Good world-building can breath life into a story, great world-building puts the readers into the story and The Nightward creates its world in technicolor. I was interested by this story's description of a Queendom because I like the idea of turning away from the convention of kingdoms to a matriarchal rule. And, the conflict of a coup in this magical queendom that leaves the scion and her guard on the run sounded like a juicy plot. The threads of mythology woven into the tale could make it even more enticing or just gild the lily. The execution of this description was a well thought out story with an interesting group of characters inhabiting a world where magic canvases a world and casts it in hues of myth and fantasy. The story moves at a fair pace and introduces a number of characters with different motivations but absorption of that didn't take too long for me and until then, the "Dramatis Personae" page was handy. The story hooked me and the ending pulled me in and now I can only await the continuation of this tale in the sequel. Readers who like a mix of folklore, old gods, and magic should consider this first book of The Waters of Lethe duology. (3.5/5)
I received access to this eARC thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Avon and Harper Voyager) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.