Thank you to Mariely Lares, Avon and Harper Voyager | Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for giving me an eARC of Dawn of Fate and Fire in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVED this book. I truly sobbed at the 75% mark and don't think I stopped until the very last chapter. This book was beautifully done. I enjoyed learning more about the culture and history of this time period. While the book was primarily focused on the overarching conflict happening, history and culture were beautifully woven in to a point where you did not always realize you were reading a historical fantasy book. The character development in this book was also outstanding. All the characters went through A LOT in this book. I appreciated seeing them grow while also staying true to who they were at the core. As readers, you get to see Leonora and all the characters try to make sense between their beliefs and their connections to others. This book has a lot of powerful themes that hit home on an important conversation regarding having firm beliefs and the conflict that happens when beliefs are forced upon others. Throughout the book, Leonora had to come to terms with what she believed in comparison to others, and form an identity that was truly Lenora, and not someone torn between two different worlds and cultures. It should be noted that while their overarching plot of this book centers around political conflict, there are many different subplots and story lines. There were a few points in the book where it felt like the story was at its end, just to realize that the end was nowhere in sight. If you are a plot-driven reader, this might be more of a struggle for you because the overarching conflict is not always the center of the plot; rather, the plot focuses on fixing one problem, which leads to fallout, which leads to a new problem. If you like experiencing the character development that comes from a plot structure like this one (as I do), this will be the book for you. I am not saying that plot-focused readers will not enjoy this book, but they sh

Loved this. Finished it in one weekend because I could not put it down. Interested in what else this author is going to bring to the table.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Fantasy, Mythology, Hispanic Fantasy, Latin Literature, MesoAmerican Books
Spice Level: Spicy scenes, not overly detailed
Representation: Gay relationships
Readability: You will need to read these in order for context

DAWN OF FATE AND FIRE, the exciting conclusion to Sun of Blood & Ruin, twists through battles and heartache.

Knowing the history of what happens to Mexico in real life hung over me reading this duology. The historical characters are on the page combined with the fantastical creatures and magic wielders. This made it a heavy read for me.

Leonora is fierce in defending the people she loves. Troubles come at her from unexpected quarters, and she keeps going. One of the things I love about her is her grit. This novel further explores her complicated relationships with Tezca and Martin. One of my favorite characters is Martin because he's more grounded and acts as a touchstone for me.

This duology is sweeping! It covers swaths of problems and territory to make it grand. The ending in both books give enough closure for a satisfied reader.

If you read the first, you're not going to want to miss this one.

Happy reading!

There is a heaviness carried throughout this sequel. Lending to the heaviness of the novel there seems to be a grief, mourning the theft of tradition and knowledge. At the same time there is hope, a wish for a more unified future. I do encourage folk to read this fantastical reimagining.

“¡Viva México!”

I enjoyed the first book fi this series and I wanted to read this book. I enjoyed this book. The story was a little slow in some areas though.

I don't like giving a score below three stars, but I read the book in exchange for an honest review. First, I did not read the first book, so maybe I needed to read it to feel more invested in these characters. I chose the book to read because the idea for this book sounded interesting and because of the Mexican mythology.

The pro's was the setting and visual descriptions, but the drawbacks, for me, was the pacing and the character was not that interesting beyond being a "Fierce' heroine. It's slow in parts and includes paragraphs that I didn't need to know as the reader. It was like filler stuff. The story didn't keep my interest beyond the first fifty pages and only sporadically after that point.
Thank you Netgalley for the read. I won't post my review on any social media due to the two star rating that I gave.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. I really enjoyed this book and thought it was a very good way to continue where book 1 left off and complete the story at the end.

A thrilling conclusion to the Godslayer duology, Dawn of Fate and Fire blends magic, rebellion, and myth in 16th-century Mexico. Leonora—warrior, noble, and now Godslayer—faces a rising revolution, court intrigue, and a dark power threatening to consume her. Mariely Lares delivers a lush, fast-paced fantasy rich with action, emotion, and feminist fire. Bold, cinematic, and unforgettable.

This is the follow up to Sun of Blood and Ruin that picks up pretty much where the first one leaves off.

