What's Up, Readers!!
Welcome to Quills and Pages. Today, I am reviewing one of my top five reads of the year: A Tribute to Fire, book 1 in Sariah Wilson's The Eye of the Goddess series.
Lia is the princess of Locris, a dying desert nation cursed centuries ago by an earth goddess—one still worshipped by the thriving and adversarial nation of Ilion. Every year, Ilion offers the goddess a sacrifice: two Locrian maidens forced to compete in a life-and-death race to reach her temple. In a millennium, no maiden has made it out of Ilion alive. This year, Lia is one of the hunted.
An education in battle gives her a fighting chance, but the challenges are greater than she feared: Lia’s beloved but untrained sister Quynh has been put in the path of danger. The winding streets of Ilion itself have been transformed into a labyrinthine maze of countless choices and dead ends. And if the risks weren’t significant enough, Lia is reluctantly drawn to the commandingly attractive Jason, an Ilionian sailor she loathes to trust and desires like no man before.
The tribute game is on. It’s up to Lia to lift the goddess’s curse, restore Locris to its former glory, and change the fate of every young woman destined to follow in her path.
GENRE
High Stakes Fantasy with a little bit of Romance
THEME AND TONE
A brutal world where girls from one nation have to run in a deadly trial.
LANGUAGE AND WRITING STYLE
Easy to Read
CHARACTERS
Multilayered Complex Characters
Princess Lia is our FMC and she was kickass and very resourceful with a dash of cunningness. She bribes and threatens and whatever she does she gets selected in that event to participate in the trial. there is a deadly trail where girls from Locris (the cursed nation) have to go and run for survival. And the rumors are that whoever wins this trial (whatever winning is....yeah it's complicated) goes to the temple and becomes a priestess for the rest of her life. She was not allowed to come back to Locris. So basically no one knows what happens to the maidens who go there because they never come back, there is never any news, and since Locris and millions are enemy countries people don't visit.
This whole process got me intrigued because I wanted to know what the hell was happening to maidens and The book has delivered because it was bad...sinister...mindblowing...for what actually was happening. Lia....our force and brave FC....gets a fighting chance and she made history in this book. I was so happy with this character like she is just epic. I loved this character so much. She is playing the long game and doing everything so she can get a fighting chance for her country and she is doing everything in disguise....like no one knows she is a princess...🤌✨
The romance is not much there but there is tension, slow burn, and fatal attraction. there are so many brilliantly written scenes in there. The water dragon scene.....I was holding my breath through reading it like if I breathed I would miss something.....it was beautifully epic. I am betting there are going to be more magical creatures in the upcoming books. The relationship between Lia and Demartaus (her trainer) is beautiful...everything is temporary but Lia imagining Demartaus calling her stupid girl for every blunder she makes is permanent. It was hilarious.
MY RATING
Overall: ★★★★★ | 5 Stars
Plot: ★★★★★| 5 Stars
Romance: ★★★★★ | 5 Star
Characters:★★★★★ | 5 Stars
Pacing: ★★★★★| 5 stars
Mystery: ★★★★★| 5 star
Banter: ★★★★★| 5 star
Ending: ★★★★★| 5 Stars
Spice Level: 🌶| 1 stars (but a very good slow burn)
Book Cover:★★★★★| 5 Stars
☙ The Slow Burn😘🤌🏻
☙ How Lia won the trial was 🔥
THE WORST PARTS
☙ There are no worst parts
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