February 18th 2020 | Orbit
Source: Library
A queen of a divided land must unite her people, even if they hate her, even if it means stopping a ruin that she helped create. A debut epic fantasy from an exciting new voice.This has to be one of the most unexpected books from 2020. Well I’d heard a lot about it on Twitter, I really didn’t have any intention of reading it. That was until people began sharing the first line of this book. That was what sold me and I requested the Wolf of orange arrow right away. I’m genuinely so glad that I did because this was such a fantastic book.
"I murdered a man and made my husband leave the night before they crowned me."
Born under the crumbling towers of Oren-yaro, Queen Talyien was the shining jewel and legacy of the bloody War of the Wolves that nearly tore her nation apart. Her upcoming marriage to the son of her father's rival heralds peaceful days to come.
But his sudden departure before their reign begins fractures the kingdom beyond repair.
Years later, Talyien receives a message, urging her to attend a meeting across the sea. It's meant to be an effort at reconciliation, but an assassination attempt leaves the queen stranded and desperate to survive in a dangerous land. With no idea who she can trust, she's on her own as she struggles to fight her way home.
The first thing I wanna make a note of is the pacing for this book. It’s almost a 500 page book that I finished in a single day. Aside from the fact that I was avoiding social media, I really didn’t want to be too far away from the story. I don’t know how she was able to but VS Villoso was able to keep me interested throughout the story. Her ability to integrate the present story and past history of all of the characters was masterful. I was never bored in any aspect of the story, even if we were several years in the past. I truly believe it’s because she has such a strong voice for her main character and the setting.
So let’s talk about Talyien, our titular character, the bitch queen. She has one of the strongest voices I have read in a very long time. From the very first line I was able to get an understanding of who she was as a character. While she had a lot of moments that seemed out of character, I wasn’t bothered that by it at all. Even though she has a reputation as a bitch queen and has been known to be incredibly hard, I found the moments where at Highland wasn’t so strong also great. There was never a moment where I felt that she was out of character.I’m not really sure I have any words that can describe just how incredible her voice is. I am so looking forward to the next two books in this trilogy for that character voice alone.
One of the things I loved about this book is the fact that the setting was also a character on its own. The world building was utterly magnificent. Based a lot on Filipino history, we are really transported into this fantasy world. I really loved learning about the different areas and the different nations that exist in this world. They have their own ways of speaking, food, and so many other cultural aspects that I really loved. A lot of the time fantasy books focus solely on landscapes or names but often leave out language and food and customs. This world I felt so fully formed and even though it’s incredibly rough, I would love to visit. It’s a rare moment where I don’t even care about the roughness of the world because I want to be in it so badly.
I had some issues with the plot because certain aspects kept resurfacing. Maybe a better word is that it was a little bit too repetitive. I’m willing to forgive it because it is a first book in the series and the author admitted that we are very much on the surface of what this world has in store. I’m hoping that the next two books in the trilogy dive deeper into the people of this world, more about their culture, and getting a better idea of the characters we were introduced to in this book. I also want to take a moment to talk about the romance that’s in this book. I’m usually not one to not want romance but I felt that it was a little bit frustrating. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t really go into details but I felt some characters did not need to be a part of a specific romance plot line.
I don’t know if my review makes any sense. I really loved this book so much. The world is incredible and fully formed, the pacing keeps you intrigued, and the characters have such distinct personalities. I read the interview that was included in the paper back I borrowed. The author talked about how she felt like this was a love letter to the Philippines. I truly felt that in how much care she took to build this world, their history, the culture of the peoples and just everything about it was so well done. If you haven’t picked this book up, I would highly recommend that you do. If this book wasn’t on your radar I hope it is now. This is one of the moments where all of the praise is so well deserved.
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