The Prophecy of the Yubriy Tree

This was brilliant. I was racing through this, and getting annoyed with myself because I knew it was an arc and there's gonna be a wait for the next book.
It's really EXCELLENT. A real big chunky fantasy to sink your teeth into, with dark GoT hints and brilliant chapter characters. A common criticism of some of the late GoT books is that some of the characters chapters' are just boring and you want to skip to your fave character again - this book has it perfect. I loved each characters arc, I loved the threads crisscrossing through the hook and enjoyed each character even when they're being awful!
If you like fantasy, you'll love this.
Please release an arc of the next one because I need to read more!

4.5/5 ⭐️
Damn. This was amazing. I loved that you can tell this was inspired by Game of Thrones, but the author did a brilliant job making it their own. The world was so rich. The stories so engaging. And so many times I found myself pleasantly surprised. For example, I would be sad of a particular character’s death (and the fact they had me sad within only one chapter) to kicking my feet with excitement for the outcome that followed.
I am constantly in search of another high fantasy story that captures what George RR Martin created. One that has a deep world, court politics, an engaging plot, and most important of all, interesting characters. And this checked every box. I cannot recommend this book enough. I’m so mad I now have to wait for the rest of the series to come out cause I need to know what happens next.
Thank you to NetGalley, Victory Editing, and the author for providing an advance reader copy of this book for my honest review.

The Prophecy of the Yubriy Tree (The Song of the Burning Heart Book 1) by Ben Spencer. Publishing date: 19th October 2024. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I picked this book as the title intrigued me and I am so glad I did as it was fantastic!

The book centres around three main characters - Johanna Salk who is the lesser twin daughter of the Lord of a great house. Silas O’ the Songs who is a young lutist who longs to write and play his own original songs for a grand audience, and Gregor Thorn the bastard half brother (or is he??) of King Micah Dayborn. The Yubiry Tree and its prophetic leaves peaked my interest and I really enjoyed the ceremonial elements to its protection and gathering of the leaves.

The multiple character POV works really well in this book and fans of character driven fantasy will not be disappointed. I felt that was beginning to understand who the characters are by the end of the book (except Wyn who I cannot wait to find out more about!), yet wanting to know more of each characters back story as I went along.

The trio start on separate paths and we meet side characters on the way who are just as interesting as the main characters such as Easton Dayborn, Wyn Dunkin, and Madrig & Jacy (who I instantly loved). There are also tales of dragons of old and a dragon resurgent in the lands.

Ben Spencer has weaved together elements of a number of my favourite high fantasy books and come up with a brilliant story of his own. I couldn’t put it down. It has a rich but easy to follow plot with politics, magic, a little romance, and it’s full of interesting and intriguing characters which left me wanting more.

I honestly can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

I received this book as an arc read and my review is my own personal view of the book.

I loved every single aspect of this book and it's story. The characters are all very lovable and unique, and you understand their motivations and their personalities very well. That is very important to me - I hate nothing more than bland characters. The story has a perfect pace and the multi POV is perfectly done. And I haven't expected a romance when I requested the book, but I am more than happy to find it in the book - and once again perfectly written.

I know that epic fantasies are nowadays all compered to GoT to gain more attention, but in my opinion, this one is more enjoyable and better. This book was so good that made me want to read everything Ben Spencer wrote which I will be doing soon. Even the cover is perfect in my opinion and I would always pick it up in a bookstore. Now I would really want to know how long we need to wait for the second book.

I received this ARC for free and I am leaving my absolutely honest review.