The first YA fantasy I've read in several months and it was well worth my time! Compelling characterization & relationships, a fascinating setting, and plot twists galore. I particularly liked the brothers' relationship and the never-quite-perfect resolution of tension between characters. Real life doesn't just solve itself, and neither did this book. But it did have a pretty good ending. And I will always enjoy the "tortured hero returns years later with a lot of scars and a brooding backstory" trope.

I still am not sure why it's called The Year of the Reaper, and the cover doesn't fit the book, but those are minor complaints. (Also, though there's no "magic," there are ghosts, the supernatural and selective appearance of which is never properly explained. Just, some people can see some of them, I guess.) Recommended for older teens & adults who enjoy Queen's Thief type stories (a good mix of city heist, court intrigue, and country wandering).