Sun of Blood and Ruin

This book started as a slow-burn Spanish-Mexican political tale of colonialism sprinkled with Zorro vigilantism. The swash-buckling adventure is slowly interlaced with fanatsy and folklore towards the second half, although the Prince storyline left me a little cold. There were a lot of new elements in the second half that felt a distracting and little overwhelming, especially Amelia/Amalia's scene late in the book. This was a fun read that turned into a speeding, runaway train by the end.

I love that fantasy is starting to incorporate non western cultures and mythology, and this is what attracted me the most on Sun of Blood and Ruin

This book takes us to 16th century Mexico during the Spanish colonization, and tells us the story of Leonora, both vigilante and promised to the heir of the Spanish throne.

Though I loved the premise of the book and found the writing beautiful, I didn't connect to the story the way I was hoping and expecting. I found the pace inconsistent, the romance a bit bland and I felt the characters lacked depth.

Overall, it was an entertaining fantasy read, that got better towards the end.

I would like to thanks HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction, HarperVoyager and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 21%

As a child I loved zoro I thought I would love this. Alas, not the case.

My main issue is with the writing. It's bland, none engaging and info dumpy at times. I'm often left wondering about where the characters are, it feels as if the characters are in a white room. And the pacing. it jumps a little too sudden to scenes with no natural flow. There's little moments for the mc to process and to convey her motivations instead, we jump to another scene where the questions I had before weren't answered when I expected them to be.

Lenora. As a character she is bland and boring. I get the impression that's she's the typical ‘not like other girls.' there is no depth to her character or any of the characters really.

I was most interested in the world. Granted, I didn't get far into the book, but I found the world lacking, especially in explanations. And what I was given was info dumped in a massive wall of text. How do they have magic? What are the limits of said magic? There was little answers. it felt weak as a result, not to mention the one point its mentioned that Lenora can hear at great distance yet this came on quite sudden and I would have thought it would have been mentioned or shown before hand.


This book does have the feel of a fantasy romance and I don't like that genre. Which is strange as this is meant to be historical fantasy and there was little of the historical, the one thing I was really looking forward to.

Overall this story, from what I read was week and boring. Some one else may find enjoyment in this tale but it is not me..