A Song of Wraiths and Ruin
Roseanne A. Brown
4/5
I'm going to be honest, for the first 40 percent or so of this book I couldn't see myself getting into it. But then it took off and it totally shocked me. I've seen it advertised as "Jasmine and Aladdin if they were trying to kill each other" and that fits it pretty well. Malik is a poor boy from an oppressed people and Karina is the princess of the kingdom which has been oppressing them. His little sister makes a mistake and finds herself ensnared by a demon, he promises to kill her to save her life. Karina lost her mother by an assassination and needs the heart of a king to reincarnate her. She offers the role of king to the person who wins their much anticipated games that only occur every fifty years.
Obviously, Malik fakes his way in in a typical Aladdin fashion and then lies about who he is. They're trying not to get close to each other because they're planning on murder, but they kind of just fall into place. I really appreciated how the prize of the games was offered regardless of gender- they normalize LGBT relationships on multiple fronts and I thought that was cool. I feel like every LGBT decision doesn't have to be a huge statement, casually including acceptance is cool too.
I had some problems with Karina at points cause I felt she was being needlessly mean. By the end though I was supporting all of her choices because obviously everyone deserved it. Honestly though, the plot twist at the end redeems her pretty well so if you find yourself losing interest I would really recommend pushing onwards.
If you love enemies to lovers romances then I'd recommend this series. The romance was kind of eh as it built up here and as they were both trying to kill each other but I think that a great foundation has been established. Can't wait to see where this series goes!
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