TL;DR Review: A morally gray heroine, a psychopathic King-to-be, and a twisty-turny rebellion story with a lovely heist flavor.
Synopsis:
Fearing for her life, an outcast princess joins the rebellion against her own kingdom and family . . . but when playing with fire, someone always gets burned.
Teia Carthan abandoned her morals long ago, and now there’s nothing she won’t do to stay alive. So far she has survived her parents’ deaths, the ire of the Council, and innumerable attempts on her life, orchestrated by Jura, her half brother and soon-to-be king of Erisia. Teia’s rare control over two elements marks her as both an outsider and a formidable opponent—but once Jura is crowned king, there will be no way to survive him. Not for Teia, not for anyone.
When Jura moves to crush the rebellion that seeks to overthrow the monarchy, Teia sees one last opportunity to ensure her own safety. She can infiltrate the rebels, locate their base . . . and betray them to Jura, trading their lives for her own.
Yet when Teia meets the rebels, she gets far more than she bargained for. And when she gains not only their trust but their friendship, she begins to have doubts. Perhaps the rebels are right. Perhaps the Golden Palace should be torn down and the monarchy destroyed.
But then again—what if there is another possibility? What if Teia were on the throne instead?
Full Review:
Inferno’s Heir starts out strong and just keeps going!
From the first page, we’re given a very clear view of just what kind of badass we’re dealing with. Teia Carthan, daughter of a dead Emperor and his foreigner wife, may never sit the throne, but she’s willing to do whatever it takes to hold onto any power that will keep her safe from her psychopathic and sadistic older brother.
She doesn’t shy away from violence or the use of her magical abilities—both manipulating fire to torture the man who betrayed her, and using her water magic to drown him in his own blood. Not a kind soul, but living in her brother’s shadow, we can see why. There’s no doubt that when Jura Carthan takes the throne, Teia will find nothing but suffering and misery at his hands.
So when she stumbles across the leader of the rebellion that is causing her brother so much grief, she seizes the opportunity to join them—all so she can bring them down from the inside and use that triumph to gain leverage over her brother.
Inferno’s Heir follows her efforts to gain the rebellion’s trust, to implant herself as one of them, but over the course of the book, we see her coming to understand them, connect with them, empathize with them, perhaps even fall in love with one of them? And we find ourselves asking: is Teia capable of setting aside her desire for power in order to actually change her city for the better, even at the cost of her own throne?
The author does an amazing job of walking the insanely razor-thin line between unlikeable antagonist and troubled anti-hero. Teia is cold, hard, and manipulative in the beginning, but when we get to see her opening up and being vulnerable with the rebels, we can’t help but fall in love with her. There’s a really lovely brittleness and fragility to her strength that makes her so human.
There’s a nice little romantic story woven into all the action, the heisting, the treachery and manipulation, and this helps to make Teia a wonderfully relatable character. We even get the feeling that there’s a happy ending ahead, one where everyone gets what they want and the world is a better, brighter place.
But is that the ending you’ll actually get, or just another of the many twists the book will throw at you? Read the book and find out!
Inferno’s Heir was an absolutely engaging, compelling read, one I enjoyed from start to finish. Though it’s got a YA character, hard circumstances has matured Teia, so it reads like a classic adult fantasy, with some pretty brutally dark twists and situations.
Fans of Six of Crows and Shadow and Bone will love this book!
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