Review! HONOR AMONG ORCS by Amalia Dillin!

Soooo my amazing friend Amalia Dillin is releasing another book today! APRIL FOOLS!! (No but really... she really is...)

This one is a bit different from her Forged By Fate series. HONOR AMONG ORCS is a fantasy in the classic Tolkien vein featuring some very well-known and much beloved fantasy creatures, but in ways that turns their tropes on their heads.

The thing that I love about Amalia's writing is how lyrical her prose is. She writes beautifully, but not in a way that feels heavy-handed or overdone. Her writing and characters are still accessible and compelling. And boy, does HONOR AMONG ORCS compel.

HONOR AMONG ORCS is the story of Bolthorn, an orc king/ village chief, and the daughter of a human king, Arianna. The human race thinks orcs and elves and dragons are myth, but it turns out they've just sealed themselves away from humanity to avoid war and exploitation. When Bolthorn comes as an emissary to Arianna's father, instead of dealing with him, the king locks Bolthorn away. Arianna, oppressed by her cruel dad, finds something appealing about the orc trapped in a mirror, and together they forge their way not only out of her father's grasp but all the way to the land where the elves and orcs live. Except it turns out their biggest enemy has yet to be faced, and it will surprise them all who it is.

This book sounds impossible from the outside: a story where the orcs are the good guys, and a human falls in love with one-- but much like the pan-theistic world of her Forged By Fate series, Amalia manages to craft not only an amazing, believable, and interesting story, but characters that will make you root and laugh and cry and want to punch the bad guys for them.

I also love that the skeleton of the book feels familiar-- it is orcs, elves, and humans after all-- but the plot is super twisty and keeps you guessing until the very last page! And! It's going to be a series!

Go pick it up at Amazon today! And, as always, if you enjoy a book, the best way to help the author (besides buying it) is to leave a review of your own.