Book Review: Sun of Blood and Ruin (Sun of Blood

Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares

Published on 2/20/2024 by Harper Voyager

★★⍣☆☆

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is a book that has me torn. I really enjoyed parts of it, yet other parts I very much disliked. The first 50ish percent dragged out so long that it almost made me want to skip ahead or skim certain chapters. In the second half, the pacing picked up quite a lot, which improved the star rating for me. This was due to there being little to no worldbuilding or characterization present. We just jump straight into the action that is post-colonization in Mexico. Maybe this is because the author expects the reader to know more about Mexican history, which honestly I could learn more about, but the tension between the Spaniards and the Indigenous groups felt weak because of this. We're in the aftermath of a lot of lot of it, so there was no build up for the ongoing conflict. It made it difficult to fully understand all the characters feelings and motives. 

Leonora was a confusing main character to read from because we don't get to see her struggling to learn skills or really much character growth in the whole first half. We know at the very beginning that she's an amazing fighter that wields tonali, which can be used to transform herself into Pantera, or a literal panther. But we don't get to see her learn to use tonali, we don't get to see her journey to learn the transformation, and we don't get to see her struggle with anything in regards to the magic system created. Instead, this is done through flashbacks that show different conversations she had with the individual who taught her. The magic system is one aspect that I really did like about this book. It was very unique and the way that Lares describes tonali and how Leonara used it was very vivid. The descriptions as a whole were very well done and it made it easy to visualize the setting and characters. I just wish the same attention was paid to the plot and character development.