Her Soul for a Crown is an amazing Sri Lankan mythology inspired slow burn romantasy where Anula and Reeri go from enemies to lovers. I really enjoyed the story, the writing and the relationships. There was a lot of action and the plot kept moving, which I really enjoyed. They are searching for a lost relic, trying to save a kingdom and trying to undo a banishment. Lots of feminine rage, a broody mmc and poisonings. Stunning story!
Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for giving me the opportunity to read this arc.

🩷 Book Review 🩷
📚 Her Soul for a Crown
✒️ Alysha Rameera
💫💫💫

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was all here for this book!
Marry the Raja.
Poison him.
Take the throne.

But I was lost, so so lost. The world building was too vague and I did not know who what where and doing what. I did not realise till about the 50% mark that there are two storylines in this book but neither of them was fleshed out fully.
The FMC lost her rage halfway through and her entire motive flipped.
I have no idea what the MMC was doing half the time, I don't think he knew either.

The biggest issue I had was the pacing, the book started slow. Started surging and when a monumental event happened we flicked past it without a second thought.

I tried so hard to enjoy this book. I couldn't immediately get into it, so I took breaks and read it in chunks. In the beginning, we are thrust straight into the action. Oftentimes I like that in stories, but with this author's writing style, it didn't work for me. Chapters 3-5 gave me intriguing background information, and I think those chapters should've been the first ones to give the reader clarity on what was happening.

As I continued reading, I just could not get into a reading flow. There were many details thrown in that didn't matter, but I would try to pay attention to them (because why else would they be in there??) only for them to not matter at all. It just seemed like there was a lot of fluff. Obviously the writer knows a lot about her world, but she wasn't giving the reader the most important information.

It was an odd balance of too much information that didn't matter and too little of what would make the characters and their motivations make sense to me. I love the cover and the premise is intriguing, but the plotting could've been done better.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Anula's family and village was attacked by the raja's men when she was young. She was the only survivor. She goes and lives with her aunt after and her aunt teaches her how to become powerful from the shadows. Anula's aunt promises to help her take her revenge against the raja and they begin planning and training. Their plan is for Anula to marry the Rajasthan and then take over the crown and become the first raejina.

Reeri is a Yakka who causes his family to be cursed and punished by their lord. The Yakkas used to have shrines they could make bargains with humans out of, yet they have been held prisoner in the Second Heaven for two centuries. They are tortured daily and Reeri is desperate to make a bargain with a human that will allow him to find the relic that his lord is looking for. He hopes to find this to end the suffering of the other Yakkas.

The day arrives when Anula is supposed to marry the raja and set years of planning in motion. Instead she is faced with a coup that ends with the Rajasthan death. Refusing to give up on her plans, Anula makes a deal with Reeri. She bargains her soul in exchange for becoming raejina.

This was an amazing book full of Sri Lankan mythology. Anula is bent on revenge and yet she still has so much love to give, deep down. Reeri is desperately trying to free himself and his family from their cruel lord's grasp while blaming himself for their current situation. In their own ways, they are both motivated by their love for their families. Anula and Reeri both had some amazing chemistry and yearning. I absolutely adored this book.

Thank you to @netgalley, @sourcebookscasa, and @alyshasbooks for the gifted eARC.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

Her Soul for a Crown by Alysha Rameera is a third person dual-POV Sri Lankan-inspired fantasy romance. Anula’s grand plan is to get vengeance for her burned village by marrying the raja, poisoning him, and taking the throne for herself. Reeri the Blood Yakka has been keeping an eye on the offerings made by mortals for centuries for one that would assist him in killing his tormentor. When Anula’s plans go sideways, she offers her soul for the crown and Reeri takes it.

One of the things keeping Reeri and Anula apart is that Reeri is in someone else’s body and he has no desire to be physical with Anula while he’s not in his own body. From Anula’s side, this somewhat dips into monsterlover territory as she does wonder about what his real form, fangs and all, would be like as a lover and she is open to it. The physical aspects are treated as a necessity by the narrative in order for their contract to be complete as Anula can only rule by being the official wife of the raja and their marriage has to be consummate in order for that to happen. It’s never that they don’t want to; it’s that there’s someone else’s body in the way.

