Quite a slow paced, introspective fantasy with a heavy focus on politics and personal relationships, both familial and romantic. It’s not necessarily a huge page turner for those looking for something action packed, but I really enjoyed the gradual build up - it made the turning point that much more dramatic, and the emotional fallout more effective. The characters are so multi faceted that I’m still not sure who I’m rooting for, looking forward to book 2 so I can delve even deeper into the lore.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bindery Books for the ARC!

This was a unique story and beautifully written. The characters were well formed and the story has good pacing.

Black Salt Queen is rich in imagery and Philippine pre-colonial culture. I loved the world building, the intricacies between each characters, and the layered plot of the story. Although I loved Laya and Luntok, I really enjoyed the the dynamics between Imeria and Duja and their love/hate relationship spanning the last two decades.

I was surprised to be so invested in Ariel Sauros' character... he reminded me a bit of Milo Thatch from Atlantis.

I thought the first half of the book was a bit slow, with the second half taking off with action. I had hoped there were more interactions with the characters to give a more "show not tell" feeling.

I can't wait for the next book into the series and see what's in store for the characters.

This is a political fantasy the brings in Filipino mythology to create an interesting world for this story to take place in.

The Kingdom Maynara is ruled by Hari Duja who is blessed by the Gods to have the power of manipulating the earth. Her second daughter and heir, Laya has the ability to manipulate air and her youngest Eti can manipulate metal. Her oldest Bulan is a skilled sword fighter. Their family dynamic is complicated and plays into some of the issues that arise as the story progresses and the political unrest becomes more prominent.

Oposite this family is Imeria and her son Luntok. Luntok is in love with Laya and determined to marry her. Imeria and Hari Duja have a long history that has cause Imeria to maneuver her way closer to the throne and the potential downfall of Duja’s family.

There is a lot of political maneuvering to gain power and control of the country of Maynara and debate on who is best to lead. I believe that as a reader you have mixed feeling toward Laya and what she believes about her place in the world through most of this story. She is hard to love up until the end of this story. I feel like Imeria is portrayed as a great politicking mind but toward the end there are some comments that make it seems as though she got there through pure vengeance with no mind to the politics.
4.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Bindery Books and Samantha Bansil for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to Black Salt Queen because of its description. I enjoyed the world building, magic system, and the character’s abilities.

However, I was not necessarily invested in the relationships among the characters. Laya and Luntok’s relationship fell flat for me. Because of my indifference to them, I didn’t have any emotional reactions to the events that transpired between them. I liked the complexity of Duja and Imeria’s relationship better, but it still didn’t hit the mark for me.

It became more engaging towards the end. Overall, it was a good book.

Black Salt Queen is such a good story. I couldn't stop reading this book for a bit. I rate this story 5 stars because it's that good and the characters are perfect!

I clever well written story! Interesting and captivating- and different in a good way :)
The vibes and worldbuilding were nicely done. Great work for a debut.

I liked the idea of this book, but the set up took entirely too long. By the time I thought, oh the actions getting started I realized I was 40 pages from the end. Seems like it’s setting up for a sequel, but I thought the world building and personal relationships just took too long to set up.

This was my most anticipated read for 2025! The complex relationships and morally gray characters made this story so intriguing. The twists, political alliances, and magic makes this everything I want in a fantasy. I especially loved the nod to a precolonial Philippines.

Loved this. If your favorite genre is "two people talking in a room" (I devour it in spades) with political intrigue and fraught interpersonal relationships, this is the book for you. Absolutely loved the thematic parallels between Duja and Laya, and how generational trauma affects the relationships we build with each other.

I didn't really buy the reason why Duja and Imeria fell out, but it's a small detail in an otherwise stellar book. It's beautifully written and has a great sense of place. An incredibly touching read.

This didn’t work for me in many ways. The pacing, for one, was so off. The plot is completely stagnant until over halfway through, and even then, it’s not exactly complex or interesting. My biggest gripe, though, was the characters. None of them showed much depth, or any kind of growth, and one in particular was annoyingly vapid. I think we were supposed to like her? I did not. And in the end, I couldn’t tell you the point of the story being told.

