Author: Kristen Ciccarelli
Publisher: Gollancz
Genre: YA Fantasy
Page Count: 442 (according to GoodReads)
Release Date: 5th October 2017
It's been a while since I reviewed an ARC and even longer since I reviewed an e-book ARC so I was very excited to start this book. However, I've also been in a bit of a book slump so I've been giving up on a lot of books and I've been slow when it comes to reading others. You wanna know how long this book took me to read? 2 days. Yep, I got through this book so quickly and easily so this is definitely a good book to get you out of a slump.
The Last Namsara is a YA crossover fantasy book about a young woman called Asha who has spent years of her life hunting dragons in the hope of pleasing her father and gaining her people's forgiveness. Of course, it turns out that she hasn't been doing exactly what she thought she'd be doing and an old god starts to intervene in her life.
What I Liked
The world building in The Last Namsara is incredibly rich and I'd even like to think that the heroine is a POC though the only description you really get of her people is that they have dark hair and eyes. That and that another group of people have darker skin than then but since they live somewhere sandy and the word pale wasn't used anywhere...I'm going to take this as a good sign. It isn't just skin colour that's rich though and the mythos and world are really fascinating. You get to learn a few of the worlds different stories and you're left with wanting more. Plus there are dragons and who doesn't love dragons?
As well as this the romance was a slow-burn. Yes, it's fairly obvious who the romance is going to be with from the off but they aren't exclaiming that they love each other or kissing early on and that's always great. As well as that you get a real sense of how they're going to struggle to fit together at first. They've had totally different upbringings and have lived totally different lives so now they're going to have to learn how to live around each other with a new relationship.
What I Didn't Like
As good as the book was, I think it could have been split into two with each bit being expanded. It did seem a little odd that there was a rebellion in the end when Asha isn't even focused on that for most of the book. Doing this could have also allowed for even more on the dragons and mythos, which it didn't necessarily need, but it would have been nice to see more of.
My only other issue was that if you don't like animal death, some of the dragons are killed. It seems obvious when you remember the heroine is a dragon hunter but there is one particularly sad scene. That just seems like something people should be warned about, so.
This was a great book overall and if you're looking for a new fantasy read then this might be a new series for you.
5/5 stars
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