Summary:
Princess Amikharlia likes a fight.
Abandoning her homeland, she travels across the ruins of Whyt’hallen to take up the hunt against the mutated remnants of a magical war that killed the gods and tore the sky asunder.
But these vicious beasts are not the darkest shadow hanging over Amika’s life—it’s the forbidden magic she’s hidden since childhood … and what would happen if it were discovered.
On the trail of a dangerous mark, Amika uncovers a madman who is more than what he seems. He claims her unnatural gifts are prophesied to restore the goddess to her throne, protecting Whyt’hallen from those who seek to rule in her stead.
In return for her help, he offers her training—training that will allow her to control her powers before they control her. But following the prophecy means Amika must relinquish her hard-won liberty … and destroy the world in the process.
With a dark power rising in the east, threatening to enslave her people, Amika’s options grow ever slimmer. She must confront her unwillingness to walk the path of destiny’s design—or risk the rise of a malevolent new god.
But can she devastate Whyt’hallen in order to save it?
Review:
The Ruptured Sky by Jessica A. McMinn is one of those stories where the hero has no interest in following a blind prophecy but pretty much gets dragged into it anyway. And yep, I love those types of stories!
I want to start with the world because we are just thrust into this story (after a prologue that sets up Amika and her mysterious magic powers) and aren’t really given a lot of details until Amika starts to learn them. I quite like this because we aren’t inundated with lore. Amika has magic, that’s clear from the prologue, but I liked that magic isn’t something that is common here, and it’s mostly to do with the world being almost torn apart by magic some time before. But once we learn that the magic is related to some bickering gods and elder races, some interesting things start to happen. And we get to see some crazy beasts and giant ‘ruptures’ in the sky, etc.
But this world is no different than any other in that there are always some jerks who want to take what they think is theirs. And all of this is balanced out with a cast of POVs that are so entirely different and entertaining.
While Amika is our prophecy-bound lead, our warrior of renown (you know because of her magic), and former princess turned runaway, I quite liked the rest of the cast more. Don’t get me wrong, Amika is great, but she follows the reluctant hero trope pretty closely, and she also plays the role of the info-dumpee. So she bears a heavy load plotwise, and she does bear it well. Which is why I found Kriah and Rei-Hai slightly more interesting. Kriah was raised to believe he is instrumental in the prophecy of restoring the fallen goddess, not to mention being completely isolated for near eighty years (elder race bloods live long lives), so to witness his evolution was a highmark for me as a reader. He goes from closeted to finding his place in the world (ish), and I enjoyed following that. Rei-Hai was also great because the poor demon-born kiddo who was friends with Amika as a child to a trained killer is an arc that showed personality/nature v upbringing. Rei-Hai’s arc was the best part of the story for me, I could read an entire series based on his life, especially the Tower where he was trained (I also really liked there were four separate paths of training in the Tower, not just your normal assassin). And then there is Kio, Amika’s brother, the current prince and local Lothario (seriously, this dude bangs EVERY.SINGLE.GUY in the castle). Kio, won’t lie, was hard to like at first, but then some things happen and he actually became a character I felt tied to as a reader. But I won’t spoil why.
I liked how this story had a number of tropes in it and none of them overshadowed the others. There is the prophecy chosen one trope (Amika & Kriah). The runaway bride that leads to Bad Things (Amika again). The killer sent to kill someone from his past (Rei-Hai). The mysterious mentor who won’t tell anyone anything but gets Big Mad when people don’t do as he wants (Kriah’s grandfather Grey). Every one of these tropes (plus some I won’t mention for reasons) plays nicely off each other, wasn’t force-fed or heavy handed. They all played together in this sandbox of a world.
And this world is brutal. The demons/beasties are bloody and relentless. Amika’s magic essentially destroys things to gloopy messes of blood and viscera. Bodies are strewn everywhere, especially by the sadistic scorned hubby, and I mean bodies of loved ones placed perfectly in front of our heroes to taunt them. There is one trigger warning that I must add, there is on-page child death due to the brutality of this grim world, so please be warned.
I quite enjoyed this book but I did feel like the ending missed the mark for me, and that’s because I didn’t like how Amika’s decisions played out. It was not the decisions themselves that were the problem for me, but the actual progression. I just didn’t see her character allowing something to go that far. I loved everything about the ending: Rei-Hai’s/Kio’s final scenes, the vengeance, the set-up and fall-out. It was just one push (ahem) too far as I just didn’t feel that was necessary to get to the same climax…
Overall, The Ruptured Sky was a fun, fast-paced read with tropes I adore, with an ending that leaves open a number of possibilities.