read for PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge: a debut novel

I really like reading fantasy, but don't read the genre very frequently because it can be so intimidating going into these giant books. I had Children of Blood and Bone sitting on my shelf for nearly a year before I picked it up. The hype and this GORGEOUS cover drove me to buy it, and it looks so beautiful on my shelf! Now I regret how long it took me, because this book was such a delight! Inspired by Nigerian and West African mythology, this book is such a wild ride from start to finish. This book manages an excellent balance of having an intense action heavy plot and really beautiful character development. It's a classic quest narrative as we follow Zélie, her brother Tzain, and princess Amari trying to bring back magic to Orïsha, while simultaneously being chased by prince Inan, who's determined to end magic forever. We travel all across this magical land with so many adventures; this was such a classic definition of page turner!

One of the real highlights for this book was the focus on how trauma shapes us. Zélie grows up severly discriminated against due to being a dîviner or a person with the capabilities to do magic. She tragically lost her mom during a genocide committed by the king. She loses so much throughout the book all while constantly doubting her ability to save magic. She's processing rising up after being oppressed and what the realities will be if she's capable of freeing her people. It's incredibly nuanced and also incredibly appropriate considering everything terrible that's happening in our world. It does manage to avoid being preachy or too obvious about a similarity though, which I appreciated. Also, I cannot stress enough how much I love Amari. She's the daughter of a deeply abusive father who has lead an incredibly sheltered life, and the book explores her coming into her own. Her development was so gorgeous, and honestly I would die for her.

The one issue I had with this book was the romance, which feels very out of character for me. Everything felt too instantaneous and rushed. I was sort of amazed when we hit the romance, and how much I rolled my eyes. I think because I know this is a series, I wanted it to be more drawn out. This book is really long so the quickness of the romance really felt out of balance. However, I look forward to seeing it being developed as the series progresses. I'm not anti the characters falling in love, it just felt like the whole situation happened way too fast. Although I'm not even slightly sold on the secondary romance

At least Zélie and Inan had crazy chemistry! And the classic enemies to lovers trope!!! Amari and Tzain had no chemistry, and it felt like they were just forced together? I mean you're telling me Amari wasn't in love with Binta??????

All that said, I was really pleased with this book and I'm looking forward to the next one. Also when looking up Tomi Adeyemie, I realized she's less than 3 months older than me, which...... what the hell. (And also explains why she completely misstepped and accused Nora Roberts of plagiarism... we're 25 we do very dumb things).