Leonora is a fierce FMC and this book really focuses on her coming of age/settling into her identity as Pantera and her magical abilities (although not without a struggle!). To advance the plot forward there’s quite a number of battles and skirmishes- which felt tedious at times. However, the final one was definitely a high point in the book. Her complicated relationship with Tezca and her relationship with Martin were also high points. The side characters really brought some lightness to a lot of Leonora’s struggles through the book. I also really enjoyed the historical faction and Mesoamerican mythology aspects.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an ARC of this book. This review was left voluntarily. I rounded up my review from 3.25 to 4 stars.

First, I love the mesoamerican setting and mythos in this duology- it's a very uncommon setting and the commentary about "too white for the natives, too native for the whites" that hums through both books is very poignant and welcome.

However, I must admit that I didn't love this second book. I say this as someone who only liked the first book, but this book especially was closer to a historical fiction than a fantasy book. I like learning about history in a fantasy world, and I like political scheming and maneuvering, but I also like there to be a real backdrop of fantastical elements and magic in there. There definitely IS magic in here, but it feels almost more like a religion than anything tangible and understandable. I found I couldn't quite sink my teeth into it the way I wanted to.

The pacing also left me wanting a bit. The beginning was very slow, with a lot of grief and unsurety running through the plot, but it really zoomed away around the last 20%. The first book had a fair amount of action alongside the political scheming, and I wanted that again. I don't know, it feels similar to the first in its pacing but somehow slower, because it's a sequel and I have come to expect the second book in duologies to simply be faster-paced than the first.

Overall, I liked this book, but not as well as the first. I did, however, enjoy the writing style and can tell how Mariely's writing has grown, and look forward to reading more from her.

First off, I want to thank NetGalley and Samantha Larrabee from HarperCollins for sending me a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I actually hadn’t read the first book, Sun of Blood and Ruin, so I decided to do that before reading the ARC.

I’m so sorry, but—and here’s my honest review—I disliked the first book so much that I cannot bring myself to read the ARC of the sequel. I just did not like it. To prove that I did read Sun of Blood and Ruin, at least, I have pasted my review of that book down below.

***

I really liked the idea of this book but it’s just not written well at all. Honestly, I almost DNFed it; the only thing keeping me from doing so was that I was sent a free eARC of the sequel and I wanted (needed) to read this first before reviewing that book. However, I’m going to have to decline reading and reviewing the sequel as I just can’t subject myself to more bad writing.

Like I said, the idea for this book is a good one, and I was interested in reading it because of the premise and because of the mythology woven into the story. It’s just a shame the author couldn’t quite pull it all off that well.

The summary states:
“Hidden behind a mask, Pantera uses her magic and legendary swordplay skills to fight the tyranny of Spanish rule.
To all who know her, Leonora de las Casas Tlazohtzin never leaves the palace and is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. The respectable, law-abiding Lady Leonora faints at the sight of blood and would rather be caught dead than meddle in court affairs.”

First of all, we barely see Leonora use her legendary sword skills and most of the time her magic is used to just…blow people away from her with big gusts of wind? We are told so many times that she went to this mythical place to study the sword and magic, and we don’t get a whole lot of explanation as to what specifically she learned.

I also don’t remember Leonora ever fainting at the sight of blood and “would rather be caught dead than meddle in court affairs” is actually laughable as that’s all she does in the palace! She wants to hide who her alter ego is but spends most of her time arguing and antagonizing one of the bad guys! Which is even funnier because he eventually accuses her of being Pantera when he literally has no evidence proving it. The text requires a reason for her to flee the palace so so General Nabarres accuses her of being Pantera when his SOLE reason for doing so is because she and Pantera have never been seen together.

Seriously? Pantera is in another city at the beginning of the book, and even visits the barracks of the general’s troops in the middle of the night. But because Leonora specifically isn’t there, she MUST be Pantera??

This book is just so badly written, and there’s so much telling and hardly any showing. What even was the point of Leonora’s maid Ines if she was just going to die in an earthquake? Supposedly, it’s to make Leonora angry at Nabarres and swear revenge (Nabarres killed Ines’ mother), except she was already against him from the start for killing another friend of hers! And then we don’t even get the satisfaction of her killing Nabarres at the end. She cuts off his arm and then a demon spirit flies off with him. So why did Ines have to suffer through an attack at the palace and get a horrible facial scar only to die later? Why are we still fridging female characters just to make the main character more angsty?

