Onyx & Ivory

Actual Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

Disclaimer: I won this ARC in a giveaway from the author. Neither the author, nor the publisher have influenced my review in any way. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

This was a solid start to a new fantasy series from Mindee Arnett. It reminded me of Tamora Pierce’s The Immortals Series meets the Red Queen Series. While I have my issues with the pacing and length of the book, the story and world created within are interesting enough to surpass any problems I have with it.

This book is quite the chunker, at 512 pages it covers a lot. For me, although something was always happening it felt like the story was dragging and just tried to cover too much in one book. The story was a bit too ambitious in my opinion and some of the stuff towards the beginning/middle of the book could have been cut out. I ended up taking a two week break reading this book because I got bored and couldn’t bring myself to continue. I regretted putting it down later though because the story started to pick up again and I loved the ending.

Minister Rendborne was around too often, so I started to get suspicious. Is he behind the daydrakes? Or is he a part of the Rising? It turns out that he was the “Big Bad” for the book. I knew he was no side character because he popped up in the story too often to not be more important. I didn’t see that he was the Nameless one and a previous uror participant.

Something I really loved in this book is that we get actual character development throughout the story. And not minor developments either, Kate and Corwin changed their life views on the journey through the book. Corwin went from a spoiled prince who only saw the world as not perfect, but unchangeable and blaming the wilders for all the evil happening to seeing that not all rules should be followed and the world is more of a greyscale and all people have good and evil in them. Kate on the other hand was all about getting revenge for her father and hiding the fact that she’s a wilder but at the end of the book she’s decided she is no longer going to hide the fact that she’s a wilder and she doesn’t want anyone else to hide either as well as that getting revenge isn’t all it is cracked up to be. She got her revenge on Vikras, but it didn’t make her feel any better afterwards and in fact opened her up to the darkness inside herself and her power. Even the side characters like Dal, Signe, and Bonner have major character developments at the end and are no longer the same people they were at the beginning. It was one of my favourite parts of this book and I am looking forward to seeing who they become as they go further on their journey.

I absolutely adored how this book ended. I really liked that the story didn’t just end with the wilder revolution and the Rising. It expanded into a bigger tale with saving all of the wilders shipped off and stoping a massive war that could destroy the kingdom. Kate is focused on saving her brother and making it so the wilders no longer have to hide who they are and Corwin is focused on saving the wilders to prevent his kingdom from collapsing and warring with the Godking. Both have the power to protect and have the darkness inside of them and it will be interesting to see how far they will go to protect or save those they love. I was going to be so disappointed if this turned into another book about a girl saving her people, but I am so pleased with how it ended.

There are things that I am interested in getting some answers. From the mundane like linked names (Edwin and Corwin), was this just coincidence or is it a trait in this world? To more serious questions like does Corwin actually have magic, or is it the uror magic working through his mark? I think the latter is more likely to be honest. Also, is this series going to deal with core problem of the daydrakes/nightdrakes and how to get rid of them for good? I would love to learn more of the history and how they came to be in the kingdom and just more worldbuilding and learning new things about the history and this world in general.

Overall this book is a great start to a new fantasy series and I am looking forward to where the story goes next. I can’t wait to see where the characters go and how they are going to further change and meet the Godking. There is so much left to explore in this world and I can’t wait to go on the journey!

There are many grammatical and story line errors.Get a proper editor.This book should not be made into a series.This book was filled with tediously long and unnecessary and repetitive dialogue.A waste of money.The author does not know how to write a novel.Jordan Brown ,you should have done a better job editing.