“A sister is the most special gift you could ever be given. Better than any doll. She will be a best friend you can take with you through life. Someone who will love you no matter what.” – 4.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: powerful weapons, warlords, secrets, magic books, scholars, mercenaries and terrible social anxiety.

Eighteen-year-old Ziva prefers metal to people. She spends her days tucked away in her forge, safe from society and the anxiety it causes her, using her magical gift to craft unique weapons imbued with power.

Then Ziva receives a commission from a powerful warlord, and the result is a sword capable of stealing its victims’ secrets. A sword that can cut far deeper than the length of its blade. A sword with the strength to topple kingdoms. When Ziva learns of the warlord’s intentions to use the weapon to enslave all the world under her rule, she takes her sister and flees.

Joined by a distractingly handsome mercenary and a young scholar with extensive knowledge of the world’s known magics, Ziva and her sister set out on a quest to keep the sword safe until they can find a worthy wielder or a way to destroy it entirely.

A teenage blacksmith with social anxiety accepts a commission from the wrong person and is forced to go on the run to protect the world from the most powerful magical sword she’s ever made.

I’m a simple woman: I see a Tricia Levenseller book, I read it. When I first started reading her books a few years ago, I fell in love with her stories. She has great amazing YA fantasy books, and I knew this wouldn’t be different.

And once again, I was right! This fantastic story follows a young magical blacksmith named Ziva, who created a very dangerous weapon and is running away with her sister Temra to keep it out of the wrong hands. The unique thing about our main character Ziva is that she has really bad social anxiety – so yay for representation! 

Somewhere along the way, a mercenary and a scholar join them in their adventure… and of course, the plot thickens! 

I really liked all the characters and their relationships with each other. I can’t help but mention the sisters’ relationship, because it was beautiful. They are very different and have polar opposite personalities, but they still were each other’s best friend and they protect each other.
Now the romance! You know I’m a sucker for a good romance, and the one in this book definitely left me intrigued. The romance in this can be described as a slow burn with the enemies to lovers trope. Kellyn is the love interest, and even though I like him, his intentions are unclear and confusing (for now). He seems interested at times, but other times he won’t help her for the money. We’ll see how this will end!

The writing was easy to follow, but at some point it felt like the pace slowed down. Maybe it was because they were mostly escaping in the forest, but it started getting a little repetitive and world-building felt basic. I’m hoping this will be better in the next book.

What really surprised me in this book was the unique representation. I never read about a heroine like Ziva, so it was refreshing to see someone with her struggles as a main character – and I’m sure a lot of people related to her. Representation like this is needed and is well appreciated.

Wow, this was good! It’s fun, action packed, adventure, and romance. I can’t wait, I need to start the second book right away.