Switching POVS between Eva and Reina (although there’s a heavy focus on Reina so it felt more like Eva was just another side character at times).

Heavily influenced by Venezuelan myth/folklore which is very clear-I loved the stories of the gods and learning that one of the plot points is inspired by the Bolivarian revolution.

Aside from the unique use of South American culture and history being used in this high fantasy novel, I also appreciated the uniqueness of the magic system/creatures! I don’t read a lot of fantasy but there are so few that use geomancy (metal magic) and feature creatures that aren’t fae, elves, etc so I really liked that.

A bit slow with the pacing so I wasn’t fully immersed and I was never motivated to pick it up. Some chapters are intense and really grabbed me while others felt like a lot of overly descriptive/passive details that didn’t pertain to the plot or world building.

I would prefer less flowery descriptive writing and more action, especially with a fantasy novel! I can do flowery descriptions sometimes I’m other genres but with fantasy I expect action and faster pacing 

The chapters are long and not much is happening. It started with so much promise but for being a fantasy novel, it’s incredibly slow paced. It does more telling than showing and it’s a unique story. I love mythology/folklore inspired books and would’ve loved to have read one that wasn’t the usual Greek centered but sadly it’s not working for me. It could be much shorter and would’ve benefited from another heavy round of editing to cut a lot of the unnecessary detailing, fixing the pace, and making more equally balanced POVs.

 I gave this book way longer than I normally do because I was so excited to read it and wanted it to work sooo badly 😭 it tackles issues such as racism, religious bigotry, and colonialism in such a unique way; it held a lot of promise but fell flat in its execution.