A review by nina_rae_131
Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares

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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