Dear Faye's Reviews > Reign & Ruin

This book took me out of a reading rut, for bloody real.

I am amazed. I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited because I'm giving my mother my old Kindle and wanted her a library to choose her books from, and I decided to try this one while idly scrolling the list of titles, and it may have changed my life. Cause I'm back to reading books. I just finished this ten minutes ago and the first thing in my mind was, "I need book two. Stat."

The first few pages were nothing short of literal poetry. This author writes BEAUTIFULLY. It has been a while since I've seen writing so refreshing, where word after word flowed so silkily it felt like injustice not to read them out loud. It was inspiring to see such a good command of language that not only it successfully lured me into its daring world, it made me love everybody in the book and see them as actual characters with history, trauma, and personality rather than caricatures. I wish I could gush more about it, but let me just say it feels so uncommon to find an author beautifully weaving words without it sounding too flowery. Not only was it just right, it was downright perfect.

And the characters, goodness me! Naime and Markam were such delights to behold. I won't spoil you of the details as I went in blind and if you haven't read this yet, you should, too, but I just LOVE them so much. I love the girl power. I love the intelligence. I love the sincerity and every intention of their actions and dialogues. I love how the book doesn't use the usual lack-of-communication, lack-of-common-sense as the way to move the plot forward. They make me want to start writing fanfiction again, because holy, I need MORE.

I'll keep this short and sweet. I won't keep you, and my days of long-winded reviews dissecting every aspect are in the past. But I absolutely recommend this book, and I'll buy myself a hard copy when I see it available in bookstores near me. The fact it's on KU is such a STEAL. What a gift to readers everywhere. Thank you, J.D. Evans. I wouldn't have been able to see your brilliance otherwise.