**Directly before she fights with Nabarres, she wakes up from being knocked unconscious and notes that one of her arms is broken. This is never mentioned again throughout the rest of the fight, and in fact, is stated at one point that she uses both her arms to hug someone.

The author likes to mentions things like that and then just drops them completely. I know I said I’m not reading the sequel but I can only hope that Martin being Cortes’ son actually plays a part in the sequel plot this time, because other than allowing Leonora to pursue Tezca (him not being the real Spanish prince = no marriage), his parentage did nothing for this book’s plot. And the whole scene at the wedding where he announces he’s not the real prince from Spain was laughable. He could’ve just run away beforehand! Instead, Leonora’s grand plan is to get him locked up so she can help him escape. 🤨 Nevermind that they were within their rights to execute him immediately for what he did. Leonora is supposed to be this great Zorro-like hero, and she’s really not smart at all.

I don’t know. My thoughts are all over the place, so I won’t continue (though I could lol). Suffice it to say, this book was a slog to get through.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! I was enamored of the first book in this duplogy and this sequel is ok. But doesn’t live up to the original

What a thrilling ending to this series! I love a duology, and Sun of Blood and Ruin is a perfect one! This duology is entrenched in Mexican mythology, and gender reversed Zorro that is trying to bring peace to her people. This conclusion kept me glued to the page, reading well into the night to find out what happens.

It's always refreshing to read a book that takes inspiration from sources that aren't commonly used. Mesoamerican mythology is an area I know little about, but it made this duology absolutely fascinating, haunting, and gripping.

Thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This is the sequel to Sun of Blood and Ruin, which I had read about a year ago. I appreciated having the summary and dramatis personae at the beginning to catch me back up, though I would recommend reading the two closer together.

I enjoyed the melding of history and mythology in this alternate Mexico, where the main character is torn between her dual heritages and her role in the ongoing clashes between colonizer and resistance, with the additional fuel of god-magic. The pacing threw me off a little until I realized that it is somewhat episodic (fitting for a longish book).

Conflict finds Leonora, despite her triumph over the Obsidian Butterfly, as she faces enemies from
Spain and Snake Mountain alike. Now she must outwit the real Prince Felipe, save her allies and get revenge for Neza’a death at the hands of his treacherous brother, and defeat Tezca’s father before he can destroy the world—but in doing so she finds she faces a greater cost than ever before.

The mood in this sequel is somber, to be sure. It is full of loss and doubt and anger and betrayal. In fact, the cycle of emotions Leonora faces (and the cycle of the historical events) are so repetitive as to make the plot lull and drag on. I understand that this duology was based on actual historical events, but I was hoping for a little bit more fantasy. The constant conflict and loss outweighed the little bit of romance and friendship that kept me going (I considered DNF-ing halfway through but stuck it out). I did want to see if she would be able to save Tezca or not.

Overall I think this duology would be better suited for someone who enjoys the more historical fiction over fantasy.

I went into Dawn of Fate and Fire cautiously optimistic after feeling a bit let down by the first book, which had a great concept but didn’t quite land for me due to pacing and some editorial hiccups. This time around, though, I was pleasantly surprised. The writing feels more confident, the world more immersive, and the storytelling tighter overall. It’s clear that Mariely Lares is growing as an author, and that growth really shows in this installment. While not perfect, this sequel delivered on the promise I saw in book one and now I’m genuinely excited to see where she goes next.

Similar to the first book in the series, this story contains rich mythology and historical elements as well as themes of anti-colonialism, identity, and faith.

In Dawn of Fate and Fire, despite the peace won as a result of the war in Snake Mountain, the Spaniards continue their schemes for power while a rebellion brews against them. Leonora is asked to take up her mask again as Pantera to soothe the growing tensions between the Spaniards and the Chichimeca. However, with each reveal, the stakes expand and Leonora must face a battle within herself in addition to the battles against the Spaniards and the god of night.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this story! There are several reveals as the story progresses and there is a romantic subplot which I couldn't help but root for. I wasn't as invested in the political scheming that occurs in the first half of the story, but I did enjoy the overall plot, Leonora's journey, and the mythology embedded within the story. The last ~25% of the book is what solidified my sentiments for Dawn of Fate and Fire as it genuinely invoked strong emotions within me. At this point, the pacing really picks up, the stakes intensify, and we get to see Leonora really come into her power.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.