⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars
The Ivory Key Features a group of estranged royal siblings coming together to hunt for treasure, in an effort to find a new source of magic for their kingdom. It is the first in an Indian-inspired duology.

I got the beautiful Owlcrate version of this book and couldn’t be happier since this book has been on my radar for a long time! While being part of the Owlcrate readalong for this book I dove into an Indian-inspired world full of amazing details and magic.

The book started off very interesting and it piqued my interest from the very beginning. I haven’t read a lot of Indian-inspired books, but when I do, I am always amazed by the details and how beautiful everything is described. This book was no exception to that. The magic system, while not a lot was told about it, felt really unique. It was an interesting take on how magic is used that I haven’t really seen before.

The start was quite slow, even though it was interesting. The pacing wasn’t as fast as it could’ve been. Overall, the beginning of the book, or maybe even the first half, felt like a very long introduction to the world and the characters. With four main characters and all their POV’s it is to be expected that a longer introduction is necessary, but it felt a little bit too long. Not a lot seemed to happen, except for the plan coming together and a lot of information being found out. It made me a bit anxious to see how the story would develop further along. Luckily the pacing didn’t change drastically to fit all that needed to happen into a few pages.

The four siblings are interesting, but I had a hard time getting a grasp on them the first half of the book. They felt a bit two-dimensional and their growth felt slow and similar to each other. The ARCs for each character, while different, felt like it had the same common thread. I would’ve liked there to be a bit more diversity. I did like the characters; Kaleb especially is a favourite haha.

Knowing this book is the first in a duology, it is expected that some questions remain at the end of the book to be tackled in the second, but somehow the ending left me bittersweet. It almost felt a bit unsatisfying to me. I wanted a bit more from the book overall. A lot of small things aren’t really clear to me, like how the ruling body works. The book felt like a big introduction to the world and magic and characters, so I am very curious to see how the rest of the story will play out in the sequel.

Overall, I enjoyed this introduction to a brand-new Indian-inspired world and interesting siblings and unique magic system.