If I could, I’d paint five golden stars on a Savient aeroplane and ask Athan Dakar to put on a spectacular air show for Joanna Hathaway and her stunning YA fantasy novel debut, Dark of the West! This glorious novel of political intrigue, schemes, romance, war, the consequences of our choices, and family tensions will have you sitting on the edge of your seat, possibly biting off all your fingernails, with anticipation of what will come next. Narrated from dual perspectives, we follow the lives of Aurelia Isendare and Athan Dakar—a strong and beautiful princess in a northern kingdom of Hathene, Etania and a Savien pilot who is the youngest son of a brutal General with a violent agenda. The two meet and become instant friends with a hint of something more that will leave your stomach fluttering with butterflies. Athan Dakar is one of the greatest pilots in his class and makes Top Flight with the best scores. He is torn between wanting more than a soldier’s life and repeatedly has his sights set on the Western Mountains, far away from an impending war that doesn’t make any sense to him to fight. Athan spends the novel trying to figure out why he blindly follows a path and a cause he doesn’t believe in. With intense expectations from his father and two older brothers, and this immense fear that he will lose his best friend Cyar if he does not obey his father’s every order, Athan continues to be a pawn in his father’s war. Princess Aurelia Isendare is stuck in a royal court with feelings of utter helplessness. Her mother is queen and her brother, Reni, is next in line for the throne and they both leave her completely out of the politics in their world. With Ambassador Havis, her betrothed, leering at her around every corner, Aurelia desperately seeks a purpose in life. She wants to attend her father’s university and prolong her impending loveless marriage to a man who can be bought for the highest bid. But when she meets Cyar and Athan, they open her mind to the issues in the South—more specifically Resya, which also happens to be where her mother was born before she married Aurelia’s father. The only crushing factor in this beautifully crafted novel is that Athan goes by the alias of Athan Erelis so Aurelia has no idea he is a Dakar. The overall pressing issue is that the north and south are on the brink of war with people called the Nahir who follow a man named Seath in the Kingdom of Resya. Though we only hear the name in passing and have a brief glimpse of him in the prologue, Seath is an enigma that the reader has yet to meet. We don’t fully know exactly where his loyalties lie, only that he is an important symbol in this war with Resya, and to General Dakar’s agenda as he tries to overthrow King Rahian and claim the south for himself. Upon meeting a long-lost cousin from Resya, Aurelia and Lark discuss politics and he teaches her that not everything is black and white. That maybe a great peace can come out of a sit-down between Etania and the Nahir if only someone would listen. Aurelia listens. She listens since her mother and brother refuse to and she stumbles across great war crimes that Arrin Dakar, Athan’s older brother, may have committed in the General’s blood thirsty agenda to control the South. Set in a fantasy world with modern technology like airplanes, automobiles and firearms, and extremely valuable natural resources like oil and its extraction, Dark of the West enthralled me. I had never read a fantasy novel that included such entities that I am accustomed to in my everyday life until now, and it was thrilling! It captivated my dreams when I set the book down and claimed my waking thoughts. I’m immensely grateful to Joanna Hathaway for taking me on one of the best flights of my imagination. I also managed to get my hands on Storm from the East, the highly anticipated sequel to Dark of the West, which will be released on Feb. 11, 2020! Review to come! Visit Joanna's Instagram page (@spitfirewriter) and say hello!
2 Comments
Taylor
11/14/2019 04:22:12 pm
It really is!! And Joanna Hathaway is such a beautiful person with an incredible war story to tell. It is everything I love in a book!! I'm so happy you liked my review. ♡
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