This book had such an intriguing premise, and its setting in fantastical precolonial Filipino was the nice cherry on top that pushed me to request this book. Now that I have read it, all I'm left with is a simple shrug while saying, "Yeah, it's alright."

Let's start with the positives, such as the worldbuilding. The magic system is the strong undercurrent that moves through the book's landscape, from the political turmoil to religious beliefs. The driving conflict between the Gatdulas and Kulaws spans at least two generations, and the history between them is rich and complex. The conflict between Duja and Imperia especially was drove me to keep reading.

The downsides to the book are primarily its writing and characters. There were a lot of exposition dumps about the worldbuilding that halted the story too often for my liking, and it didn't help that the tone got a bit dry as well. It bogged down the pacing; I was kind of over it even when the pace sped up in the last third when all that buildup finally was paying off.

The POVs in this book are primarily Laya, Duja, and Imperia, but there are also random dashes of Luntok and Laya's littlest sister that didn't feel very necessary. Laya's POV, particularly, suffered a lot because, despite the narrative telling us how smart and powerful she is, her thoughts and actions made her out to be immature and stuck up; she didn't really grow as a character until the story forced her to at the very end. I also wished we got to see the conflict between her and Duja more, because I never really felt the animosity of their relationship other than what the narrative told us.

All and all, a fine read, but not quite what I wanted from it.

Island fantasy with family dynamics, politics, and romance? Sign me up! It gave Island Game of Thrones.
I'm not going to lie, the first half of this book was slog. As the characters were introduced and the plot starts to form, the pacing was very mid... but the ending MORE than makes up for it! Will definitely recommend this one this year. I'm so glad I stumbled into this publisher's works this year; Every single title/work has been a hit!

Black Salt Queen had me hooked from the start! I will be waiting ever-so-impatiently to continue my adventure with the Gatdula sisters. This story had everything this fantasy reader could want, magic, royal court politics, secrets, romantic relationships that fit into the larger story, and an ending that had me reaching for a tissue. A seriously strong debut!

"Black Salt Queen" is an engaging story that interrogates how a desire for power influences love. This book takes place within a world where one family, the ruling line of a small nation, possess god-like powers which they can use to protect their people from the threat of imperialist forces which are expanding in the region. The book follows three main perspective characters. Duja is the queen, and is reckoning with declining health, doubt in her daughter Laya’s ability to take the throne, and growing tension with Imeria, her childhood lover and greatest enemy to her reign. Laya, a princess of Maynara and heir to the throne, is navigating both the judgement of her mother and a desire to be with Luntok, the son of Imeria whom she is forbidden from marrying. Finally, Imeria seeks the throne for her son, questioning the power of the ruling line. The story interrogates how a desire for power shapes the relationships between these and other characters, and how this intertwines with the politics of the nation.

This book is the first of a series, a does a great job setting up the world. I enjoyed the magic system a lot—while the royal line are thought to be the only family with otherworldly powers, other families are said to have once possessed their own, and seek to reawaken their lost abilities. The characters and their dynamics are also really interesting: Laya, Duja, and Imeria are all strong characters with unique views on power and relationships. There are also a cast of strong side characters with really interesting stories and motivations. I really enjoyed the world this book developed and look forward to reading more within the series.

My main issue with the book is that the scope is so broad that some characters and ideas felt unexplored. Bulan is the oldest princess, but was born without power, making her ineligible to rule; her relationship with Laya and anger at a world which denies her her birthright is super interesting but just not able to be explored in much depth in this book. Ariel, an alchemist from a neighboring land which has been conquered by foreign enemies is similarly super interesting but underdeveloped simply because this book is doing so much. There are many other ideas like this; characters with really compelling plots that the book just doesn’t have the time to explore. While this does help set up future books, it leaves this lacking some impact because so many ideas are not given as much depth as I would have liked. Moreover, by covering so much, even the main three characters’ stories lack some depth. It felt to me as though this book tried to do too much.

