City of Lost Kings

5⭐️1🌶

I finished City of Lost Kings by Kristen R. Moore a day or two ago.  This one came up in my Instagram feed because the artist who did images for this book also did some character art for LJ Generous.  I was immediately hooked by the vibe description of this and saved it to my kindle library immediately.  Once I finished Sapphire Sailor's Tale I decided there was enough of a time interval before my next ARC deadline that I could read a book of my choosing.  I thought about reading The Wildborn but that book is over 600 pages so I'll save it for a little later.  This book was very good and different.  I really liked it.  The vibe description that hooked me was Atlantis meets The Mummy meets Game of Thrones.  Now that I've read it, I'd throw Treasure Planet in there too.  It's got flying ships and some steam punk elements.  It was different while still being really well written fantasy romance.  Realistically there are two FMCs.  Aesira Zeliath is the younger sister.  She's spunky and fierce.  She's a commander in The Order, which is an all female military unit.  The Order is incredibly strict and it's really a place for wayward girls to be sent where they can find purpose and serve.  (Read that as the Order breaks them and molds them into good obedient knights)  Kamari is Aesira's older sister.  She is the Queen of this region thanks to an arranged marriage that secured a peace treaty between her homeland, Noveria, and this kingdom.  The area the book takes place in is a dessert with only one water source, a spring in Noveria.  There is also a goddess, Celestria, who they sacrifice a person to each year to ensure the water and power Astra are replenished annually.  As always in these books I adore; all is not as it seems.  Despite it being an arranged marriage Kamari and Desmond love eachother and are happy. Desmond is hiding things from Kamari though.  He hears voices in his head and at the beginning of the book, finally listens to them and dissappears.  Kamari seeks out a former criminal who now runs the Boneyard District.  Desmond had maps and journels of a place thought to be myth.  Kamari askes Stone, the former criminal,  to find Desmond and bring him back.  Originally its her intention to go with Stone on the search, but that isn't feasible being Queen and all so Aesira goes instead.  The only issue with this setup is that Stone and Aesira have a past entanglement which makes things a bit awkward at first.  The story mainly follows Aesira, Stone and his rag-tag crew in their search for Desmond.  But it also circles back to Kamari and what's happening back at the palace.  It was a really interesting story that was executed exceptionally well.  I ate it right up.  There is a good amount of mystery surrounding both Stone and Aesira's and their past situationship.  There was also a lot of mystery and intrigue with the terrain they were traveling through in persuit of Desmond.  It was a really fun story that I'm sure hasn't scratched the surface of what's really going on in this world.  Everything they thought and were taught to believe is a lie.  (Love those types of stories.)  There was great found family in this as well and a good slow burn.  It does end on a cliffhanger and the next book doesn't come out til next year.  But I will be reading it as soon as it does.  I really enjoyed this one.