ARC Review: Song of Blood and Stone – L. Penelope

Orphaned and alone, Jasminda lives in a land where cold whispers of invasion and war linger on the wind. She is an outcast in her homeland of Elsira, where her gift of Earthsong is feared. When ruthless soldiers seek refuge in her isolated cabin, they bring with them a captive—an injured spy who threatens to steal her heart.

Jack’s mission behind enemy lines to prove that the Mantle between Elsira and Lagrimar is about to fall nearly cost him his life, but he is saved by the healing Song of a mysterious young woman. Now he must do whatever it takes to save Elsira and its people from the True Father, and he needs Jasminda’s Earthsong to do it. They embark on a perilous journey to save their land and to uncover the secrets of The Queen Who Sleeps.

Thrust into a hostile society, Jasminda and Jack must rely on one another even as secrets jeopardize their bond. But Jack has secrets of his own, and as an ancient evil gains power, Jasminda races to unlock a mystery that promises salvation.

I received a copy of Song of Blood and Stone from Netgalley. I requested this book because the cover is just awesome and I wanted to know what secrets The Queen Who Sleeps has.

This book is #ownvoices for black representation.

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Each chapter opened with a quote from a fictional book (I assume): Collected Folktales. These quotes were very thought-provoking and I highlighted more than one. They were truths condensed in a few words.

During the historical sentencing of the villain, his evildoings are insinuated to be due to mental instability. This irritated me a lot because being mentally ill does not mean that you are evil.

There is a jarring attempted rape scene in this book, and the story never discusses this attempted rape nor how it affects the victim. Rape culture was pervasive in both cultures, and it was not really deconstructed. It just seemed to be an accepted product of both societies.

I wish that some of the lose ends had been touched upon in more detail. I was left wanting to know more about what happened with her family, what exactly Earthsong is, how the breaches started, and how the Earthsingers became so brainwashed. I assume that these will be answered in the next book, however, I feel that these were issues that made me feel like there were gaps in the worldbuilding.

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I liked the core story of A Song of Blood and Stone but I feel that the execution was not as good as I would have liked it to be.

Trigger warnings: use of the slur “half-breed”, attempted rape, repeated mention of rape, ableism.

1 star

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