I am giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. I strongly suspect that I will love this series as more books come out. I am definitely hooked—the characters and their unique perspectives and goals are all super compelling and definitely motivate me to read more. However, this book suffered a bit from doing too much, and thus felt a bit surface-level at times. I look forward to reading more from the author!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Black Salt Queen paints a beautiful fantasy world in bright colours, though ultimately I struggled to connect with it in the way I had wanted to. There were elements that worked very well – the world building, some of the characters that are not given regular chapters from their POV – but ultimately they were weighed down by one POV in particular. Laya as a character reads exactly the way that her mother Duja describes her: immature, impulsive, and a bit of a know-it-all. We don’t really see her grow, and her character is described as smart and alluring, when we see nothing of this in action.

Conversely, I found Duja and Imeria incredibly compelling characters and their deep bond and its severing was fascinating to follow!

The end definitely had me curious to see where things go, so I’m definitely open to reading a sequel.
Thank you to Bindery Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC!

Very interesting premise and I enjoyed the story.
I just felt I didn’t really connect with the characters.

3.5, stars! certainly a unique and rich fantastical world, but one that i didn't truly fall in love with, unfortunately. maybe this is more for young adult audiences than for me? the writing felt a little clichéd at times, too, but maybe it's just not my cup of tea. overall, i did enjoy this (and i especially related to bulan at the start of the book), but it just wasn't for me!

[thank you to netgalley for a free copy of this book! my opinions are my own.]

4,5⭐️

"Black Salt Queen" is a fantasy book, where it's hard to belive it's from a debut author, as the prose and story are a mature breath of freshness. Writing is so beautiful, it avoids clichés for the sake of characters expressions; it flows naturally, in a constant string of cause-effect. I really liked how Bansil connected elements of fantasy with a bigger, more nuanced plot.

In BSQ there are several characters who lead the narration. Young lovers, the son of a traitor and a daughter of ruling queen, who must answer the question how much can they sacrifice in the name of their love. Two mothers, who are intertwined by a common past. Voices from the revolution and royal court. And one alchemist, brought from outside the border, writing letters to his deceased love.

The plot focuses on the intrigue rising in the royal court, discussions of revolution, revenge and magic, as it lays deep inside each heart, yet doesn't manifest itself constantly. Bansil doesn't use it lightly, for her magic is not a plot resolution, it's a last resort eith consequences, and that settles the tone of the story. It's genius. Every each of the elements that build BSQ is well thought, precise like a cog in a machine. It's on such a high level of eloquence and preparation that I was truly surprised it was a debut. There is a bright future in writing in front of Bansil.

The only reason I've lowered my rating is the ending, as I am not entirely convinced with it. I liked many elements of it, especially the resolution at the very end (great twist and cliffhanger), but I wish a plot with Imeria and Duja was treated similarly. I understand why it was like it was, yet the feeling of it being rushed never left. But that's the only thing I am not sold on. The rest is truly brilliant.

“I’d follow you anywhere. I’ve been chasing you since the moment we met.”

This book had me absolutely mesmerized from the first page. Sam’s ability to create such a unique and intriguing world and magic system will capture your interest and keep you coming back for more. The characters are so complex and multi-faceted that they feel more realistic than your average book. They are flawed, obsessive, and power hungry in a way that is unlike anything I’ve ever read. The entire time I was begging to switch POVs so I could get into the heads of all the characters and pick apart their motivations.

This story was so refreshing and different from your average coming of age or love stories. The relationships between families, lovers, and enemies are so intertwined and unexpected. You find yourself rooting for couples while simultaneously wishing they would part ways. I can’t even put into words the way this book made me feel from start to finish. It was a rollercoaster of emotions and I wish I could read it for the first time again.

Sam is an incredible storyteller that will snag your attention from the first page. She has been added to my list of authors that I will automatically read anything they create. The cliffhanger at the end really got me and I can’t wait for the next book!

Thank you so much to Sam and Bindery Books for trusting me with reviewing this amazing story!