Review: Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

Title: Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Author: Tomi Adeyemi

Series: Legacy of Orïsha #2

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co

Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019

Edition: Hardcover, 404 pages

Source: Purchased

Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM

Synopsis

  After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.

  Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.

  With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

  This book took me longer to read than I either wanted or expected to. But I really liked this book, I am kind of bummed that it's shorter. I wish some more things had been fleshed out, but maybe they will be in the third book?

The characters are what make this book for me. Zélie has gone through some shit, and after reading the book I went through and read some other reviews that mostly consist of people not liking it as much. And it begs to question if any of those people have actually gone through hard loss. Zélie has lost both her parents and nearly died her self trying to bring magic back but it all kind of backfired on her. She is also still very young and the weight of all the clans has been placed on her shoulders. It's a lot to ask of anyone, especially for someone who is not sure they are right for the job. I got her character arc.

Amari, less-so. While I understand her conflicted feelings over how to handle her family. She seems to also constantly forget that they don't trust her, or rather her mother doesn't and that could cause problems with gaining anyone else's trust. She allows her father's words guide her, even though all he's done to anybody is cause massive harm. She was often very selfish when what she should have done was tried a lot harder to earn the trust of the Maji, she never tried very hard to earn that trust. She expected it because she was used to it.

Inan, I liked his arc better. Though he was also still allowing himself to be a pawn, that was very annoying as well. Both of those siblings kept allowing others to guide them rather than trying very hard to be their own person. I hope if he's in the next book he won't be so much of a punk, and actually stands up to his mother.

The romances of this book were... odd. I don't remember Roen from the first book, so I was confused by his character for a bit there. And the romance between Tzan and Amari felt very forced at times. I didn't care for either, personally.

This book was very fast-paced for how short it is. That is honestly my biggest complaint, I wish it had been longer, I wish the titans had been explained and explored further. I might need to re-read books one and two back to back so I can remember things better. I hope book three doesn't take as long to come out as it did between books 1 and 2.