Daughters Of Nri (The Return Of The Earth Mother): 1

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I have a feeling, though, once they learn about their magic (which I’m dying to see more of) this will fix itself. About half of this book was world building, I didn’t feel overwhelmed by that at all but sometimes I did want the pace of the plot to pick up slightly. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. But the only similarities is that the lead characters are black girls, they have magic, and the king is out to get them.

Igbo culture was almost intertwined with the magical elements of the book, almost as if one didn’t exist without the other.

Some fantasy novels struggle to set the scene but I was so impressed with the way Amayo managed to drop the reader right into the middle of the action. The pacing also didn’t entirely work for me, and I personally wished for the main characters to have a little bit more agency over the plot. She doesn't shy away from describing the colours and tones of the skin, nor the way that hair textures and practices differ, and I loved to see this representation as a strong stable of the whole book. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Once I familiarized myself with all the characters I found that I actually enjoyed the book and the couple of plot twists.

This can be anything from using the second person POV (like in Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy), to full-blown New Weird books.As for characters, I particularly really loved Sinai and her plotline; I wished Naala had a little bit more development as I felt I didn’t know her as deeply as I knew Sinai. The setting is incredibly engrossing, and since I'm not very familiar with the part of history the world was based on (medieval Nigeria I believe), it was fascinating to learn about. I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot so I’ll leave it there but it did make me change my mind-set. The actress, Weruche Opia who narrators the audiobook has a great voice which makes for a smooth listening experience.

That means that there were just a lot of odd choices I noticed that really took me out of the story and prevented me from being fully taken in. And because the story is African (although West African) there are enough similarities that I can relate to. I've always thought that repeatedly mentioning the skin colour of characters implies how unusual the very idea of their existence in that particular context is.

A lot of the dialogue feels a little clunky, and there were some scenes that I wasn't quite sure had to be there. One of my favorite things about this book is that the sisters weren't just dumped together and expected to work/figure things out together.

I loved this story, I think it was beautifully done, and if you’re a fan of strong female-led fantasy rich in culture and history, this one's for you. The story has spark, but for me it failed to ignite and ended up losing the initial curiosity I had going on.

However, Sinai’s reaction to that whole situation with Ina taught me that you shouldn’t let revenge rule your heart or let a situation anger you to the point where you become blind to anything else. The overall concept and plotline is great, and although it isn't the most out-of-the-box storyline I've ever read, it definitely hits on some unique ideas. I gobbled up the story of Naala and Sanai, desperate to know where the legends and prophecies would take them next, hoping everything would turn out OK. Though miles apart, both girls share an indestructible bond: they share the same blood, the same face and possess the same unspoken magic, thought to have vanished years ago with the lost gods.