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#1.) The Bird and the Sword: ★★★★
#2.) The Queen and the Cure: ★★★★��

All right, I need to up the rating on this to four stars because this book is lovely. It's a beautifully written fantasy with spells, lyricism, romance, and plotting. While light on the action, it's still a wonderful story with a lovely heroine and a flawed but manageable male interest.

And the writing. Can I say again how beautiful it was? And the nods to the book of Exodus? "Your home is my home; your people are my people; your God is my God." ❤️

Only downside is I'm still not bought into King Tiras as a man or lover worthy of Lark.

LOVELY QUOTES
1) “Swallow Daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heav’n or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, daughter. Stay alive.��

2) I would give you this power. This gift of words. I would trade you for your ability to change, and I would become a real lark. A little bird. And I would fly away. I would make my nest high in a tree, and I would sing. Sing and fly. If I were a real bird people would lose the ability to disappoint me. I wouldn’t consider them at all. I would have only four little words in my head. Sleep, eat, fly, sing. And that would be enough for me.

3) I laughed, and wished I could howl my frustration at the fat, lazy moon who looked on us through the flaps of the big tent like a drunken voyeur, too sauced to hide his riveted attention.

The number of times that this book tore at my heartstrings, man. I'm so curious why this experience was so different from my first read of it. I'll definitely be adding more of this author's work!

Now on to the sequel!

ORIGINAL REVIEW

I started reading this book because Ashley made it sound so good, haha. Little bit of magic, nobility, romance, intrigue - what's not to like?

THE GOOD
1) The writing was very lyrical, possibly because many of Lark's spells had to be in rhyme. Either way, it was a lovely and beautiful story...and rather unique. The bit about our main girl not having a voice reminded me of Daughter of the Forest and the half Tiras, half Volcrae eagle reminded me of Nikolai from Siege and Storm, but as a whole it was a uniquely pieced together story.

2) Felt like a true magical fantasy.

3) I also grew to like Lark by the end. She seemed very real with the way she expressed some of her more raw thoughts, and her powers near the end were neat to witness.

THE BAD
1) Didn't quite care for King Tiras by much, and I never truly bought that he loved Lark. The narration tells us that he does, but his actions and interactions with Lark never convinced me.

2) Flat secondary characters. What literal and emotional purpose does Kjell have in the story? Boojohni? Firi? Lord Corvyn?

3) Plot holes. So...(view spoiler)[what happened with King Tiras 3/4 in that made people think he was dead? And how did he master his Gift enough that he could change to a Volcrae beasty in time for the final battle? Is there no never mind that the people see their dead king swopping around like a griffin? Did Kjell and Firi have a thing, and is he trustworthy if he was keeping Firi's Gift a secret? (hide spoiler)]

THE VERDICT
T'was a lovely book. I never got completely sucked in, but it was a beautiful, easy, and quick read.