Happy Thursday and welcome to my stop on the Kingdom of Souls blog tour!!! This is such an AMAZING book, and I’m so excited to be a part of the book tour! So read on to find my review (with my favorite quotes!), more info about Rena Barron, where to follow the rest of the tour, and a giveaway for a signed copy of Kingdom of Souls!

I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron
Published on September 3, 2019 by HarperTeen
Genres: YA, Fantasy
Pages: 496
Format: ARC, eARC
Source: Edelweiss
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THERE’S MAGIC IN HER BLOOD.

Arrah is a young woman from a long line of the most powerful witch doctors in the land. But she fails at magic, fails to call upon the ancestors and can't even cast the simplest curse.

Shame and disappointment dog her.

When strange premonitions befall her family and children in the kingdom begin to disappear, Arrah undergoes the dangerous and scorned process of selling years of her life for magic. This borrowed power reveals a nightmarish betrayal and a danger beyond what she could have imagined. Now Arrah must find a way to master magic, or at least buy it, in order to save herself and everything she holds dear.

An explosive fantasy set in a world of magic and legend with a twist you will never see coming.

A TL;DR OF MY REVIEW:

• THE MOST AMAZING WORLD BUILDING oh my god
• Favorite character? Arrah!
• YAY such a great fantasy! 🙂
• Which, sadly, I was not in the mood for 🙁

OH MY GOD the world building!!! When I’m in the mood for a fantasy (which is most of the time, so I’m disappointed with myself that I read this book when I wasn’t), the world building like the most important thing to me. And boy oh boy does this story deliver! Kingdom of Souls has some really great characters, but Arrah (the main character) is definitely my favorite. I also really loved the idea that magic both is and isn’t an innate thing. Arrah can see magic on her own, but she doesn’t have magic of her own. I’m not sure what else to say really, except if you enjoy fantasies, you are going to love Kingdom of Souls! 

This is 100% a me thing, but I wish I had been in the mood to read a fantasy when I read this. I’d been putting it off, hoping that I’d enjoy it more if that’s what I wanted to read, but time ran out and it just wasn’t the right fit for me right now.

Let me see if I can find the GIF cover for you because wow.

…. okay, turns out the GIF cover is way too big of a file to load on here, but maybe I can find it on Epic Reads…

okay, this article shows you the GIF cover, which you should really see because, as previously stated… wow.

As far as everything else goes, I really like this cover, but I’m not in love with it? IDK my BFF Jill?

7/10 stars!!!

• Epic Fantasy World Building
• Black Panther
• Everless by Sara Holland
• Wicked Saints by Emily Duncan

Rena Barron grew up in small-town Alabama where stories of magic and adventure sparked her imagination. After penning her first awful poem in middle school, she graduated to writing short stories and novels by high school. Rena loves all things science fiction, ghosts, and superheroes. She’s a self-proclaimed space nerd. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading or brushing up on her French. Follow her at @renathedreamer and renabarron.com. 

Rena prefers not to be tagged in reviews to save her sanity.

She is represented by Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc.

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram

Enter here to win an a signed copy of Kingdom of Souls! 

(US Only)

Are you a mood reader like me? Do you have to read books because you feel like it or can you just read whatever whenever? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous day!

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2019 Reviews