Anula is skilled in poisoncraft and keeps at least several poisons hidden in a sapphire necklace that she wears everywhere. We’ve had a lot of assassin characters who use swords and daggers, so it’s nice to see something a bit different that puts an assassin-type character in close proximity to the people she wants to kill, to grab information from them, and then need to get even closer in order to finally finish the job when she gets everything else she wants. It keeps Aluna active in the narrative while making her standout.

While Aluna kind of moves like a lone wolf, Reeri keeps the other Yakka in mind, such as Kama who is a Love Yakka and one of his friends. I wouldn't say Aluna or Reeri are more social than the other, more that Reeri has had more time to build a strong community while Aluna’s was stripped away from her when she was a child. Both have relatively decent control over their impulses as well, implying that they aren't really opposites attract, but are more two similar personalities who eventually found each other but one is not human.

I would recommend this to fans of fantasy romances that involve women seeking revenge and readers who want a light element of monsterloving

Her Soul for a Crown by Alysha Rameera
This book has a lot of potential, and I think it could be a hit for the right reader but it just wasn’t for me.

It started off pretty slow, and I didn’t feel truly hooked until Anula accidentally poisoned the Blood Yakka (which was funny since she did it twice). Up until that point, I found it hard to stay interested.

There was a lot going on, sometimes too much and it felt like there were two different plotlines competing for attention. I also went in knowing nothing about Sri Lankan mythology, which this book is rooted in, so I think I missed a lot of the nuance and world-building. That might’ve been part of why I felt confused and disconnected.

Overall, I wasn’t a fan but if you enjoy fantasy based on unique mythologies, or are more familiar with Sri Lankan folklore, it might be worth checking out!

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an eARC to read and review.

4/5 I struggled a bit at the beginning, but it was worth it! The second half was incredible.

At first, I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book. I wasn’t really immersed and I kept falling asleep quickly while reading... though that might be because I was in a bit of a reading slump. I took a break, and when I came back to it, everything changed! I finally got hooked by the Sri Lankan mythology, the magic system, and the characters.

The plot really picked up in the last 40%, but even before that, I was enjoying the richness of the worldbuilding. The story works really well as a standalone, and while the romance follows the classic "reluctant allies to lovers" trope, it works beautifully because of the complexity of the setting.

It took me a while to warm up to Anula, but I loved Reeri from the start, so it wasn’t a big issue. And honestly, Anula being a badass poisoner and a morally grey FMC? That totally won me over in the end.

The only element that didn’t quite work for me was the use of archaic English words like “betwixt” and “mayhaps.” They felt unnecessary and made the reading a bit hard, especially in the first chapters.

That being said, this was a really good book that completely immersed me in a fantasy version of Sri Lanka. If you’re looking to travel through your next fantasy read, pick this one, you won’t be disappointed!

Big thanks to the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for this ARC copy.

First, Thank you so much to Alysha Rameera and Source Books Casablanca for the EARC!

I want to start by saying this book had one of the best world building i've read in a long time, it was completely different and I ate it up!! I knew zero about Sri Lankan mythology and went in relatively blind, which I think is what made me eat this book up even faster. I read romantasy's all the time and I love forced proximity and slow burn in this was burning!!!! Which is one of my favorite tropes. Our FMC, Anula was a firey woman and she stuck to her values even through the plotting and need for revenge. I loved Reeri so much and his siblings. His growth throughout the book was one of my favorite parts.

Overall 5 stars. I loved every minute of it.

The idea was good and the writing too. But the development in second part of the storyline fell down. It slow-down and the characters start doing things out of their personality. Overall, I enjoyed it.

So, this one is a weird one for me and is a 3.5 for me. I had such high hopes for this book because it sounded so cool, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I think some of that may have to do with the author’s writing style so this may be a completely me issue.

I want to say broad strokes I enjoyed the concept and the plot of this book, and I think it had a lot of potential. But I honestly almost DNFed this book a couple times, but I stuck it out because I just kept wanting it to get better and I also checked out other reviews and some reviews said they struggled with the first half, and it got better for them. For me I struggled with the first half because the pacing was a little too fast and things were being glossed over. This included a coup that was over in less than 5 pages, and I just felt it like other scenes would have been more impact full if they were more fleshed out and let the tension build. I mean this scene was important because this got in the way of Anula plans just when it was literally within her grasp so now her plans are burning up around her and she is having to survive this coup which really wasn’t hard but still it could have been a great tension building moment.

