Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)

by Tomi Adeyemi

Reread December 2019
I will still give this book five stars, but my opinion differs quite a bit from my first read.
I wish that there was an explanation in the beginning on why there is only one chance to save magic. It isn't explained until almost the end of the book. I assumed it was because that event doesn't happen in their lifetime again and their children would not be diviners since they did not transform into maji. But I shouldn't have to assume something, it should be explained before the ending if it is such an important part of the plot.
I didn't mind the romance as much as I did upon my first read. I understand Inan's feelings a lot better. He has always felt alone and scared. When he discovered his magic, he felt disgusted with himself and then he gets closer to this powerful, confident woman who doesn't judge him for what he hates about himself, but judges him for not reevaluating what he believes. He finally found someone who let him be his true self and that resulted in an extreme love. However, I still don't get Zélie. She gave Amari such a hard time for being a child of the king, but she accepted Inan too easily.

I do think that Tomi Adeyemi writes fantastic friendships and a lovely story. Compared to other authors, I would say that everything goes a bit too smoothly for the characters plotwise. They are easily accepted everywhere and people switch opinions about them regularly in their favour. Again, it reminds me of Avatar the Last Airbender, but that is only a huge compliment, not that I think it's plagiarism.

I also still stand by my complaint that it didn't make sense that they would stay another day with Zu. There is this deadline and Tzain would have normally at least tried to convince Zélie not to stay longer.

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First read: February 2019
I loved this book so much, until suddenly, almost at the end, the romance started to take over. Just... why? The worldbuilding could have been better, but I still loved it. However, I did read a review about this book not doing justice to the Nigerian culture, so that is something to keep in mind when reading this book.

The book started as a fast-paced book, but after the introduction of all the characters getting together, it was obvious that this book was going to take a long while before real action would occur. There were some action-packed moments, but not in the sense that I was actually afraid for the characters, who I absolutely loved. They were inspiring, not flawless, and understandable. At least, until the romance jumped out of nowhere and ruined it. Why did Zélie resent Amari for such a long time and just fall for Amari's brother out of nowhere? Who had done a lot more wrong than Amari had ever done? At least we had Tzain calling Zélie out for her stupidity, but I was still so frustrated as a reader. The romance came out of nowhere, and way to suddenly, and Zélie had proven over and over again that she was not that kind of character. Apparently not... Even before anything happened between Zélie and Inan, they were already talking about ruling Orïsha together... I mean...
Oh, besides that, why did they stay a day longer with Zu? It did not make any sense! The adventure started with not enough time, and suddenly they could spare a day? As if they had all the time in the world? Why would they even choose that? Especially Tzain would normally not just agree to stay somewhere with this deadline hunting them. At that point, the characters started to act very out of character... However, I must admit, the ending made everything better. They acted like I had expected them to act again, the author was not afraid to let people die, and I cannot wait to read book two.