Many thanks to Clarion Books for sending me an eARC through Netgalley to read and review prior to the publishing date, and thank you Makiia Lucier for writing such a wonderful story.

Content Warnings:
- Implied torture
- Gore
- Illness
- Amputation
- Human experimentation

Year of the Reaper was a retelling of the Goose Girl combined with the infamous Black Plague. We start off with meeting Princess Jehan on her journey to marry the King of Oliveras, Rayan. After the prologue and meeting her, we shift to the POV of Lord Cassia. I don't read many books where males are the main character, so it was intriguing. In addition, the story is told entirely from a third-person limited point of view. Cassia was an interesting character since he could see SOME ghosts, but not others. I wish Lucier would have expanded more on this power versus only including when it was necessary, so it would be more believable (I know, seeing ghosts isn't REAL most of the time, but still). However, the rest of the story's elements were well-written. We find Cas on his journey back to his home, Palmerin Keep, after three years of being gone. He had been gone for three after he was captured and forced to labor for an enemy kingdom. To add to this, he nearly died from the plague that swept the lands at the time.

But he survives and finds his home the refuge of the royal court. He finds a web of lies and secrets after an assassination attempt on the queen and newborn prince. The king's sister and royal historian, Lena, helps him in his attempts to solve who was the assassin. It becomes obvious rather quickly who did it, but the why leaves them stumped. The only way they will figure it out is if they talk to the woman who was once closest to the queen when she was still a princess (THIS TWIST WAS AMAZING. I didn't see it coming at all and was like . . . WAIT WHAT?!?!?). The newfound peace created by Rayan and Jehan's marriage is threatened and Cas (with Lena's help) must figure it out before the war between Brisa and Oliveras is renewed. This plot kept be in its thrall and I binged this book in one day.

DO NOT JUDGE THIS BOOK BY ITS COVER. It is a beautiful cover, yes, but it has NOTHING to do with the story (besides the mace held by the statue on the cover). Honestly, the title doesn't really either (unless Lucier was liking the plague to a reaper and in that case, it does KIND OF make sense).

Year of the Reaper was also an interesting read for me because I haven't read a fantasy book in a LONG time that didn't have some sort of magic in it. I actually enjoyed it though, since the mystery more than made up for it. I think this book would have been better classified as paranormal and/or mystery for this reason. The worldbuilding was pretty good - I couldn't actually get a feel for the layout of the countries/ cities, and the history for WHY Brisa and Oliveras were at war was not mentioned, nor the start of the plague. However, the mention of literature, customs, weapons, and clothing were incorporated well.

My biggest problem: there was no real conflict in the story. Yes, there was an assassination attempt on the queen. Yes, there was a plague going on in the world. However, the assassination attempt felt very much like it was on the sidelines and the plague . . . the characters weren't even trying to fix it. They just ignored/avoided it. The other issue I had was with the side characters being flat, even Lena, the love interest (I would NEVER call this a "romantic" standalone as the synopsis promised, just FYI. Far from it, in fact).

Overall though, I enjoyed the story and found it very interesting.