Title: The Merciful Crow (The Merciful Crow #1)
Author: Margaret Owen
Rating: ★★★★½

ARC provided by the publisher.

This is quite the impressive debut. With a killer first line to hook the reader in, The Merciful Crow is a fast-face, action-filled story with immersive worldbuilding and a fierce heroine!

Margaret Owen did a masterful job with the setting and the worldbuilding. From the complicated political system and magic castes, to the unique writing and verbiage, it’s impossible not to fall into this book and imagine yourself in the world created.

The characters were wonderful. First of all, Fie was such a strong, capable heroine! It’s easy to root for her and I found myself agreeing with many of the hard choices she made along her journey. I also loved how Margaret Owen flipped the script with the other two main characters, Jasimir and Tavin. How often in YA books do we find a cocky prince and the quiet, brooding bodyguard? And yet The Merciful Crow offers a breath of fresh air with an unassuming prince and his charming, talkative bodyguard. It was such a change of pace for YA fantasy novels, and one I greatly enjoyed! And for those wondering: there is no love triangle! Instead, we are blessed with a slow-burn romance that was perfectly paced and realistically built. It was one of my favorite things about the book.

Technically, this is now a duology, but I loved that there was no cliffhanger and that the story was summed up nice enough to be a standalone. That being said, I’m super excited for the sequel and can’t wait to revisit this world and these characters! The Merciful Crow is an gripping debut and very compelling characters that I hope is one everyone’s radar!