Innamorata got me by the end. I wasn’t sure at some points because what initially drew me dropped off, but by the end I was back on the wagon. And now I need to wait for book two. Keep reading this book review of Innamorata for my full thoughts.
Summary
Once there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy.
A conqueror’s blade brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords, and extinguishing their eldritch magic.
But defiant against the new order stands the House of Teeth and its last living members: beautiful Marozia, the heiress to the House, and her cousin, the uncanny Lady Agnes.
Though she has not spoken a word in seven years, Agnes is the true carrier of the House’s legacy. And she has her orders. She must recapture the secrets of death magic and avenge her family’s fallen honor. She must arrange the betrothal of her beloved cousin Marozia to Liuprand, heir to the conqueror’s throne, for access to the forbidden library in his grotesquely grand castle.
Revenge burns in Agnes’s heart but so do stranger passions—and it is Liuprand, the golden prince, who speaks to her soul. This passion is as treasonous as it is powerful, poisoning the kingdom’s roots and threatening to tear the already shattered realm in two.
For Agnes’s final order is the gravest: She must not fall in love.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Innamorata is a story that exists in ambition, sacrifice, decay amongst decadence, and discomfort. It’s gritty, gory, and raw at times while being vulnerable, unsettling, and stark. Innamorata begins as a revenge story. Power is stolen, houses downtrodden, and revenge simmers. We become the tools of family and our history. Our own sacrifices lose meaning as we serve our legacy, the sacrifices an extension of wrongs years past. But when our puppetmaster, when those who remember those crimes forget, are lost, or die, what happens to this burning ember of revenge? Must we continually serve a family who is no longer there?
In Innamorata are the sharp edges of silence. Of the idea of devoting ourselves mind, body, and soul to our purpose. Not allowing words to sully our bow strung arrow of intention. The world within is one of flowers, moths, and silence that becomes a weapon. But throughout it all, Innamorata asks us whether love is a force which distracts us from our goals? Tricks and betrays us? Will it strangle us in our beds or ease us into the next world with whispers?
(Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links. For more information you can look at the Policy page. If you’re uncomfortable with that, know you can look up the book on any of the sites below to avoid the link)
In any single minded pursuit, one man’s justice turns into another man’s violence, inhumanity, and outrage. There’s a heady atmosphere as desire, duty, and fate are all entangled in a twisted web. Reid asks us whether we can carry the burden of the past, to enact it, honor it, revere it, sacrifice for it, and do it justice. Find Innamorata on Goodreads, Storygraph, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.