Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron – a Review
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Description:
Magic has a price—if you’re willing to pay.
Born into a family of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. But each year she fails to call forth her ancestral powers, while her ambitious mother watches with growing disapproval.
There’s only one thing Arrah hasn’t tried, a deadly last resort: trading years of her own life for scraps of magic. Until the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, and Arrah is desperate to find the culprit.
She uncovers something worse. The long-imprisoned Demon King is stirring. And if he rises, his hunger for souls will bring the world to its knees… unless Arrah pays the price for the magic to stop him
Review:
Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron is her debut novel and the 1st book in her YA fantasy Kingdom of Souls series. We meet our heroine, Arrah from the start, who comes from a family of powerful witchdoctors in Central Africa. Arrah has prayed all her young life for some kind magic ability, which all the rest of her family has; once again, as she is tested with other children, she has no magic.
Soon Arrah learns that many of the young children in her city have disappeared, and to her dismay she suspects her mother, the Priestess, of having something to do with it. Arrah is desperate to find out the truth, and begins to learn about the demons and other species at war with each other; and the plan to help the Demon King, who has been imprisoned for many years, escape and wreak havoc on the world again.
Arrah’s mother arranges to have a demon impregnate her, a sister will be born, who ages quickly to be the same age as Arrah. This is fantasy ? The sister, Efia becomes ultra powerful, and in time very evil, destroying everything she touches.
Arrah, who is a very good heroine, will soon realize that she is destined to save everyone, and is willing to sacrifice her life to do so. Arrah and her friends, especially Rudjek, her love interest and the son of the leader, will eventually help her fight the evil, but will they survive?
I did have mixed feelings about all the details that did drag the book a bit, but that happens a lot in first books of fantasy series. I am hoping that Barron continues the flow with less details in the future books. To say too much more about the story would be spoilers, and the last half of the books picks up dramatically, and I do not want to ruin it for you.
Arrah turned into a very strong and tenacious heroine, and I really liked Rudjek and their friends. It was nice to see how much Arrah loved her father, and watched him come under the power of her mother, but it is Efia who will need to be stopped or the world as they know it will end. Kingdom of Souls was a tense, at times dark story, with much death and destruction. There were many battles, as well as POV’s from the gods. Rena Barron wrote a very imaginative and dark story (less details please), especially being her debut novel. I look forward to seeing where Barron will take us in the next book.
Reviewed by Barb
Copy provided by Publisher
