The Sunderlands by Anastasia King - Book Review

Feb 13

4 min read

The Sunderlands by Anastasia King Book Cover

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Series: The World of Aureum Series (Book 1)

Genre: New Adult Fantasy Romance

Spice: Hot

Summary:

The Sunderlands is an Elven land steeped in tradition and religion. Keres, an elf on the cusp of adulthood, is a central figure in that religion that honors many gods. She is the mortal counterpart to the God of Death and hosts the Death Spirit, which gives her enhanced speed and strength, but also a bloodlust that she struggles to control. She’s been using her abilities to help push back an invasion of humans from the kingdom to the North, Baore. Her actions have gone directly against her clan’s peaceful way of life, and despite her fighting to protect them, her people are fearful and resentful of her.

When a group of scouts from Keres’ clan are killed by humans, Keres is devastated because her best friend, Katrielle, was one of them. Grieving and bent on revenge, Keres lets her bloodlust lead her on a mission to destroy the humans that killed her friend. But there are more humans in the Sunderlands, and their retaliation against the clans leads Keres on a journey to learn more about her Mother, who was a Sunderland princess killed when Keres was chosen by the God of Death, her country, which is on the verge of collapse due to the recent death of the Queen, and herself as she has to decide whether to be what others expect or honor her own heart.

Reaction:

This book is a roller coaster of emotions for the FMC, Keres, whose character growth is the driving force for this story. To me, this is a coming-of-age fantasy story as 20-year-old Keres must start to make her own decisions on whether to follow what her clan and family expects, or what she feels is the right path. The writing really evoked emotional responses from me, especially when Keres is faced with negative feedback on her choices from everyone around her that should be building her up. I think the world is very interesting, and I’m eager to learn more about it in the next books. This book is overall light on the world-building, which I found a little frustrating at times. But I can see that by slowly feeding information about Keres’ world in increasingly wider strokes, it contributes to the idea that the FMC was truly sheltered and naïve at the beginning of the book. This book is a romance and has an arranged marriage and a love triangle. I typically don’t enjoy insta-love in my fantasy books, but I think it makes sense for Keres. Her family is relatively unsupportive and distant from her, so when one of her love interests starts confidently asserting that he is interested and accepts the things others condemn her for, she’s ready to fall for him even if they don't know each other very well. The book does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, where our characters of interest are a bit more scattered across the various kingdoms, so I am excited to read the second book, and looking forward to getting deeper into this fantasy world.

What I enjoyed:

· What this book did reveal about the political and religious customs of the Sunderlands was very interesting. The clans and kingdoms are reliant on each other and intertwined, but their relationship, which is based on arranged marriages, breaks down while the northern kingdom, Baore, is invading. On the religious side, that mortals are chosen to be the hands, mouths, and eyes of the gods creates complicated emotions for those chosen, like the FMC. At one point, characters are quoting “scripture” to each other, which grounded the religion in something that feels familiar, even if the details are still very spare.

· Keres’ feelings of resentment towards her role and powers are very relatable, I think. We all have unchangeable things about ourselves that we don’t like so much because we think it makes us less or different somehow. In this book, Keres gets a little bit of hope that there are others that have similar feelings, and that her darkness can be beautiful. I hope this trend will continue in future books.

· I enjoyed the FMC's journey to find out more about her mother and aunts lives. It introduces an element of mystery to the story, and provides a lot of information on how the Sunderlands got to its' current political situation. Keres also builds a relationship with her mother as an adult instead of just remembering her as she was when Keres was a child.

What I didn't enjoy: