I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Born into a family of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. But each year she fails to call forth her ancestral powers, while her ambitious mother watches with growing disapproval. There’s only one thing Arrah hasn’t tried, a deadly last resort: trading years of her own life for scraps of magic. Until the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, and Arrah is desperate to find the culprit. She uncovers something worse. The long-imprisoned Demon King is stirring. And if he rises, his hunger for souls will bring the world to its knees… unless Arrah pays the price for the magic to stop him.

Short and Sweet

Arrah was born into a family of powerful witchdoctors and is supposed to be a powerful witchdoctor herself but unfortunately she doesn’t have any magic. When children in the Kingdom start to go missing Arrah is desperate to find the culprit and to do so she does the one thing that could kill her, trading her years for magic. But the missing children isn’t the only thing Arrah has to worry about, someone is trying to free the demon king and if they’re successful in doing so humanity is doomed.

Characters

Arrah: Our main character. I liked Arrah, she didn’t have any magic which was pretty disappointing to her especially because she was born into a family of powerful witchdoctors. Arrah cares a lot about those closest to her so when it comes to giving up her years to save everyone she loves its an easy decision for her to make.

Arti: Arti is Arrah’s mother and the Ka-Priestess of the kingdom. Arti is cold and always disappointed in Arrah. I thought Arti was the worst character and she didn’t care about the consequences of her actions as long as she was successful in completing her goal.

Efia: Efia is Arrah’s younger sister and she came into the world under tragic circumstances. Efia didn’t know the difference between right and wrong and by the time Arrah wanted to teach her it was already too late. Efia had powerful magic and she was only brought into the world for one thing and one thing only, to free the demon king.

Rudjek: Rudjek is the Viziers son and will become the Vizier in the future as his father’s heir. I liked Rudjek he cared about things that you wouldn’t think was normal for someone of his status and he was different from his father and I think he would be a better Vizier than his father is.

Romance

Arrah and Rudjek: The relationship between these two is complicated, their parents are rivals so Arrah and Rudjek have to sneak around to see each other. Their relationship becomes even more complicated towards the end of the book when they realize that being too close to one another makes the other one weak. I thought they’d be good together they’ve been friends since they were children but the circumstances that they found themselves in made it hard for them to be together.

My Thoughts

~ So as I mentioned before Arrah has no magic, so she does rituals that give her magic but these rituals also take away years of her life. These rituals really take a toll on Arrah but she does it to save everyone around her.

~ The book started off slow and then it started to pick up and then I reached the middle of the book and it slowed down again and I really had to push through at that point just to finish the book. I think what really made it hard for me to read during the middle was the fact that it felt hopeless, Arrah had no magic and at that point she needed it to stop certain events from progressing.

~ There’s a lot that happens in this book, such as the children going missing, Arrah and her family having to leave the kingdom, Efia’s birth and the destruction that follows Efia.

~ The characters in the book worship Orishas which are Gods of different things, some of these Orishas end up helping Arrah in her quest to stop Efia.

~ I loved Arrah’s friends they knew how dangerous it would be to help her but they still stuck around to help her I think they were more like family than friends.

~ The hardest thing for me was seeing how helpless Arrah was at some points in the book, Arti always says that Arrah is good at failing and she always pointed out Arrah’s failures.

~ I also loved the relationship that Arrah had with her father Oshe he loved her and that never changed he was always trying to protect her and I’m sad that they didn’t have the best reunion in the end.

~ Some parts of the book do get confusing but I think towards the end its easy to make sense of everything and why things happened the way they did.

Overall

In the end I did enjoy the ending and the twist surprised me, which was good because it was definitely unexpected. I’m interested to see what will happen in the next book so I will be continuing with the series. I thought that Kingdom of Souls was a good book there were some points were I found myself becoming bored but by the end the book captured my interest again. This book was different and the world was fascinating I haven’t read a book that revolved around witchdoctors before. Check this book out if you’re in the mood for magic and a main character who risks it all for those she loves!