Title: A Kingdom of Shadow & Ash
Author: J.F. Johns
Publication: May 31, 2025
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 576
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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
Two enemies. One cursed fate. An enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance that will set the world on fire.
The eight kingdoms have not spoken for 100 hundred years after destroying the land of the witches, turning the kingdom into a wasteland.
Until now.
Mal blackburn will end the feud between the kingdoms by marrying the fire prince, known across the lands for being cruel.
But Mal is not looking to conquer the cruel prince’s heart.
She wants to stab it.
For if Mal kills the fire prince, she will end the curse no one believes to be true. However, killing him might not be so simple…
The witches want revenge.
And everyone seems to keep secrets in the land of fire and dragons.
Including Mal Blackburn, the girl with witch eyes. The fourthborn child of the kingdom of darkness. The one that is hiding a secret that could doom them all.
Or save them.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
This book was about eight kingdoms cursed by a witch who felt betrayed and wanted revenge. Fast forward one hundred years and Mal Blackburn is the person responsible for breaking the curse. She weaves a tangled web of lies amidst personal obligations and we meet a varied cast of characters along the way. Though they’re technically secondary, the author does not write them in this way. Everyone is important to the story in their own way. Ultimately, the plot parallel becomes clear when Mal discovers that she must kill the one person she loves in order to clear the eight kingdoms of the curse.
The world building and lore in this book is intense but for a lover of high fantasy like myself, these are the qualities I look for in reading material. The author has taken great care to immerse readers in lushly described lands and settings. The story is woven in so completely that it was easy to get lost. While that is a wonderful thing, I also found my mind wandering instead of absorbing necessary details. The multiple point of views definitely helped keep the story moving forward but there are some areas that felt like they were dragging.
Of course, the speed of the story is subjective to individual readers so do not let that deter you from giving this book a read!
