Evocative and captivating. An enthralling tale of ancient gods, dangerous magic, family and love.”―​Sue Lynn Tan, author of Daughter of the Moon Goddess Orbit US Editor Angeline Rodriguez bought North American rights from Naomi Davis at BookEnds Literary in a two-book deal. Illegitimate and of mixed heritage, Eva is her family’s shame. She tries to be the perfect daughter, but Eva is hiding a secret: Magic calls to her. The writing in this book was undeniably atrocious! It's hard to find the right words to describe just how bad it was. The text felt clunky and robotic, making it difficult to immerse myself in the story. The descriptions were either nonsensical or excessively lengthy, as if the author wanted to control every aspect of the reader's imagination, but the result was overwhelming and cumbersome. The book opened strong and had me in its grip for a while. Two protagonists with deeply internalized insecurities and their respective family dramas – I was in. The worldbuilding was vivid, the magic system interesting enough and I liked where it was heading, but not for too long.

Evocative and captivating. An enthralling tale of ancient gods, dangerous magic, family and love."―​Sue Lynn Tan, author of Daughter of the Moon Goddess Thank you NetGalley for approving me for a eARC in exchange for a honest review. This was an impressive debut fantasy novel. I was impressed with the world building and the intricately woven politics of the book. I loved the chapter titles and artwork. I would’ve even loved to see more of it throughout the book, as the story lends itself to artwork. Despite wrong words and phrases occasionally used, the book's prose is quite good. Emotional and atmospheric when it needs to be. Romero-Lacruz is a master at her characters' emotional development.Also I preferred being in Eva’s POV because I thought Reina was a bit unlikeable and I rooted for Eva a lot more, so I wish the chapters were more evenly split because it felt like we got more Reina than Eva. The world and the species in the world are really interesting. I liked the commentary on species-relations and how very different each species appear to be in looks, magical ability, and place in the world.

The story itself follows two perspectives, Reina and Eva, as they embark on their own individual journeys of self discovery and how they fit into their world.Two women embark on a unforgettable questinto a world of dark gods and ancient magicin this sweeping fantasy debut inspired by the history and folklore of colonial South America. I started reading about the same time as the 'discourse' on this novel started taking off, and cringed at the full scale campaign of bullying which developed. I never got a sense of what they could actually do with the magic or what connection is between metal and the gods that give them power. Another issue I had was how imbalanced the perspective shifts felt. I would have liked to see more alternation between Reina and Eva, rather than spending big chunks of time with Reina and then a couple of chapters with Eva. Reina felt like the protagonist and Eva felt sidelined.