OMG I love that I got approved for two blog tours that are doing this amazing book because… I just really wanted to read this book and now I get to do something creative for it twice! Thank you again to the wonderful team of ladies at Fantastic Flying Book Club for this amazing opportunity. Click on the banner to see the rest of the stops on this tour. I swear all of us tour hosts are amazing so give it up for all of them!

Frozen meets Mad Max in this epic teen fantasy duology bursting with star-crossed romance, immortal heroines, and elemental magic, perfect for fans of Furyborn.

Generations of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon. But seventeen years ago, one sister’s betrayal defied an ancient prophecy and split their world in two. The planet ceased to spin, and a Great Abyss now divides two realms: one cloaked in perpetual night, the other scorched by an unrelenting sun. 

While one sister rules Aranth—a frozen city surrounded by a storm-wracked sea —her twin inhabits the sand-locked Golden City. Each goddess has raised a daughter, and each keeps her own secrets about her sister’s betrayal. 

But when shadowy forces begin to call their daughters, Odessa and Haidee, back to the site of the Breaking, the two young goddesses —along with a powerful healer from Aranth, and a mouthy desert scavenger —set out on separate journeys across treacherous wastelands, desperate to heal their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands.

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Despite an unsettling resemblance to Japanese revenants, Rin always maintains her sense of hummus. Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, she keeps four pets: a dog, two birds, and a husband. Dances like the neighbors are watching.

She is represented by Rebecca Podos of the Helen Rees Agency. She is also fond of speaking in the third person, and may as well finish this short bio in this manner. While she does not always get to check her Goodreads page, she does answer questions posed to her here as promptly as she is able to.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Harper Collins, Edelweiss, and Fantastic Flying Book Club  for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

So if you guys remember, I was going to split up my reviews between the two blog tours, so this one is going to be all about the world-building, the plot, and basically anything BUT the characters that I talked about in my previous review. Thanks again to Nicole @ Bookwyrm Knits for that amazing idea, and I feel so much better having something else to write besides using the same exact review in two different posts. So here it goes, and this one may not be split up into different sections, but it may. It’s up in the air really.

I really, really, really loved the twist that Chupeco has in this book. The Goddesses have always had power over multiple elements – kind of like the Avatar – while others focus more on just one. One of the cool things about this one too though, was that Catseye have the power to heal, which was something that was super rare in the Avatar world. I need to really stop comparing the two, but I both love them so much that I can’t help it.

Stormbringers, Windshifters, or Icewrights – redundant talents when you live in a storm-swept city surrounded by ever-expanding ice.

just some of the powers

I love books that are able to have a magic system involved where it makes sense, even if like in the case above it may be “redundant” in certain situations, but at least they have something that makes them able to survive in the worlds that they live in.

Which, speaking of.

Having the difference between the two halves of the world felt so unique to me, and the premise of how the world basically broke. And then thinking about how the sun and the moon can have extreme effects on a planet that doesn’t end up spinning, which led to what the situation is with Aeon right now. The only thing separating them is something called the Great Abyss, which nobody has ever crossed and survived alive. Few have even seen it, so not much is known about it. I don’t even think that the other side even knew if the other was still in existence.

Few people had survived to describe the Great Abyss – the breach, the center of a great cataclysm that had cost the world a spine, with an outburst of magic so strong the world stopped spinning, dooming us to an unrelenting sun. Three-quarters of the world perished when that breach was formed.

Aranth is covered in darkness, and the Goddesses have to constantly make sure that the ocean doesn’t destroy the city due to the melting ice. Being in the dark forever, and being surrounded by dangerous and mysterious creatures that would revel at the chance to kill every single person in this world.

The Golden City is covered in sand and is faced with the scorching sun twenty-four hours a day. The people that in the city and in the desert surrounding it have to wear special clothing so they don’t immediately burn from exposure. Sandstorms are powerful and often, and there are some cannibal scavenger groups that will attack and eat anyone that comes across their territory. They have to do what they do in order to survive this hellish world.

Is either of them better than the other? Would they trade places if they could?

This world is intense, fam!

The trick was to burn the ice hot enough to dissolve immediately, without giving it a chance to add to the sea and before any airborne sicknesses could be introduced to the wind.

Not sure if you caught it with the synopsis, but one of the main themes about this book revolves around environmentalism. Like I mentioned above, with the world split in half, both sides aren’t able to live in any form of harmony, and the conditions that all of them have to deal with is literally insane. Honestly, how are any of them able to survive in such extremes? And why has anyone thought of any solution to fix it, even though the cause of the world breaking was blamed on two sisters a generation ago. Magical problems may call for non-magical solutions right?

Am I stretching? Maybe.

The world’s too broken to repair. And they don’t get points for wanting to revive something they destroyed in the first place.

If you include this post and my first post, this is the longest review I’ve ever written in my entire life. It’s such a good book guys! Please, please, please get on this book and enjoy this world!

Seriously! Shout out to me remembering to pick to do a playlist for this one! I can’t wait for you guys to see what songs I put on here. Also, since I remember Rin saying that she gets more Avatar the Last Airbender vibes from this, which so did I, I had to include some music from the series. The song I really wanted wasn’t on Spotify so I’ll just include a video here if I can of it. I’m sure you guys know what I’m talking about.

And for the Bonus Song…

This song makes me freaking cry! The song and the final battle and Oh my gosh I hope that for those who watched the original series and knows what I’m talking about, you feel me on this. Holy crap, I’m already tearing up including this song. I’m bummed Spotify doesn’t have it on there!

Oh my gosh guys. Again, I’m crying about the bonus song! Seriously, I am also super bummed that although this book already came out, I still haven’t be able to find a copy at my local bookstores, so I’m super damn salty because I want this physical copy on my shelf! I like, super want to read it again and again and again. I love Chupeco so much!

So definitely go check this book out, so I’m not the only one that has to wait for the sequel to come out.