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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Nataliya Falevich’s Velvet Blade follows Azarêa, a merchant’s daughter raised beside an ancient fig tree as heat begins connecting the girl to women who came before her. Her mother secretly teaches Azarêa to read memory in oil, while elderly Teta Shira offers understanding of the fire carried along the family bloodline. Years later, ruler Sayyid al-Nar sees Azarêa in a desert market and soon sends an offer to her father’s house. Sayyid believes Azarêa’s power could strengthen his rule, pulling her toward a palace built around one man’s will. As the ruler watches her more closely, Azarêa begins learning how the palace depends on women who understand when to speak while keeping private thoughts to themselves. With both of them studying the other, neither understands what their meeting will set in motion.
Nataliya Falevich’s Velvet Blade is fantastic mythic fantasy, and Azarêa is a heroine we genuinely want to follow. Azarêa is fleshed out as a woman certain of herself, shown when she enters the Chamber of Mirrors and lifts her chin toward unseen watchers behind darker panels. Sayyid is a brilliantly imposing counterpart, with his certainty pushing the fear factor through every encounter. This is a ruler who tells Azarêa that the palace breathes according to his will while standing above the inner gardens, and it is formidable. Where the writing truly shines is in the settings, from pale stone walls veined like branching roots around bronze fires, to an older circular chamber beneath a painted dome of fading desert flowers. Well written and atmospheric, readers who enjoy mythic fantasy built around women’s power will adore this book.
