Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free copy.

This is another hard one for me to rate, because there are some really amazing parts in it. But there are also some not-so-great parts, and I'm going to cover those first. The pacing of this book felt really off. It felt like it went way too fast at some parts, rushing through things that should've been allowed more time to build. The rushing also weakened emotional impact. There is this scene early on that's done well, but as the story goes on it feels like the emotion's not there as strongly anymore. I can't explain without giving away spoilers, but for it being in first person, I didn't always feel the emotional response and conflict from our main character.

I hate always picking on the romance in YA, yet here we are again. This felt really rushed, too. It falls under the "enemies to lovers" trope, but I feel like some plot points were conveniently placed to let them make that progression a lot faster. I was buying them going from enemies to friends, but the lovers felt too rushed. They still don't know each other well and the first sign of her possibly not being on his side has him questioning her and not trusting her. Plus, I'm honestly just tired of having a romance subplot in every single YA I read lately. Is it really so hard to write a marketable YA novel without a romance in it?

Now let's talk world-building. I read that this is based on real Bolivian conflict. That's very cool and I love the mixture of Spanish and English words throughout the novel. What I don't really like is still not fully understanding what happened in this world. Rumi tells Ximena to read the history of his people, but she forgets the book in the dungeon and I don't think ever actually reads it. She just goes by what she sees and hears of the people around her. While it's good she's being more socially aware, it would've helped if she understood the history behind how and why all this happened. Especially as she's helping decide the future of the country. Artoc could've used more development, too. I don't know, maybe his character is based on a real person, but I feel like he was going to such an extreme when something more subtle would've been way more compelling. Have there be more of a gray area of the two rulers or something to really stamp in the message that they didn't understand each other's cultures/their past hurt was dictating how they treated each other in the present.

That said, those elements certainly are there. Both sides have a certain idea of how the other behaves and thinks, and the prejudice and hatred they have is clearly shown. They do progressively learn there is more to each other than what they believed, but maybe that's done a little too quickly? Sometimes it was hard to tell if this was Stockholm Syndrome or Ximena actually learning about the other side and vice versa. I was good but could've been better.

The magic was also really cool. Not entirely explained, but it didn't entirely need to be. I would advocate this to be a graphic novel just so I could see the designs of the tapestries Ximena creates as well as the animals. I would've liked more understanding of the religions, but I got a general idea of them.

Overall, it was creative, and I liked it taking Bolivian history and highlighting some of that culture and the language. I just wish the story took its time more and really dived into the ideas presented.

I really enjoyed this book and thought it was very interesting. The plot was very interesting and I was focused the entire time and never got bored. Would highly recommend this book!

What a unique and captivating book. Danger lurks between the lines and intricate palace intrigue thrills me to the bones. Meticulous researched with painstaking details, the intimate writing pulls the reader in. The characters possess plausible motives. The world exudes beauty and brutality. The plot is at once suspenseful and enjoyable. I loved the read!