Blade of Secrets Review

 

Title: Blade of Secrets

Author: Tricia Levenseller

Genre: YA Fantasy

Page Number: 322

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis: An 18 year old blade smith named Ziva has a wonderful gift of magic. She can make any weapon to harbor magic using iron. She also has severe social anxiety. Ziva spends her days in her forge making magical weapons. Ziva receives a request from a powerful warlord to make her a special weapon. The weapon Ziva ends up making a sword capable of stealing its victims' secrets. This sword has the strength to take down kingdoms. When Ziva learns the true intentions the warlord has for the sword, to use the weapon to enslave the world under her rule, she runs away with her sister. On their journey they are joined by a handsome mercenary and a young scholar, with a knowledge of the world's magic, to keep the sword safe until they find someone worthy of its power.

Review: I FLEW through this book. I could not stop reading it. It has been a while since I read a fantasy book and I didn't realize how much I missed it. This is the first book in a duology, so there is a cliffhanger near the end. All the characters were perfect and the book moved at a very fast pace. There was always something happening and never a dull moment. I also appreciate the social anxiety representation in this book. Usually the female protagonist in fantasy books is brave and knows they can do anything. Ziva on the other hand, kept to herself and was timid. She did not thrive around people and there was never a moment where I felt her anxiety went away for the sake of the plot. She stayed true to herself from the beginning of the novel until the end of the novel. The friendships formed in this novel were amazing. They became each other's family during their journey and loved reading every second about it.

Favorite Quote: "You're a prodigy. That doesn't make you less talented. It makes you even more impressive, magic or no."

Tropes:

- Enemies to lovers

- Found family

- One bed

- Slow burn

- High stakes adventure