Daughter of the Drowned Empire

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I loved how unique and involved the storyline, plot, and world are all seamlessly tied together. It had all the makings of a great fantasy novel. And for those worried - I would classify this under a fantasy novel with a romance subplot, and not a romance in a fantasy setting. It was perfection. I was not ready for the emotional ride, complex world building, intricate magic system and utterly compelling story. Faced with death in exile, and leaving her sisters behind, Lyr has no choice but to accept a deadly contract. She has seven months to train as a warrior and pass the Emperor’s brutal test of strength—all without magic.

Lyr has plenty scope for growth and I'm curious enough to read more in the series if my library gets the other books...afraid I'm not invested enough to buy them for myself tho - soz 😶 I really can't wait to read the sequel, because Lyr and Rhyan (so beautiful *heart eyes and eggplant emoji*) have left me pining and craving for more and more and more and more and so on till I turn gray and old but will still appreciate a sexy romance book and a hot fictional tattoed daddy. Doesn't end on an exciting cliffhanger, but more of a "to be continued." it's like pausing the Mulan movie right before her personal-growth/training montage I love some good world building but there's a lot to take in. A dozen different kingdoms, ruling families, counsel members, imperators, magical races, animal species... and of course there's a made-up language with honorifics, titles, and full-blown sentences in the made-up language. I found myself glazing over whenever they would get into origin myths. I wouldn't say the lore is boring, but the book can seriously infodump at times. My ebook's map is so tiny, stretched and approximate I had to take a master in topology to understand a single thing I was seeing. Didn't work.Faced with death in exile, and leaving her sisters behind, Lyr has no choice but to accept a deadly contract. She has seven months to train as a warrior and pass the Emperor’s brutal test of strength, without magic. I’m really worried about the “apprentices and their charge must not fall in love” thing. This better not be some sort of Parabatai kind of shit—I will not cope😭 The worldbuilding is actually pretty awesome (which is why I gave it two stars and not one)—but I read half the book and I barely get where we are/what’s happening/where the story is going. I’m the first one to complain about info dumps but this—this is too much too fast. I saw multiple spots where the story would’ve benefited off of spending a paragraph or two going over the weird fantastic creatures they have, or the layout of the land, or the socio-political structure of their society, and where all of that stands in relation to the human world (which they off-handedly mention like, once?). Also, the plot is just so choppy. No seamless flow at all. Suffice it to say that I’m very lost.

For fans of ACOTAR another T vs R set up with same initials and everything, hardly reinventing the wheel here altho there is an added dimension of teacherXapprentice no romance allowed vibes - but with Mercurials hints I've a feeling I know how they're going to get around this 🤔 I struggled to like most of the characters because they are stereotypically YA to a fault. The MC is a special snowflake in the making; her current boyfriend is ~nice~ but not that nice and she keeps making excuses for him; the actual love interest is everything she needs but can’t have (or won’t have bc she’s dumb); the bad guy(s?) is/are pure scheming evil for no apparent reason and like, no one stops him/them; and so on. The one group of people that stand to become more interesting is her family and yet we barely spend any time with them.

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I much prefer where she ends the book vs where we meet her. I'm sure I'm supposed to feel more for her considering the secrets she carries and the position(s) she finds herself in during this book and maybe it's the kinda first person single PoV but I wasn't really invested till towards the end and she finally starts taking ownership + actually makes a decision for herself 😬

vorakh are not as dangerous as believed! I think that they were outlawed by the "bad guys" as a way to weaken the "good guys." I think that part of the binding is what is causing 5he ill side effects of those with a vorakh and this will all be discovered later! Or at least I hope so. 😅 I want Meera and Morgana to find a way to control their gifts and be able to help Lyr in her coming fight. We follow Lady Lyriana, of Ka Bamaria / Heir to Arksava, on her journey of self-discovery and protection of those she loves. As a lady, she enjoys all of the perks and fluff of a noble born heir, until her world is turned upside down amidst political turmoil and unforeseen magical happenstances. She is determined to come out the other side stronger, and we love a powerful leading lady!!!! GR book blurb describes this as Cleopatra meets Throne of Glass which makes me feel better about the Roman vibes this was giving me with all the talk of sandals even if I was obvs a little off base with historical context 🫣 I still felt like the world building was easy to read - except for my pet peeve of fantasy words that are too similar - & the world created was interesting.There was so much foreign lore thrown at the reader, so much of it that made little to no sense, so many names of people and places and beasts and creatures just randomly there, I considered taking notes at some point. I love how he's always thre for Lyr, always defending her, being adorable and flirty, but also always ready to teach her a lesson or to put her in her place when she needs it. This didn’t stop me from not loving the book. It feels like this book is setting the scene and laying the foundation for what is yet to come in the subsequent books and you can spot small seeds that have been planted and hinted at that I hope will start growing soon in book 2. The second thing that sort of bothered me and kept me from giving this 5 stars, was the fact that the main character is a little too much YA coded and sometimes, unfortunately, feels too much of a Mary Sue for her own good, not too mention she was the epitome of TSTL. I wanted to strangle her a couple times during some scenes, but then she finally redeemed herself and I understood that her being unsufferable was probably part of her character's arc.