Globe, The Boston; Sancken, Joshunda Sanders, Kate Tuttle, Jason Myers, Hannah VanderHart, Laura Koenig, Renata. I’m out here trying to diversify my bookshelf, and I realized really the only other fantasy series I had on my shelves that was written by a black author is Children of Blood and Bone.

The trials of the Solstasia competition weave together with the lavish parties of the wealthy as well as the riotous revelry of the lower city in Ziran, creating a complex tapestry of culture that is simply enchanting and original. Malik and his sisters are poor refugees from the Eshra Mountains who are heading to Ziran to find a job. But when their falsified papers are stolen before they can even get inside the city, things seem hopeless until a wish is granted by a mysterious storyteller.

Thanks to Cath, I've found out Fairyloot has a limited exclusive edition of this book, all of the profits for which go to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which supports the Black College Community and thousands of Black college students. I don't remember ever reading a fantasy that has a main POV character with major anxiety, who experiences panic attacks quite frequently.

Without knowing it, Karina and Malik are set on a collision path, each determined to kill the other. But I have to say with the hype the romance in this book has gotten, there's honestly not much of it.Not only that, but it treats its villains with compassion and does not rest on the trite cliché of “good vs evil”. Although we only got glimpses for most of them, they completely intrigued me and I can't wait to see more of them in the future. A refugee escaping his crumbling war-torn home alongside his sisters, seeking a better life in the very city that wreaked havoc on his country - only for a dangerous spirit to steal his younger sister and trap him in an impossible deal.