Firstly I just want to say thank you so much to Orbit for sending me a free copy of this book. Due to getting married it took me a while to get round to but I am so grateful that you sent me a copy of this book.

This is such a wonderful debut novel, there are so many complexities that you see in experienced fantasy authors. Evan really has given some of my favourite authors a run for their money and this is his first novel.

This book begins with a prologue, a prologue that is in the midst of a great battle. You are literally thrown into the action from the first sentence of this book and I instantly knew that I would love this story so much. There is no time to ease yourself in, Evan throws you straight into the action. You may as well begin this book on the edge of your seat, don’t both sitting back and getting comfortable because this action filled book will not allow you to do so.

I absolutely love the world that Evan has created. The magic system may be one of my favourites. The idea that the “gifted” can use their special powers in order to feed the strength and agility of warriors in battle. I’m not sure I’ve read any fantasy with this kind of magic system so to me it felt unique. I really enjoyed getting to know the system, how it worked and I absolutely loved seeing it being used in battle. I love seeing the success and victory as a result of the two being used in conjunction with each other. Also, DRAGONS. I don’t really need to say much more, we all know that any book including dragons will always win my heart. I also loved the draconic and demonistic dark side of this magic system, I loved when characters tapped into it during a battle scene and seeing the aftermath of them doing so.

Tau is the main character in this book, at the beginning he irritated me but he quickly grew on me. The book begins with Tau not wanting to become a warrior, he wants to settle down with the girl he loves and have a family. However the death of his father (this scene killed me) leads him to a change of mind .. he wants revenge and wanting revenge is dangerous. Tau, trains day in and day out in order to become a Ihashe – a warrior of the lesser caste. I loved seeing his character develop and him becoming the man that he did. I ended up loving him and routing for his every move, even if I didn’t agree with some of the choices that he made. There is a slow-burn romance in this book that isn’t really the centre of the plot however it is in the background. I absolutely loved Zuri as a character and together I think they made a great team. Obviously, it couldn’t be long lived and I hated seeing what happened to Zuri and the affect that it had on Tau. Yes, Evan definitely has a habit of pulling on my heartstring already.

I loved the final battle, I feel like it was done so maturely and in a way that I just couldn’t get enough. It happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to think about my theories and therefore didn’t see it coming. I feel like this book was left on such a cliffhanger and I need to know what happens next now. I’m not sure how I am going to be able to wait until July 2020 for the next instalment.

I would definitely recommend that people pick up this book and give it a go. It took me around 100 pages to get into it and around 400/500 pages to realise that there was a glossary at the back that could have helped me throughout. Forever observant. Never mind!

And on that note I’ll leave it here with:

“Blood. Will. Show.”