Just how I like my fantasy novels: bold, fierce and bloody. Grabs you by the horns and doesn't let go.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the arc of Year of the Reaper in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
I’ve literally just finished this book and can truthfully say that it absorbed me from start to end.

The book itself picks up after a place / epidemic has swept a devastating blow across the lands of Palmerin and surrounding realms, and the protagonist Cas is returning home after having been a prisoner of war in a neighbouring realm and survived the plague that had killed so many.

Cas’ return home is anything but uneventful, he and his co-protagonist Lena are thrown together in a slow burn mystery that threatens everything they and those around them hold dear, including peace, security and their mortal lives.

The world building is layered and vivid, gradually building up as you progress through the book, there is no shoving a lecture or clip notes down your throat.

The mystery itself is well managed, with a steady build up to the final crescendo, and the author is skilled at leading you down a path to one conclusion, and then blow that to smithereens. This is defines great escapist read that delivers on both fantasy and mystery, with enough of a hint of romance to deliver there too, and did I mention the ghosts!

A highly recommended read that I suggest you add to your TBR / preorder…I’m off to do that next!

Set after a plague that killed many, many people, we follow a prince reuniting with his family at court, but also with some enemies. What's interesting about this book is that a book like this would normally be set during the plague itself, and following the main character through it, but here, the author asks: what happens next? And what happens next is honestly a wild ride of brutal events, keeping me hooked and making this book unputdownable.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing this eARC. This was an absolutely phenomenal read. I loved the sibling relationship between Ventillas and Cassia. And Lena. I really love her. This book belongs on my favourite books list. It's fantasy but with inspiration from medieval history (plague). The characters are lovable and relatable. And the murder mystery/assassination plot they try to solve. There were twists and turns which made the story even better. You definitely need to check this out.

Year of the Reaper was a good book and I liked it very much. The story was told from Cas POV, and for once I enjoyed this change of perspective (usually, most of YA books are told from female POVs). He went through a lot and you can see how hard is for him to get back to normal. His character was well written and developed, as well as the others. The mystery behind the assassination attempts may seem easy to guess but it's not. A plot twist is waiting for you, and I didn't see it coming. The romance was not the focal point and I'm fine with that, but I wish there were more scenes. I adored Cas and Lena slow burn relationship, I wanted more! My only complaint is with the final confrontation, which was a bit rushed and easily solved. Aside that, I really recommend this book! Being a standalone, it was a very good reading with great characters and worldbuilding.

Year of the Reaper is a story about Cas, who has survived three years in prison while everyone thought him death, who returns to his home where the royal court currently lives. When an assassin targets those close to the queen, Cas is swept up in trying to find them.

I absolutely loved this story, from the very first page until the end! The world building is super detailed, in a way that takes your breath away. Without any information dumps the world slowly comes to live when reading the pages in a brilliant way.

There are subtle supernatural elements and the mystery of who the assassin is, trying to figure that one out is really engaging. You want to find out as well, which made the story addicting and hard to put down. Towards the ending, there are some jaw-dropping plot twists! I absolutely loved the reveals and never even saw them coming!

The characters are so complex, but not in a way that they are hard to understand, relate to or follow. Cass especially, was such a strong and powerful character. His strength is something I truly admired while reading. Knowing what he went through and reading how he deals with everything truly speaks of the power and strength of his character. Those sorts of characters can’t be easy to write or think of, and then executing it perfectly like done in this book is a just as hard. I also just loved how Lena was like the opposite of Cass and how their characters balanced each other out. It made for a great dynamic between to two!

The relationships within this book are something else. The friendship between Cass and Lena is super sweet, but the teasing and bickering make the scenes with them just as fun to read. Also, I just love how they first met! The brotherly love between Cass and Ventillas is just as heartwarming to read as the family bond between Lena, Rayan and Jehan and the friendship between Ventillas and Rayan. All the relationships are unique in their own ways.

The war and the plague that are in this story remind me so much of the situation we’re in right now. We might not be fighting against other countries, but for almost two years we have been fighting against the Corona virus, doing everything to beat it, so the world can return to how it was before. Reading this book, with the current situation in the world, gave me so much hope. They had been fighting for 52 years, battling against a deadly plague and still, they could smile, fell in love, found their happiness despite all the sadness. It truly was powerful and hopeful to read, as I strongly believe and know we will be able to beat this to and find our own happiness.

