One-Sentence Summary:
Bloodmage Rovan has to adapt to life with those who ruined her life in the past and grapple with romantic struggles and the undead.
My Review:
This book blew away my expectations. First of all, there’s so much queer representation. There’s an asexual nonbinary character, the main character is pansexual, and one of her love interests is a lesbian. There’s also a m/f/f polyamourous relationship. This society is mostly queer-normative, the only issues are exaggerated gender roles for nobility.
Let’s also acknowledge how awesome Rovan is! She’s insanely chaotic, very straightforward, and extremely motivated. She’ll never give up when she’s working towards a goal, which I love. Her arc is so amazing given that she will pay any price to get revenge. Rovan is so driven, but also really determined to find friendship and companionship and form positive relationships.
I obviously also love Japha (my favorite obviously), Lydea (name twins except mine is spelled Lydia), and Ivrilos (honestly I just love sassy ghosts and exasperated guards so he’s the best). The magic in this book was also executed so well, I love sigil and incantation-oriented magic, and the concept of bloodlines to be passed down containing sigils was so cool!
Basically, I love this book. If you liked the blood magic and monster stuff of Emily Duncan’s books but hate the fact that they used anti-Semitic concepts and made fun of un-agented authors, you should definitely try In the Ravenous Dark, which is also worlds better in general.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The Fiction Feature 