BLOG TOUR STOP: The Bird and the Blade [Review + Giveaway!]

Welcome to my stop on The Bird and the Blade blog tour (hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club)! I’m so excited to be participating in this, not only because it’s my first blog tour, but because I’ve been SO HYPE for this book since I first found out about it last December!

I won’t keep you here with a long introduction because you’ll see all my gushing in the review and I’m guessing you want to hear about this book, so without further ado let’s begin! (Also make sure to stick around til the end of the post because I’ve included the link to the giveaway being held!)

ABOUT THE BOOK

THE BIRD AND THE BLADE

by Megan Bannen

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Release Date: June 5, 2018

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • Book Depository • Kobo • IndieBound • iBooks

Synopsis

As a slave in the Kipchak Khanate, Jinghua has lost everything: her home, her family, her freedom … until she finds herself an unlikely conspirator in the escape of Prince Khalaf and his irascible father as they flee from their enemies across the vast Mongol Empire. On the run, with adversaries on all sides and an endless journey ahead, Jinghua hatches a scheme to use the Kipchaks’ exile to return home, a plan that becomes increasingly fraught as her feelings for Khalaf evolve into a hopeless love.

Jinghua’s already dicey prospects take a downward turn when Khalaf seeks to restore his kingdom by forging a marriage alliance with Turandokht, the daughter of the Great Khan. As beautiful as she is cunning, Turandokht requires all potential suitors to solve three impossible riddles to win her hand—and if they fail, they die.

Jinghua has kept her own counsel well, but with Khalaf’s kingdom—and his very life—on the line, she must reconcile the hard truth of her past with her love for a boy who has no idea what she’s capable of … even if it means losing him to the girl who’d sooner take his life than his heart.

REVIEW

Well, this book is going to haunt me for a while. It was a gut-wrenching read and left me tearing up at the end (and I never cry over books!). Megan Bannen crafts a beautiful, 13^th century Mongolian inspired setting with gripping characters and an enthralling spin on the opera Turandot. After staying up late to finish this book (because of course nessun dorma when they read this book), one of the first things I did the next day was go back and reread the beginning. I adored this book and I can’t wait for others to read it! (prepare for the gushing)

First off, can we just talk about how awesome the idea of this book is? As I mentioned before, it’s a retelling of the opera Turandot (and various other super similar ancient stories and poems). But instead of taking the perspective of the protagonist Prince Calaf or Turandot, the tale is told from the perspective of a side character (the slave girl). I love when authors do this! It brings new twists to light to such classic tales and this is exactly what Bannen did! Even though I knew the plotline going in (from Wikipedia, lol, tho I would love to see the opera some day!), I was completely engrossed in this tale, gasping at the new depth that was woven into this retelling.

One of the first things that impressed me about this book was the structure of it. The Bird and the Blade alternates between short scenes of Prince Khalaf attempting to solve Turnadokht’s riddles and long sections that provide backstory on Jinghua and Khalaf leading up to these events. Though at first it confused me, I grew to love this structure! I find backstory scenes to be either hit or miss and this book definitely made the mark! Both the riddle scenes and the backstory were equally compelling and I found myself continuously greedy for more.

Another element that I adored was how Jinghua and Turandokht were such perfect foils of each other. I won’t elaborate on that because I don’t want to spoil anything, but aahhhhh, this component killed me. Although I do wish that Bannen had found a way to flesh out more of Turandokht’s character. That could have been really interesting.

Additionally, something I loved about this retelling was how Bannen interwove snippets of Turandot into the lines of The Bird and the Blade. Given that I’ve only listened to the aria “Nessun Dorma” (you’ve probably heard it too. It seems like the majority of opera-singing contestants on talent shows sing this aria), I can only speak for that song. There are at least two different lines spoken in the book that come directly from the English-translated version of “Nessun Dorma” and when I read them I squealed with delight! I adored these hidden Easter eggs and I’m willingly to bet there were a ton more that I didn’t catch.

Though this book enthralled me, I will admit it wasn’t perfect. I found Jinghua’s instant attraction/obsession with Khalaf kind of confusing. It was offsetting how present Jinghua’s voice was in the narration. And additionally there was a plot twist at the end about Jinghua, that although surprising, came off as cliché and weak to me.

Now, I can’t complete this review without devoting a paragraph to THAT ENDING. I obviously won’t give any spoilers, but know that it wrecked me. This book grabbed all my feelings and just squeezed, but I’m not sure I was completely satisfied with the ending (and not just because I teared up. I mean quality/plot-wise). Certain results seemed rather stupid and kind of dramatic in hindsight and I wish the author had put an even greater twist across the end. (lol I hope this paragraph was vague enough for you all).

Overall, The Bird and the Blade captured both my mind and my heart (Megan Bannen, can you at least give us some sort of companion book, pleaseeeeee?). Already, I’m itching to go back and reread this book. I do want to address that even though this book is classified as fantasy, it’s really just historical fiction with a slight magical realism twist (a ghost). Regardless of that, I would recommend this book to all YA/historical fiction/fantasy/Turandot lovers! Please read this so we can gush about it together!

Rating: 4.25 stars

“…so, are you my book?”

“I’m not perfect, but I definitely deserve a place on your bookshelf!”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

15995912 Megan Bannen is a librarian and the author of THE BIRD AND THE BLADE. In her spare time, she collects graduate degrees from Kansas colleges and universities. While most of her professional career has been spent in public libraries, she has also sold luggage, written grants, and taught English at home and abroad. She lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, their two sons, and a few too many pets with literary names. She can be found online at http://www.meganbannen.com.