The other thing is that for Anula I struggled with her as a character. I was all excited for a book of female rage and revenge and I will say that it was there but not in a way where I felt it to my core like I have with other female rage novels. Now we do get her back story, so we know what is motivating her and made her into the person she is. But rather than adding depth to her it just made her seem 1 dimensional and more of a tool for revenge than a character driven by her revenge. What I mean by that is that she is trying to kill the people who are responsible for the destruction of her village and take their place to keep people safe. But she has no plans of her own on how to do that. She is just carrying out her aunt’s plans and using her aunt’s allies. Never does she mention her plans, methods or ways she is cultivating her own allies to help support her for when she comes into power and to support her in her goals to make things better. She doesn’t mention what she would change to make things better like system changes. This is shown when after she becomes consort so one level above concubine but not the actual ruler and she storms into a minister meeting to try and bring corrupt official to justice, and she is surprised her new title doesn’t afford her any respect or the ear of any of these men who siding with another man over her regardless of her position. Now patriarchy aside which as a woman and concubine she should be well versed in how the systems do not respect women but they also don’t mention how long she was in the palace as a concubine but I feel like in the time she was there she should have been building up her own allies or plotting how to get them to support her and her bid for power in some way. But because she didn’t do that, she was just a woman with a title walking into a room full of men who could care less about her because to them she is a powerless woman. So, after that failure she rather than adjust her plans she decides to revert back to the old plan her aunts plan and just poison everyone which is just short sighted because why after everyone is gone would they put her in charge. The only reason her getting that seat now is because of the deal she made with Reeri which only happened because of the surprise coup so if that coup never happened how was she going to gain power as a woman in a roomful of men who aren’t going to listen to a woman.

Now, I will say at about 70% of the book she has the same revelation about her being just a tool for revenge and how unprepared she truly was outside of just being a weapon and she just sort of gives up which just showed that her conviction wasn’t really about helping other people and stop villages from being destroyed like hers and that this was really about her vengeance. Now I know was used as a plot point to further the story and her coming back but I just kept wanting this to light a fire under her ass but while she sorts of course corrects it just felt lukewarm.

But even as I say that it was lukewarm a couple pages later at about 72%, she does make an impassioned speech, and she does come alive for me as a character, but it just never hit the level of female rage for me. But this was a turning point in the book as scenes did become more developed, and I became more interested in the story and I even got emotional during a scene or two at the end. But even with that shift for the last 25% that doesn’t make up for me the first half to get me to a 4. That is because the romance, which was another point of this book, just never took off for me and I just didn’t believe the romance or chemistry between Reeri and Anula. There was just no build up in tension, chemistry or even an emotional connection for me to see them as anything more than friends.

Overall, I was really excited for this book with this new world I have never read before with a new culture/mythology and what the characters were attempting to do which sounded so cool, but the execution was just not there for me to where I became invested in the characters and immersed into the story.
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This book is about Anula who from the moment her village was burned down, and she was orphaned has set her sights on getting revenge on those who were behind the attack which is the Raja and those closest to him. Her plan to poison them and take the throne for herself and her people. But just as her plans are about to come to fruition a surprised coup throws everything into chaos and her only option is to make a plea to the cursed gods offering her soul for the crown. And who accepts her bargain... Reeri the blood Yakka in the second heaven and is the most powerful of his clan and he has been waiting eons for an offering like her. That is because with an offering like hers he will be able to gain the power to finally free his brethren and kill their tormentor. So, the offering is accepted, and their souls are tethered together until the terms of the deal have been met or they die. However, they will have to work quickly as there are many forces at play that will get in Anula's way of becoming the first Raejina, the war with other usurpers vying for her throne, secret societies and the gods as well. But the more they work together the closer they become where Anula's own heart becomes at risk which will put not just her but her plans which will change not just her kingdom but the heavens as well.


I received an ARC copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a slow-burn romantasy inspired by Sri Lankan mythology. I don’t really read a lot of the romantasy genre, but I thought this was a fun story! I enjoyed the slow-burn and the tension between the two main characters. The worldbuilding was interesting, how the politics of heaven and the earth were intertwined, and I wish I could have learnt more about the Yakkas and supernatural elements of the world. I do love a good clever femme fatale character bent on getting justice, so I adored Anula’s character arc in this book. I was fascinated to learn that she was based off an actual historical figure – Anula, the first queen of Sri Lanka, who is remembered in history as a devious woman who poisoned six husbands in order to keep the throne. This story was a ‘what if’ inspired retelling, asking the question of whether she might have been actually trying to save the kingdom. Reeri and the Yakkas are part of a larger system of gods and goddesses in Buddhist, Hindu, and Sinhalese mythology. It’s a history and mythology inspired retelling, not meant to be historically accurate, but was still based on research the author undertook and drawing influence from her heritage. Romantasy isn’t really my thing, but if you like a good slow-burn, forced proximity and enemies-to-reluctant-allies-to-lovers romantasy, I would highly recommend this book!

