Reviews with content warning for War - Sun of Blood and Ruin

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Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares

16 reviews

solnikole's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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nina_rae_131's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Sun of Blood and Ruin takes place in a Spanish-colonized Tenochtitlan/Mexico City in the 1500s. Leonora, the mestiza daughter of the Spanish viceroy and a Mexica (Aztec) woman, isn’t fully accepted by either group. After disappearing into the jungle for many years, Leonora is back, but now she has magic and a secret identity.

Pantera is a vigilante protecting Indigenous people from the Spanish conquerors and their oppressive laws. She has a magic sword and skills to match it.

No one suspects that Leonora and Pantera are the same person.

Leonora is eighteen years old. She’s growing up and trying to come to terms with who she is. She struggles with her mixed heritage, feeling neither Spanish nor Mexica. She is the sister of the Spanish viceroy, who she loves, but who is also hurting her people. She has a secret identity and has to hide who she is when under the mask. She feels split in half, and I think the story explores this well.

The description says that Leonora is a respectable lady and Pantera is a powerful sorcerous vigilante. I didn’t get those vibes from the book. Leonora argues with her stepmother, and she speaks in Nahuatl and talks about Mexica prophecies and Gods in front of her Spanish family. I won’t fault her for what she believes in, but the Spanish are killing people and colonizing a continent in the name of their god, so it’s probably not the smartest choice. Pantera is not a very good vigilante. Every time she gets in a confrontation with the captain of the guard, they deul with words before she runs away. She lost her iconic sword for half the book. Did Pantera do anything significant for the Indigenous peoples of Mexico City? It didn’t feel like it.

I didn’t care about any of the characters, including Leonora. I didn’t care about their relationships. I didn’t care when a character died. They were all very flat and hard to differentiate from each other.

I thought that the writing was a bit choppy. Sometimes Leonora would have a flashback, but I didn’t notice when it started or ended, and had to reread several times to know what was happening. I also thought the action sequences were a bit rough. They happened constantly with no time to breathe, and the way the fight scenes were written was confusing. For example, Leonora would stop to talk to someone, but I thought enemy soldiers were still in the room.

I didn’t care for the romance. I don’t even know when they were supposed to go from enemies to lovers. The sexual attraction is fine, but I didn’t feel any spark between them for the duration of the book.

The world-building was interesting if badly explained. I enjoyed the setting and the Indigenous lore sprinkled in. I liked the descriptions of food and the legends Leonora told. The depiction of the loss of culture and language was really hard to read, but it was probably my favorite part of the book.

The world-building wasn’t explained well. I wish the glossary explained who the gods or mythical figures were in addition to the Nahuatl and Spanish translations. I found myself having to go back to figure out who a god was. While I liked the varied spelling based on the language the person was speaking, it also made it more confusing.

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jvbook_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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laurenzokro's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Definitely got me out of my reading slump and one of my quickest reads lately so that has to count for something! Very intriguing read - it was clear that a lot of thought, research, and intention went into writing it, and I feel like i still have a lot to learn about Mexican history (which I’m excited to delve into.)

I do feel that the arc of the story (and to some extent the world building) was a bit disorganized / underdeveloped at times - it felt like a lot of new characters and plot lines came into play very unexpectedly without the chance to fully explore them

(i.e Tezca being the son of the Black God, Zyanya and her being a chaneque…)

. I do hope that there is a sequel though because I would be very interested in seeing what comes next!

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bessadams's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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starrysteph's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

A Zorro-inspired vigilante who can shapeshift into a panther, torn between her role as the Spanish heir to the throne and her half-Indigenous identity? What a delicious concept.

The ideas in Sun of Blood and Ruin were phenomenal, but the execution unfortunately made it a very challenging story to read & enjoy.

Pantera is a warrior sorceress, but underneath that bold identity is Leonora, a charming young lady who is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. While Pantera fights to protect the Indigenous people from Spanish tyranny on the streets, Leonora wages a war of politics inside the palace.

But Leonora knows she’s been prophesied to have a short life, and to die in battle. And when the earthquakes begin - signaling the changing of a Sun and tons of destruction - she is ready to fight until the bitter end.

There is so much happening here, from palace politics to fights in the street to ancient gods to promises of paradise to anti-colonialism escapades to a budding romance … and truly so much more. There are so many intriguing elements, especially when you bring in real (slightly and fantastically altered) history and folklore. But it turned into total chaos.

I love a large cast of characters, and mythology, and lots of different threads. Here it felt like the writing was bubbling with excitement and attempting to weave in every single brilliant idea. I just think it needed a lot more structure, more information around the main elements (most readers won’t know the intricacies of this mythology), and someone to cut some of the excess elements.

I was not in flow with the writing and not totally aligned with Leonora as a main character. She’s very immature and adolescent, and while she definitely has a bit of a coming-of-age journey, it just felt like she was too young & too flat to shoulder all the story elements. Her realization towards the end was just so simplistic, and much of the dialogue is cheesy.

I think I was far more into the first half, which had a lot less action, but more of a clear plot. When we get into the action scenes, people are just popping around and it felt impossible to envision what was actually going on half of the time. And then nonsensical plot twist after nonsensical plot twist after revelation after revelation after character death (!) where we’re just moving on. And the stuff between was all so murky. I wasn’t sure why this story was written and who the author’s intended audience was.

I am so bummed. I saw the vision!!

CW: death (parent), murder, religious bigotry, colonization, racism, genocide, xenophonia, grief, war, animal death, classism, guns

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(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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bookish_hollyx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

3.0

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lacactuscrazy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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seubecca's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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jenabest's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

4.0

3.5, rounded up to 4 for keeping me hooked & being unique in the genre.
Sun of Blood and Ruin is a debut, and sometimes it shows. I absolutely loved the premise and the cover is to die for. With as rich and deep Indigenous Central American folklore is, I cannot believe it's not used in fantasy settings more. That being said, sometimes Lares jumps into the next plot point without any connective tissue, or characters have strange developments with their relationships. Critique aside, this was an awesome debut, with a great setting, and I look forward to reading more from Lares.

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