Daughter of the Drowned Empire

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year-old mage Lady Lyriana Batavia is third in line to the Seat of Power in Bamaria: a position of wealth and privilege, but not safety. Bamaria falls under the rule of the Lumerian Empire, survivors of a celestial war whose island sank in the Drowning. Now all Lumerians submit to the Emperor and his strict laws about magic. He decides what magic can be practiced and what powers remain forbidden. He decides who will die for possession of forbidden magic. I want to start this with I had the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review and I am so thankful because this book is life changing.

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. What I liked: I loved the creative worldbuilding and lore, and am especially fond of the bodyguard/trainer-trainee dynamic. Rhyan’s protectiveness that’s hidden underneath his cold, seemingly nonchalant demeanor was also insanely attractive.

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Rhyan: stop I love him so much. Caring and protective, he hides his kind side under a cold exterior. but honestly I love him so much ahhhhhhh

This book had me on the edge of my seat for the entire ride. I was panting from the suspense. The story was beautifully written, and it made an absolutely amazing start to what I know will be an amazing series. The character development and the plot are so intense that it will leave you breathless begging for more. 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. and Lyr are some sort of reincarnations of Auriel and Asherah. Imbuing Lyr with Asherah's Goddess powers. So instead of having normal magic or a vorakh, her magic is some combination, explaining some of her dreams and feelings.It did take me a minute to try to pronounce some of the titles and to get used to the methods of travel, but I was in heaven from the first chapter! 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. Spice : 2/5 there were some good little spice scenes but I am assuming more will come in book two. I was just BEGGING for a kiss between two specific characters or spice between these two SPECIFIC CHARACTERS and IDEK how I am going to wait for this next book. Plotwise speaking, I was impressed by how likeable this is and how fast-paced a book like this can be. FDM's writing is very good and easily quotable, even if some action scenes could use more work, in my opinion.