Releasing October 18, 2022 from Wednesday Books
I loved this book. Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove is a wonderfully rich young adult fantasy set in a world inspired by medieval India. Our heroine Katyani is a guardswoman tied by a soul bond to the queen of Chandela, who saved her life as a child. The queen orders her to accompany Chandela’s princes to attend a monastic school in the middle of a forest full of monsters.
Katya is one of my new favourite YA fantasy characters. She’s smart, strong, and snarky, she shows fear and doubt, and she has a kind heart. Her growth is the centre of the novel: she knows very little about her own history and this is her first time outside of the queen’s influence. She also has a nice slow burn romance with a young monk, Daksh, that’s full of wit and heart. The other side characters each have depth and their own agenda.
I wasn’t expecting the awesome monster content in this book. One of my favourite things in speculative fiction is a good monster. While Night of the Raven is not a scary book, Katya’s world is full of monsters from horror stories: ghosts, giants, blood drinkers and soul suckers. They’re rarely purely evil and a lot of Katya’s character growth involves figuring out who to trust or fear.
The magic system is based on Hindu spirituality, and I loved the way magic, religion, and philosophy interacted in this book. It felt rich and thoughtful and lent an authenticity to the world and depth to the character interactions.
This book has so much heart and soul, and goes in directions I didn’t expect at all. It’s definitely making my top 10 YA fantasies of 2022.
🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2
Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for my review copy of this book.
Leanne Olson 
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