I wanted to love this, but it just didn’t work for me… Honestly, I think my expectations were just too high.
The two storylines definitely needed to be fleshed out more, and the writing just felt off to me.
However, I think plenty of people will really enjoy this one.

This book had a good idea but the execution sort of fell apart for me. While I don't necessarily think this needed more pages, I think the pacing and lack of explanations contributed to the dragging nature of this story.

- I get this is based on a mythology that western readers are not familiar with, but the lack of explanation for almost everything related to the language/mythology is sort of crazy. There is a glossary at the back, and that was sort of helpful but this story desperately needed like a history lesson in the form of a prologue or something. You're introduced to these demons, the Yakka, and you have 0 context to care about their plight which ends up taking up half the story. Also a lot of the language was used and then further not explained. Again, the glossary exists and I was able to use context clues for some of it, but I don't know. I get that not everything is for everyone, and if you get it you get it, but I felt like I was intentionally being removed from trying to enjoy with the story with the lack of world building and explanations.

- Anula's plan and the primary plot for this story is sort of stupid. She's a trained poison master (I think??) and her only goal is to marry the raja, poison him, and then become queen. But like, she has no idea how to actually exist in a political setting, has no idea of how laws work, she has no idea about anything. How is your master plan to take the throne and you have had 0 training to ensure you can actually GET IT then keep it? She's just gonna..poison raja after raja? She tried and it's clear that she wasn't smart enough to think that through. She also didn't think about like...any of the things she actually did do in this story. Makes a blood pact? Acts surprised when she's connected to a demon/didn't know that would happen. Poisons someone? Had no idea the poison would work that well. Like girl, tighten up.

- The whole second plot line with Reeri trying to ....idek. Gain freedom for the demons? Was confusing and made little sense. As I was saying earlier, the lack of background for that entire subsection of characters didn't help. There's like 5 NAMED demons in this story that are all "helping" Reeri with his plan which I was only vaguely able to understand and that he was also bad at doing.

- The romance made no sense. They're lustful for each other because of a blood tether and a magical headboard on their bed that makes them horny through dreams? Maybe? There was no solid foundation for either of them to be into each other, and Reeri being a demon that only wants a romance is .....comical. Anula spends the whole book denying that she is attracted at all to Reeri until, ofc, she is down bad and in love and wants to smash immediately at the tail end of the book. Unbelievable romantic journey and cringy love scene. Also the crazy over usage of "bee stung lips" to describe her mouth all throughout this book was exhausting.

Overall that's a good word to explain this story. Exhausting. I was barely invested by the halfway point and just kept reading for the sake of reading. It did get better and more interesting by 90% in but, this book is over 450 pages. At that point you wont be winning anyone over that wasn't already on your side. I think this story needed more passes of editing to make the pacing more cohesive and to add more world building and explanation.

If you want to read something different for ~the vibe~, this would work. If you want things to make sense? Pass.

I received an arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley and Source Books Casablanca!

I just had some higher expectations from the book. As as south asian reader, I wanted the revenge plot to go strong throughout and also that there few plot lines that just faded away without flow.

This was just the book that I've been looking for. If you are looking for a romantasy inspired by Sri Lankan mythology then this is the book for you. I loved this book so much, there was lots of cultural representation, and great characters& plot.

It's amazing how literature takes us to places we'd never expect to go. This book, with its Sri Lankan mythology, was one of the most unique I've ever had the pleasure of reading. This whole thing about her connecting with this "god" was very different from what I expected. This author has been compared to Sarah J. Mass, but I think it's easy to surpass her with more works like this.
Thank you NetGalley and the author for the eARC.

I feel this book will be a huge hit for others however it was not for me. I didn’t get the risk or the reward of this story line. Things just kinda worked out.

DNF at 42% - giving a three star rating because that's an average and maybe this is good? To other people who aren't me, anyway.

