I first heard about this book in mid-2020, when Lila from Hardcover Haven talked about it for her Black and Bookish tag. I’ve never read a North African-inspired fantasy, so I was immediately intrigued and put it on my TBR list.

A River of Royal Blood is the story of Evalina, a princess of Myre. Myre is unique because not only is it ruled by Queens, the queens are chosen through a combat system – when the youngest heir turns seventeen, she becomes a Rival Heir and the sisters are forced to kill one another. Eva’s magic is blood and marrow, a particularly destructive type that’s not been seen since the first Queen. With her seventeenth birthday approaching, Eva must find a way to master her magic if she wants a chance to kill her sister Isadore and get the crown.

First up: this is clearly the first in a duology so a lot of the book was getting us into the world and setting the stakes. It’s not a bad thing, but I kind of like standalones (just me?) so I was quite eagerly awaiting the start of the combat, only for it to happen at the end of the book.

In terms of worldbuilding, I’m a bit torn as to how I feel about it. I really liked the magic system and the four races (species?) of inhabitants (human, fey, bloodkin aka vampire, and khimaer aka magical chimeras), but I didn’t really understand how this was inspired by North Africa. It’s likely my ignorance talking, but I could picture this book as being inspired by any matriarchal society (e.g. the Amazons). Maybe it’s because, as far as I can tell, the names Evalina and Isadore are derived from Latin and Greek respectively, and that framed the book as something towards Greek/Roman mythology in my mind and so the Queendom system ended up reminding me of the Amazons?

Shifting to characters, I thought they were interesting! It’s lovely that Eva is supported by a group of people that care for her so deeply and I appreciated the fact that she was not alone. That said, the character that intrigued me the most was actually Eva’s sister, Isadore. Isadore was a mysterious character, with Eva’s memories showing that the two were close and present-day actions showing that she cares for Eva more than she shows. I’m hoping that in the next book, we get to see a lot more of Isadore and find out more about her motivation.

Overall, this was a very promising start to the duology! I liked how the magic system was set up and the stakes are very clear, so I’m hoping that the second book will jump straight into the action and ramp up the sisterly drama.