Many thanks to Patricia and FFBC Tours for my spot on this Blog Tour.

I opened the book, read the first few lines, I knew that this was going to be a great story. Rena Barron’s words with its rhythmic beats of the tales of the forgotten land, opened my eyes to the magic of the witchdoctors. She spoke to my Ka with a force that I could not abandon. Rena’s magic of writing called forth my own in listening to the hidden whispers. I was bathed on the light that she showered me in.

Arrah yearned for Heka to reveal her magic to her. She could see magic but magic refused to come to her. Her powers had to come to her or this last year otherwise forever she would be marked a charlatan. Desperation forced her to trade her living years for slivers of magic when children started disappearing. The Demon King was rising, desperate for more souls.

Rena Barron has taken her own experiences and the folk tales of her culture to give a book which pulsated with the magic of her words. The characters were real but magical. They showed the emotions that made the story bigger than a tale and richer than a folklore. Arrah was wonderful as the main character. She was strong and more powerful than the people with magic. Her magic came from the purity of her heart and not in the pride of her actions.

The prose was rich as if the roots of the soul was being written in the ink of tradition and magic. The power of the words gripped me with the depth, pulling me into the story. The drums beating in the book found a matching thrum in my veins. I love dark fantasies where the villain makes the presence felt. And every time Rena wrote about the villain, it had an answering bubbles of excitement eager to burst forth out of me.

Rena Barron’s words spoke to me. They made me crave to read the book in one go. They made me dive into the story never to get out. The story may not be all joyful but every nuance in it brought a strange trance in me. I wouldn’t know how to describe the haunting melody that this book was.

This book was pure emotions and raw beauty. It was rich with its diverse and complex worldbuilding. It was filled with the darkness that murders, violence, evil witchdoctors, and a demon could bring. Every word took me on a path of no return. I wanted to stay in this world which may be harsh and antagonizing but had a beauty of its own. Nothing prepared me for this book. I sank into it with a strange joy of surrender.

I received a free ARC from Edelweiss and publisher, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!! STRICTLY HONEST AND UNBIASED.

All my reviews can be read here

Rena Barron grew up in small-town Alabama, where stories of magic and adventure sparked her imagination. After penning her first awful poem in middle school, she graduated to writing short stories and novels by high school. Rena has an affinity for good cheese, wine, and nature. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading or brushing up on her French.

Twitter

@renathedreamer

Website

www.renabarron.com.

Born into a family of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. But each year she fails to call forth her ancestral powers, while her ambitious mother watches with growing disapproval.

There’s only one thing Arrah hasn’t tried, a deadly last resort: trading years of her own life for scraps of magic. Until the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, and Arrah is desperate to find the culprit.

She uncovers something worse. The long-imprisoned Demon King is stirring. And if he rises, his hunger for souls will bring the world to its knees… unless Arrah pays the price for the magic to stop him.

Publication Date: 3rd September 2019

Publisher: Harper Collins