Overall, it was an amazing story about friendship, family and the strength of humans. I would’ve loved to see much more of these characters and this world.

Rating: 3.5 / 5
It’s one of not many times, when I can’t make my mind up about the book. It’s not bad, otherwise I wouldn’t have finished it in two days. I was interested in the story, especially since everything started with Plague killing everyone and Princess being sent away to get married in order to unite two kingdoms. With a boy walking around with the shovel and putting dead bodies to rest.

Author made an interesting trick in this book, she makes reader believe in something so much, and then brings on a fairly cool plot twist (I liked it, didn’t see that coming).

So, what we have here?

Lord Cassia, is returning to his home from the King’s mission, that he was sent on three years ago and was held prisoner in his enemy jail. He is also a plague survival.

But his return home doesn’t go as expected, everything has changed and even Royal throne has been taken up by his enemy.

Whilst Cassia is suffering from his physical and mental traumas that imprisonment has left him with, he discovers that strange things started to happen in his home town, after the plague. A lot of people have died, and only some spirits left lingering in search for the peace.

Good story, good book, huge cookie for it being standalone, but... I’ve been left with so many questions regard the plague, we get all sorts or family issues, love issues, death appearances, but we have hardly anything about the plague? Has it completely disappeared? Where it has originally come from? Initially we have two Kingdoms mentioned, but the affected plague story continues only in one.

The main point that author is highlighting in this book, is that death doesn’t pick whether you’re rich or poor, it claims everyone.

It’s the relationships that build this story into something I blew through in three sittings. The connections Cas makes both new and old are written in a way that makes you yearn for a happy ending and unable to put down.

This is a sort of character driven mystery story with a fantasy setting. And it works wonderfully. I do wish the book was longer though as the pace was so fast it was over before I realised. And this meant a lot of the stories components were never really fleshed out. Somehow the trauma Cas experienced in the past caused him to be able to see ghosts. But this wasn’t ever really addressed in anything more than one full scene and a splattering of mentions. But I did also love how understated it was despite how I was waiting the entire book for it to become a bigger plot point. The main plot was well balanced as well. No saviour trying to protect the world or fight a great evil. But still with enough consequences to their actions that the weight is felt throughout.

The speed of pace, the lovable characters, the ease of relatability and believability of the relationships all creates a book you can sail though smoothly and come out feeling better for having read it.

A kind thank you to the publisher who granted me an e-ARC of this book.

I have been in a reading slump the last month(s) where no book or even reading itself enthused me much. That changed when the publisher gave me this ARC. Year of the Reaper has been on my TBR list since it was announced, which is the equivalent of forever in this case. I started reading it as soon as I could, and finished it in 3 sittings. In between those sittings, I kept thinking about the characters and what was going to happen. And the fact that I knew that I was going back to read more each night made me so indescribably giddy.

I really, REALLY liked this book. Apart from the prologue, the story is told by Cas's point of view. It's been a long while since I read a book told purely by a male point of view, and whoa, the high standards it set. Cas might be one of my favorite characters ever because what happened to him changed how he interacts with the world but it didn't change who he was or how he acts. I LOVED this about him. He owns who he is and how he changed. And quite frankly, he's adorable with his wit, cleverness, and super kind heart. I'd read ten novels told by his perspective, and I'd love every second.

The romance was so well done. A slowburn, yes, but its magic was in its superb gradual development. It wasn't love or hate at first sight. It was the essence of who each other was that intrigued the other person. Lena's stubbornness and dedication and Cas's kindness and loyalty brought these two characters together in a beautiful fusion that made you swoon.

Speaking of Lena, I liked her a lot. She's dedicated to her family without losing sight of her goals and desires. In fact, I liked all characters. They were all well developed, with their quirks and mannerisms. I found them to be relatable, and I always felt what they felt.

The plot was a nice surprise. The murder mystery was thrilling, and it took some nasty twists and turns in the second half. However, I guessed who the killer was faster than I would like; hence the rating. Bear in mind, though, that I'm very good at identifying the killer in stories. It's not that the mystery aspect wasn't good and suspenseful. It's just that I happened to figure it out. What I really liked was that nothing felt rushed and nothing dragged. In the last couple of years, many books drag it out, letting the revelations be revealed much later than they should. Not this book!

Year of the Reaper had exceptional pacing, which I haven't seen in a while. If you seek a good fast-paced book, seek no more. You found it!