It's my fault for continuing to read romantasies even though I never seem to enjoy them. I always find one and think, "Maybe, this time, with this particular brand of mythology or historical inspiration, with this blend of tropes, maybe this will be the one that I actually like!" but I never do.

Where did we go wrong? Poisoncraft, spycraft, deals with demons, feminine rage, a fascinating and complex mythology, a woman defying societal expectations... it all sounds so good! So why am I bored? Clearly, the problem must lie with me. I just can't seem to care about Reeri, because as powerful demon lord god thing, is kind of not scary. And I can't seem to care about Anula, because although she started out for the first third of the book as a vengeance-craving queen, now it just seems like she's power-hungry. She can be both, sure, but she's also pretty damn content to put all her plans for poisoning high-ranking officials aside for the time being. Yawn. I want to see some carnage.

I'm also not really enjoying the prose. If I read the word "mayhap" one more time I think I mayhap snap my Kindle in half. (67 times, by the way, compared with two maybes) I'm also finding some of the mythology confusing and a lot of it is not explained at all. Dual timelines do nothing to clarify, either. I tried doing some independent googling on my own to better understand, but I'm running into problems that words and spellings this author uses are not readily googleable. "Yakka" for example, gives search results for Australian slang which is clearly not correct, and then for Punjabi slang for "Yankee" or "outsider". Context clues tell me that's not correct either. Searching "Yakka Sri Lanka" gives better results, but for "yakshaya" and "yaka"- a different word altogether, and a different spelling. It makes it difficult to appreciate a beautiful culture, and instead has me feeling like the clueless outsider I am. I don't expect books from different cultures to cater to me, but damn, I'd at least like to be able to do some searches and find some relevant results. I also tried to search about the two different heavens (one for yakkas/yakas/yakshayas, and one for divinities) and didn't get anywhere, either. I kept coming up with Christian mythology, even after appending the search to be "first heaven second heaven Sri Lankan mythology" I'm still getting results for Christian heaven and Islam. One of my favorite things about reading diverse stories is using it as inspiration to go learn more, and I'm hitting dead end after dead end.

The author even mentions in her Author's Note "Creative liberties have been taken to reimagine certain figures and faiths, while paying homage to my heritage and giving Anula a chance at a better legacy than the one she was given. To get an authentic view, please seek nonfiction sources." and boy howdy Ms. Rameera would I absolutely love to seek nonfiction sources. If I could figure out what to search for to find them.

Thank you Sourcebooks Casablance for an ARC of "Her Soul for a Crown".

Readers crave an experience, a novelty, and many also wish to learn something new!! I learned a great deal about Sri Lankan food, dress, culture, and myth, steeped in fantasy and politics, and it makes me happy to see Asian myth in fantasy books.
I was intrigued by the Sri Lankan mythology, the fierce and unapologetic heroine, and the complex premise. The first half of the story was beautifully done. The author, Rameera, truly captured Anula's past and reason for rage and vengeance. The myth of the heavens, the descriptions of the blessed gifts, and Anula's character stood out the most. I love her poison necklace. I love that she was based on Sri Lankan history.

The Blood Yakka, Reeri, felt a bit dull. The war and the usurpers felt a bit rushed, in addition to the love between Anula and Reeri. Towards the second half, there was confusion and a dip in pacing during the war and the Kattadiya. I love the idea of these warrior women. I wish there were more of a relationship between the yakkas, the Kattadiya, and Anula.

I was disappointed in the direction of the story and romance after the second half; Reeri was boring. The Yakkas were uninspired. So much could have been done here, given the material. But overall, I would say it was entertaining and insightful. I would read more about this world!

"Her Soul for a Crown" will be published Aug 12 2025.

I am currently at 28% and need to put it down for now. The story is intriguing, and I'm usually a fan of revenge plots, but I felt the pacing and character development did not pull me in right away.

I'm not sure I can pinpoint exactly why the story didn't speak to me. The language is a bit disjointed and hard to follow. Many characters are introduced but not quite fleshed out. I understand that Anula wants revenge, but I'm not quite sure what Reeri wants. It feels like two different stories waiting to come together somehow, but without understanding each path, I'm concerned that throwing the two together will middle things even more. I feel like I'm grasping at shadows.

I may come back to this book at a later date, because I do sense the potential for it to be interesting.

Thank you to Casablanca for the ARC. All opinions are my own.