Disclaimer: I bought this ebook to support my friends! Promote/help your author friends! All opinions are my own.

Book: Ilahara: The Last Myrassar

Author: C.M. Karys

Book Series: Ilahara Book 1

Rating: 3/5

Diversity: There is a brief m/m romance mentioned

Recommended For...: young adult readers, high fantasy, fantasy

Publication Date: November 1, 2021

Genre: YA High Fantasy

Recommended Age: 16+ (Gore, Violence, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Parent death, Animal hurt, Animal death, Grief, Death, Alcohol, Romance)

Explanation of CWs: There was a lot of gore and violence in the book. Sexual content is also present in the book and I feel like there was a passage that mentioned that young children worked at either a bar/tavern or a prostitution house but I’m not entirely sure on that and I can’t find it in the book again, so just be weary. There is a kidnapping and parental death mentioned. There is a story shown in the book where a dragon gets shot down and dies. Grief is discussed and alcohol is briefly mentioned. There is also some romance in this book.

Publisher: Literary Wanderlust

Pages: 320

Synopsis: Princess Asharaya Myrassar lost everything on the night of the Coup of Fire when the usurper queen, Aerella Argarys, slaughtered the royal family and claimed the throne of the fae kingdom of Ilahara. After seeking refuge on the human continent and leaving her magical past behind, Asharaya takes on a new identity: Shara, an assassin blessed with dark powers.

Prince Derron Argarys owes his royal title to his mother's coup, and although he has all the status and power one could wish for, he cannot escape the memories of the brutal death of the former prince he once called friend. Now the heir to the throne, Derron must set aside his memories and learn to rule by the Argarys words: show your power, hide your heart.

But when a crone proclaims the last of the dragon-blessed rulers still lives and prophesizes Asharaya's return to Ilahara, friend and foe alike set out to find her, Derron among them. Yet he discovers in Asharaya not only a cold and beautiful assassin but also the princess he once knew. When the chance to rid his family of the Myrassar threat comes, Derron hesitates in dealing the killing blow, charting a new course that may see Asharaya's return to Ilahara to face her greatest enemy and her destiny as the last dragon-blessed queen.

Review: For the most part this was a good book. It read a lot like The Shannara Chronicles and I loved the high fantasy feel of it. I also loved the trope (Lost Princess) used and I liked that the book talked openly about menstrual cycles. The book is also heavy in political intrigue, which I like. I liked the world building and the plot kept me going.

However, the book was really confusing. The book didn’t clearly define who’s POV was whose when you start the chapter and it was awkward to go into the book with multiple POVs and not know what’s going on. I also felt like the multiple POVs didn’t allow for the characters to develop well and there was little back-story on each main character, which made the book more confusing. The book was also slow paced. Finally, as I was writing this review, I copied the synopsis and realized that it helps fill in some of the gaps in the book, which is a bummer for me. I don’t read synopses before reading the book and I feel like if important details are in the synopsis but not in the book, it just sets the book up to be a letdown.

Verdict: It was ok.