in order to get close to Karina, Malik joins this competition. This was a whirlwind of a novel, although it did start off really slow. The reader had a bit of a time trying to find the reason to continue, but once they did, the pacing was still slow, but the action did pick up and the stakes got higher and the reader was completely invested. There were a lot of plot twists thrown in and a lot of moments that had the reader questioning character motives and what was going to happen. This was definitely like a rollercoaster because one thing after another kept happening and it was never clear, in a good way, how things were going to be resolved. The world building was vivid and elaborate, which didn’t help with the pacing, but it did open the reader’s eyes to this world, the magic and it was all very detailed. As for the characters, they were so well written. The way Malik’s anxiety was written was so relatable and so well portrayed. Even though he was sent on this quest watching him struggle with right and wrong of the situation he was in made him feel so human. On the flip side watching Karina try to navigate her way through becoming a royal leader and the struggles she had to face made her a compassionate character and when the two meet and become acquainted it made for great storytelling. The way this ended left both the plots and the characters set up for the next novel and the reader can’t wait to dive in and see the characters again. This was an incredible debut; we can’t wait to see what comes next.