Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books
Date of publication: August 6th, 2024
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Romance, High Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Young Adult Fantasy, Queer
Series: Guardians of Dawn
Ami—Book 2
Purchase Links: Amazon |B&N | WorldCat
Goodreads Synopsis:
When the Pillar blooms, the end of the world is not far behind.
Li Ami was always on the outside—outside of family, outside of friendships, outside of ordinary magic. The odd and eccentric daughter of a former imperial magician, she has devoted her life to books because she finds them easier to read than people. Exiled to the outermost west of the Morning Realms, Ami has become the sole caretaker of her mentally ill father, whose rantings and ravings may be more than mere ramblings; they may be part of a dire prophecy. When her father is arrested for trespassing and stealing a branch from the sacred tree of the local monastery, Ami offers herself to the mysterious Beast in the castle, who is in need of someone who can translate a forbidden magical text and find a cure for the mysterious blight that is affecting the harvest of the land.
Meanwhile, as signs of magical corruption arise throughout the Morning Realms, Jin Zhara begins to realize that she might be out of her element. She may have defeated a demon lord and uncovered her identity as the Guardian of Fire, but she’ll be more than outmatched in the coming elemental battle against the Mother of Ten Thousand Demons…unless she can find the other Guardians of Dawn. Her magic is no match for the growing tide of undead, and she needs the Guardian of Wood with power over life and death in order to defeat the revenants razing the countryside.
The threat of the Mother of Ten Thousand Demons looms larger by the day, and the tenuous peace holding the Morning Realms together is beginning to unravel. Ami and Zhara must journey to the Root of the World in order to seal the demon portal that may have opened there and restore balance to an increasingly chaotic world.
First Line:
On the eighth day of the osmanthus month, Ami’s fairy tree unexpectedly produced a miniature flower.
Important details about Ami
Pace: Medium
POV: 3rd person (Li Ami, Jin Zhara, the Beast)
Series: Ami is the 2nd book in the Guardians of Dawn series
Content/Trigger Guidance: Ami contains themes that include gore, mental illness, kidnapping, grief, death of a parent, deadnaming, refugee experiences, body horror, dead bodies, loss of autonomy, scars, fire & arson, and physical assault.
Language: Ami contains mild swearing and language that might offend some people.
Sexual Content: There is no sexual content in Ami.
Setting: Ami is set in the Morning Realms.
My Review
I was very impatient for this book to be published. I had loved Zhara, but with how it ended, I needed to know more about the characters, the world, the romance, and everything else connected with this world. Surprisingly, I was surprised when the publisher sent me a widget. