A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy

 

Welcome Back Booklovers,

I've read some really solid fantasy this year by Black authors that really immersed me into the world and made me feel. This was not one of those fantasies.This was one of the driest fantasies if not the driest fantasy I've read all year!

To start in the blurb this was described as inspired by North African culture? Where? No seriously, where? Because I barely saw West African influence and after reading books like A Song of Wraiths and Ruin this year which did a great job blending things from different worlds and showing the inspiration they took from North African culture this one just fell flat. I was expecting rich descriptions of food and festivals and traditions. This was just giving me generic fantasy world vibes throughout. Even the dancing scene early on just felt uninspired and wasn't giving me the tension and the chemistry I expected.

I wanted to care about these characters but I just didn't. The lead Evalina or Eva for short is destined to be queen but first she must fight her sister Isadore to the death per tradition. It sounds interesting doesn't it? We're subject to reminiscing many times about how things used to be better between Eva and her sister before they learned the truth about rival heirs. 

I felt like much of this story was full of info-dump and Eva's whining about not being able to control her magic and being compared to Queen Raina. I know teen princess and privileged means yes at times she's going to be whiny but I didn't find it very balanced. Nothing really stood out about Eva beyond her magick. She was just the good princess afraid of her magic because of the potential she had to ruin lives with it. She was so afraid of history repeating itself through her though she never actually studied the history to avoid those mistakes which is something pointed out to her. 

The most interesting thing was probably the different races that comprise this world which are humans, fey, bloodkin, and khimaer. Of the four only humans, bloodkin, and fey are allowed to live freely in the capital with each having their own sector.

I felt some slight colorism tones in the way they kept emphasizing how light the mother is and how light Isa and their beauty in comparison to Eva. And then the mother favors Isa who resembles her more looks and personality wise. On top of that I wanted more from the sister dynamics. Maybe it would've been better if this story was dual pov and we got to see why Isa treated her sister like trash earlier on.

I think the only reason I got through this instead of DNFing was because I listened to the audiobook alongside it even though the narration was dull.  The narrator was definitely not doing her best to sell this story. The big events just felt glossed over with little impact when I was expecting my world to be rocked. There seemed to be a lot of redundancy with the assassination attempts and then training and preparation for the name day ceremony. To be honest by the end I didn't give a damn about any of these characters. 

Why did she have more chemistry with her teacher Bacca than Aketo? And if you hate insta-love in these stories then watch out for the relationship between Eva and Aketo because one minute they were fighting the next they were in love. This was the worst shoe-horned romance I've come across in a long time. Where did they make the leap? Where was the build up? 

You might like this book if you are a fan of books about fae/fey. I'm actually surprised that Penguin Teen didn't market that aspect of this story more to that crowd. 

If you're looking for an African inspired fantasy that takes you on a magical journey I suggest reading my review of A Song of Wraiths and Ruins instead and pick up that book. Or read the newly released Raybearer. Both take you on a journey that keeps you enthralled.