I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Road to Ruin by Hana LeePublished by Simon and Schuster on May 14, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Asian American, Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / General, Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Bisexual
Pages: 368
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Netgalley
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Buy on BookshopAn electrifying, gritty fantasy from debut author Hana Lee that takes a royal messenger on a high-speed chase across a climate-ravaged wasteland, featuring motorcycles, monsters, and magic.
Jin-Lu has the most dangerous job in the wasteland. She’s a magebike courier, one of the few who venture outside the domed cities on motorcycles powered by magic. Every day, she braves the wasteland’s dangers—deadly storms, roving marauders, and territorial beasts—to deliver her wares.
Her most valuable cargo? A prince’s love letters addressed to Yi-Nereen, a princess desperate to escape the clutches of her abusive family and soon-to-be husband. Jin, desperately in love with both her and the prince, can’t refuse Yi-Nereen’s plea for help. The two of them flee across the wastes, pursued by Yi-Nereen’s furious father, her scheming betrothed, and a bounty hunter with mysterious powers.
A storm to end all storms is brewing and dark secrets about the heritability of magic are coming to light. Jin’s heart has led her into peril before, but this time she may not find her way back.
I’m sorry to have missed posting this before the release date, because now I have robbed you of several days in which you could have been reading this book.
Road to Ruin is an adrenaline rush with an absolutely unique setting. The desert is almost a character in itself. It is filled with deadly storms full of electricity and wind and magic that could flay the flesh from your bones. And that’s not to mention the dinosaurs. They’re not called dinosaurs, but I don’t know what else to call a four-winged flying lizard who would like very much to eat you if that’s convenient.
The politics, however, are not so unique: a handful of elite families, possessed of all the magic and wealth, run the core of society and everyone else is left to either be useful to them or perish. Two scions of those families make up two-thirds of our core triad: Prince Kadrin, pampered embarrassment to his family for being born without the magic it’s assumed the elite will always possess. Princess Yi-Nereen, powerful in magic alone, destined by her father’s determination to be a magical battery and brood mare until one or the other finally kills her. And Jin-Lu, the mage-bike courier, the connection between them between them because she carries the letters they live for. The royals are as much in love with her as they are with each other. Jin is haunted by the people she’s left behind and couldn’t save. Disaster bisexuals, all of them, although since this is a fantasy setting they probably wouldn’t identify that way.
Beginning with a disastrous escape across the barren wilderness, Nereen and Jin find that it’s not quite as barren as they’d always thought. And if you thought that this book was merely a princess’ valiant and reckless escape from her tower of confinement… then this book is also not exactly what you’d thought. I won’t spoil it for you, but as this is the start of a series, I can tell you that the stakes are much, much higher than a runaway princess, even when that princess faces death for being caught.
Road to Ruin was released May 14th, so you can run right out and buy it right now. Or click the button below and do it from the comfort of your own home. Aren’t you lucky?
