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Title: Odriel’s Heirs (#1 Odriel’s Heirs)
Author: Hayley Reese Chow
Published: 1st of March 2020
Format: Digital (courtesy of BBNYA) – 178 pages
BBNYA is a yearly competition where Book Bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website or Twitter account.
The sign-ups will soon be open for the 2022 BBNYA competition, be it for authors to enter their books, or for bloggers wanting to be part of the new panel, so keep your eyes peeled!!
Hello Hello! How are you?
Today’s post is a review for Odriel’s Heirs by Hayley Reese Chow, which came 5th place in the #BBNYA2021 competition that I was lucky enough to be on the panel for!!
I had such great fun participating in last year’s panel, and I can’t wait to take part in this year’s panel, but until then, I am going to be bringing you blog posts for all 10 of the finalists.
Thank you to Dave from @The_WriteReads, and the whole team over at @BBNYA_Official for the past year’s competition, and for letting me take part in these tours.
Now, without further ado, here are my thoughts about the book which came 5th place!!
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS
The brave, burning with fire, harnessed the Dragon’s Rage….
As the Dragon Heir, seventeen-year-old Kaia inherited the power of flame to protect her homeland from a godlike necromancer’s undead army. But after centuries of peace, the necromancer has faded to myth, and the Dragon Heir is feared by the people. Persecuted and cast out, Kaia struggles to embrace and control her seemingly useless gift while confined to her family’s farm.
But when the necromancer’s undead terrorize the land once again, Kaia runs away to join the battle.
With the help of her childhood rival, the handsome Shadow Heir, and a snarky, cursed cat, Kaia must figure out how to control both her fire and her confidence in time to save Okarria. If she fails, she will sacrifice her family, her new friends, and the enchanting world she has only just begun to see.
And time is running out.
MY REVIEW
Trigger warnings: fire, death, murder, violence, war, lots of vivid injuries and fighting.
Odriel’s Heirs by Hayley Reese Chow is the first book in the Odriel’s Heirs trilogy, set in this fantastic and enchanting world that is struggling through a war against an evil and dark foe. When I read the blurb for this book, I was really excited to read it, because it sounded just like my kind of fantasy cup of tea, and I was not wrong.
The world-building in this book is just amazing. I was fully immersed in this book and when I read it back in October/November, it didn’t take me long to get through the whole book. I had to reread the final chapters just before writing this review just to be sure I hadn’t forgotten anything important, and I’m glad to say that it stayed vividly in my mind. This is full-on fantasy with magic, war, violence, death (lots of death). But it is also a story centred around the characters, especially Kaia, the main character, as she has to battle against her own emotions and self-confidence issues, as well as try to save her country and her people.
I really enjoyed reading about this story from Kaia’s perspective. At the start of the book, she is rather rash and naïve, even a bit impulsive. But as the story goes on, she grows into a much more mature and sensible young woman, and I really enjoyed seeing this development. I also loved Gus, her hound, as he is the cutest thing ever and I loved him from page 1. Other characters I really enjoyed reading about were Shad, Everard, Fiola (I especially loved her, she was so sweet and caring), Mackie, Klaus and I was very surprised by a few others but will refrain from saying who in case I spoil you.
The plot was similar to a lot of fantasy I read, especially indie fantasy, but the take was so original and reading it felt like nothing I had ever experienced before. I was captivated by Hayley Reese Chow’s writing style, characters, world-building and especially the magic system which was so unique and fascinating. I am so glad this is a series because I want to know so much more about the magic system as it is so different from person to person, and I want to know MORE!
This was not a very long book, and I read it relatively quickly, but because it’s so jam-packed with information, history, culture, characters, world-building, action and plot twists, it feels a lot longer, but not in a bad way at all. This feels like such a well-executed and well thought out book that I was just turning the pages as quick as I could go to find out more, especially during the battle scenes as I was so worried the author would kill off my favourite characters.
MY THOUGHTS AND RATING
As you can tell, I really, really enjoyed this book. I can’t get over how GOOD it was. It did not feel like the first book in the series, it was so accomplished and captivating, and I’m so grateful I got to read it for the BBNYA 2021 competition.
Hayley Reese Chow has a special way of writing that makes you feel like you are right there next to the characters. The whole world felt so well thought out and I know that the next books will be just as good because it all felt so vast in Book 1, it can only keep getting better. I could picture the places and the people vividly, and as I mentioned previously, the magic system was just incredible and made me want to read the second and third books as soon as I put down the first.
I gave this book 4.5 stars and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was invested in this world, these characters, their battles, their emotions, their relationships and their fight against evil. I will 100% be purchasing this book and the next ones in paperback so I can continue the series because I just want to know more. This definitely deserved to come so high in the BBNYA competition because it is such a brilliantly written book. I highly recommend it.
If you love fantasy that spans far and wide, with amazing world-building, that has relatable characters that you can’t help but be invested in, a fabulously original and fascinating magic system and a plot that twists and turns and surprises you, then this is the book for you!!
Thank you once again to Dave and the team at The Write Reads for having me on this tour, and thank you to BBNYA for letting me be part of the panel and reading this book! It was a great experience and I’m looking forward to reading book 2, Burning Shadows, as soon as I possibly can.
P.S. Can Kaia come and burn my university assignments and thesis so I can keep on reading?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – HAYLEY REESE CHOW
Hayley Reese Chow is the author of Odriel’s Heirs, the 2020 winner of the Florida Author Project. She also has short and flash fiction featured in Lite Lit One, The Drabble, Bewildering Stories, Teleport Magazine, and Rogue Blades Entertainment’s anthology, As You Wish.
Until recently though, she’s mostly done a lot of things that have nothing at all to do with writing. Her hat collection includes mother, wife, engineer, USAF veteran, reservist, four-time All American fencer, 100 mile ultramarathoner, triathlete, world traveler, book inhaler, and super nerd.
Hayley currently lives in Florida with two small wild boys, her long-suffering
husband, and her miniature ragehound. But at night, when the house is still, she writes.
Hayley’s Links: Website – Instagram – Twitter – Goodreads
That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this post and will want to pick up this book soon.
See you soon, stay safe,
Ellie xx
Greatcreview Ellie.
This sounds so good.
Thank you Kerry! xx