Book Review: King of Ravens

It’s been over a year since I’ve had a Clare Sager book to read (although there a few of her backlist that I still need to read!) so I’m happy I finally read her latest book, King of Ravens, which is also the first book in her new Upon a Broken Throne duology.

The novel follows Rhiannon “Annon” Archer and Drystan. Annon is a young woman who lives in a small cottage in a coastal town where her father is a fisherman. She has been sickly for a long time and can hardly leave her house anymore. The furthest she goes is her garden which she loves to tend to. Drystan is the son of The Morrigan – the goddess of war, battle, fate, and death. He is the fae king in the underworld and king or god of death. One night, he comes for Annon, and she learns that before she was even born her parents made a promise/deal with The Morrigan that they would betroth their first born daughter to her son and now he’s come to collect her and take her to the underworld.

Confused and distraught to be taken from her family and to the world of unseelie fae, Annon has no idea what to expect. She does expect that Drystan will be cruel and scary, but is surprised when he is pretty much only kind to her – even when he acts scary and brutal to other fae that disobey him. But even if the underworld has her feeling a little less ill and even though Drystan isn’t as bad as she thought he’d be, she still wants to go home – especially to her younger brother. However, she cannot go home because of the deal her parents and Drystan’s mother made. The only way she can get out of the deal is if she can make it through the labyrinth. Annon is smart and has survived a lot, but no human or fae has ever made it through the labyrinth. Can she? Annon is given a certain amount of days to get through the labyrinth during the day time and each night she magically returns to court to play the role of fiancée at all the evening parties and dinners etc. Annon still wants to go home, but the more time she spends in the underworld the more attached she becomes to her new friends and maybe even her betrothed.

I loved this book. It was fun and a little different with its mashup of mythologies. I loved that Drystan is seen as this scary king of death, but is actually a softie inside. The tension and slow burn between Annon and Drystan was so good. There were a lot of little clues left in this book that I think and hope will be addressed in the next book! The ending is a cliffhanger that has me wishing the next book came out this summer rather than next winter! I won’t give away the cliffhanger, but I’ll just say I think Drystan was acting that way for a reason and even though he probably had a reason I want to watch him grovel at the beginning of the next book!

Read this if you want a slow burn fantasy romance with a twist of greek and irish mythology and the forced proximity and marriage of convenience/arranged marriage tropes.

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