Yellow Door Publishing, Inc The Song of the Marked

This book was a 4 but the series overall has become one of my favorites of all time, this is a definite yes for me!4⭐️ 0.5🌶️I had been scared to start the Shadows and Crowns series because my FAVORITE series in the world is the Flame & Sparrow duology set in the same world and I was worried it wouldn’t live up. So far, it’s been a great start to the series!This was everything I had hoped that Throne of Glass would be as a series, with a lot of action, betrayal, and plot progression happening right away in the first book. Gaither has also woven some deeper themes into the narrative which was really nice and I look forward to seeing that hopefully continue throughout the series.The plot twists at the end were fun! I was expecting something of that caliber but couldn’t predict exactly what it was, so figuring it out at the end was nice! I probably should have seen it coming, and it was one of my guesses, but I hadn’t pinned it down so it was a mini-surprise for me which I enjoyed.TROPESKings guard x rebelPandemicLost princessForced proximityBetrayalMedium burnReluctant allies to loversTHE CHARACTERSI do think that for the first book in a five-book series, the character development was decent. It could have been better, but luckily we have a LOT of time to get more out of Casia and Elander’s backstories. I understand that some of their backstories were hidden due to lack of memory or certain hidden components of the plot, and we’ll likely have even more things that are hidden and exposed later in the series, so I’m not upset by the development of the MCs thus far.I would have liked to see more from the side characters in this book. At one point I confused Rhea and Nessa and thought that they were the same person for a chapter. I hope to see more from the side characters in their involvement in the story as well as their backstories and unique personalities in the upcoming books.THE ROMANCEGaither excels with banter and this book is no exception! I LOVED the banter - it was light and fun, and there wasn’t too much of it to be cringey.I liked the romance but thought it could have been slowed down a bit. It definitely wasn’t an enemies to lovers, I’d say it’s more of a reluctant allies to lovers. I would classify it as a medium burn.THEMESThere were two main themes that I noticed in this book that I thought were really nicely employed: 1) Truth and belief, and 2) being lost and finding your way back. There were also some nice political messages about power exchange through privilege through the allegory of the marked versus the unmarked. I am especially looking forward to diving into that!There were also a few recurring symbols throughout the book that showed that the author put a lot of thought and planning into the narrative. The little things like that make a story THAT much more cohesive and it was a really nice touch that I think Gaither does excellently in her books.QUOTES: THE CHARACTERS“She rarely thought of herself as brave; she had simply become well-practiced at doing things in spite of her fear.”“Okay. Well, I guess it's like...everything feels so weighted, suddenly.It feels like every breath, every inch I try to move might end in disaster and so I just...I can hardly breathe. I can hardly move. And I can't make it go away. I can't turn it off, can't lift that weight from my chest, my lungs...my entire body is encased in that heaviness."“Look, I just need to sit for a minute, and I'll be fine.When this happens, I, um...I like to imagine a rock in the middle of the sea. In a storm. The waves crash over it, higher and higher, but the rock doesn't move. It's still there once the waves are calm again."He nodded slowly, seeming to understand. "You're therock.""I'm the rock."“It's just interesting to me that the same woman who can't sleep because of anxiety was also able to run straight at the Rook God's monsters. You're a rather...captivating combination of fearless and faint-hearted.""I was terrified the entire time. I'm always terrified. The fear never entirely goes away-but I've just learned to do things while I'm afraid.”QUOTES: THE ROMANCE“If Oblivion was an ocean of nightmares, here was a reminder that morning still existed, even here, and that there was still a sky above it all. A cold, steely blue sky that she couldn't stop staring at—At least until he attacked her.”“He intrigued herWhich for some reason only made her want to stab him more.”“So he stayed. He didn't ask her to talk. Or eat. Or sleep. Or calm down. They simply existed in the same space for a while; she was a ship drifting aimlessly about, and he was the lighthouse that she occasionally found herself looking for when she needed to see something real. Something solid.An anchor.”QUOTES: THEMES“Perhaps this was simply how the world was, no matter what? An endless trading of places between the oppressors and the oppressed? The same song on repeat, with continuously rewritten lyrics...”“She lifted her eyes to the true moon, not its reflection, and she sighed.If only I really did have the Moon Goddess's power to see the truth.An uncomfortable thought occurred to her: Perhaps she was not seeing some truths because she was willfully refusing to consider anything other than the ones she had always believed.”“The moonlight seemed brighter than earlier—or perhaps that was just wishful thinking. Because she wanted that moon to illuminate everything within and around her, and she wanted its goddess's magical ability to see the truth even more desperately than before.Because which was she, really?A prisoner or a savior?”