Definitely one of the great releases of 2021! I can't wait to read more stories by Makiia Lucier who is a wonderful storyteller with a fresh writing style that is as concise as it is vivid and masterful.

Year of the Reaper follows the aftermath of a plague that has ravaged the kingdom of Oliveras. Although there is a feel of historical fantasy in it, this book reads more like a mystery after an attempt on the infant Prince's life is foiled by a nobleman who just wants to go home.

The twist was fairly obvious early on, but that actually didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. The relationships between the different characters (especially Cas and Lena) were so well written that I was just keen to see how they would play out!

This book hits hard post-Covid, but I think because of the fantasy setting it's not actually difficult to look past that.

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

So far this year, there have been only two books I’ve read that I’ve finished an ARC of, and then immediately gone away to preorder. This is the second of those books. (The first, for anyone curious, was Courtney Gould’s The Dead and the Dark.)

Let me start with some context. I’ve spent the last couple of years steadily realising that YA is… no longer for me, shall we say? There’ve been countless books I’ve read that have bored me to death. I’ve skimmed hundreds of pages, I’ve vowed to give up many times. But sometimes? Sometimes all that becomes worth it.

That’s how Year of the Reaper felt. I opened the book up, and within a few pages, I was fully absorbed. It’s cliché—and also somewhat pointless on my part to say, when I read a lot of books like this, for varying reasons—but I read it in a single sitting because I simply couldn’t put it down. Everything from the worldbuilding, to the mystery, to the characters themselves kept me turning page after page. I didn’t want it to end (so. Maybe Cas and Lena can reinvent themselves as investigators? Just a thought, Ms. Lucier).

I think what makes this book great, to me, is the combination of all its factors: world, character, and mystery, the last of which starts quite slowly, so the former two are very important. All of it leapt off the page, coming to life very vividly. Perhaps the clearest of the characters was Cas, as the protagonist, but he was surrounded by a vibrant cast too. And some of the backstories of those secondary characters made me desperate to know more about them and this world.

The mystery is also very well done. It’s kind of drip-fed to you for the first half, in a way that leaves you intrigued and waiting to know more, and then it’s steadily (or. Not that steadily, hahahahaha) ratcheted up in the second half. As more and more things come to light, you think you know who is behind it all, but whatever assumptions you make are smashed with glee by the author. I thought I had it sussed, but then the twist came, and it was one of those ones that genuinely makes your heart start racing.

So if this book is not on your radar yet, all I can ask is that you put it there right away. I enjoy so few YA fantasies that, whenever I find one I do love, I have to shove it down everyone’s throats.

Also I would really just like a five years later epilogue. For reasons.

I really loved Year of the Reaper!
It's a great YA Fantasy read and I absolutely adored the characters, especially Cas and Ventillas they had the best sibling relationship!
Another one of my favourite things about Year of the Reaper was definitely the murder mystery elements.
All in all this book was amazing and I highly recommend it!
Thank you netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Beautifully thrilling and absolutely u forgettable,this YA fantasy stand-alone by Makiia Lucier isn’t to be missed!

Three years ago, in the midst of war and on a mission entrusted to him by the king, Lord Cassia disappeared. Since then a plague has spread leaving hundreds dead and the kingdom forever changed.

Having survived imprisonment and illness, Cass just wants to return home and forget his past horrors. But home isn’t as he remembers, for the castle has become a refuge for the royal court—and they’ve brought their enemies with them.

When an assassin targets those closest to the Queen, Cass is drawn into the hunt for a killer... and an unexpected bond with brilliant historian, Lena. Together they realise the culprit’s identity is far less important than why. Looking to the past, they discover a terrible secret—one that threatens the kingdom’s newfound peace and plunge it back into war.

I really enjoyed the brilliantly detailed world building and complex character development, of Cass especially. He and Lena had some of the best scenes and one of the most entertaining first meetings, I loved it!

I also really enjoyed the subtle paranormal elements (the ghosts) and the mystery surrounding the assassin and their motives was also rather enthralling—as was that incredible revelatory plot twist.

Overall, an exceptionally relevant tale of friendship, resilience and hope;fans of YA Fantasy or Mystery are going to love this I can’t wait to check out more of Lucier‘s work.

And a massive thank you to Hodder&Stoughton and NetGalley for the e-arc.