Review: Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove by Rati Mehrotra

Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove by Rati Mehrotra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a digital and audio ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. 

This book was wonderful.  If you like me and you drawn in by lore and myth this is a great book.  This is also filled with political intrigue as our main character Katyani, the queens bodyguard, is framed for the murder of the royal family.  Katyani not only has to uncover what really happened and what motivated someone to kill her beloved queen and the family she was raised with.  As the story unfolds there are so many other things at play that she had no knowledge of and she must use all of her skills as a warrior and those that she's learned during her time with the local spiritual leader to thwart the real villain.  

This was was so well written and developed.  The world building was so well done.  Each of the monsters was well described as was the setting.  The magic was based on spiritual power and time spent in spiritual learning so it was fairly straight forward.  I loved all of the characters and felt they had great development.  I thought the pacing was really well done too.  This started off slow, but once you get past the initial set up things pick up nicely.  I really enjoyed the aspect of the Indian lore and the medieval setting.  

Like other readers I felt the romance aspect could have used a bit of work.  It was a bit under developed compared to the rest of the plot.  While you knew it was there and there was something developing between Katyani and Daksh there wasn't enough of it on the page for their relationship to really develop.  I think the author did a good job wrapping it up in the end though.  This certainly wasn't your typical YA romance with all the emotions and feelings though.  The focus was more on the action side of the plotline.

I believe this is a standalone.  It ends as if it is a standalone and I thought the ending was perfect, but I wouldn't be surprised if we get another book.  Either way I loved this and can't wait to read more from this author!

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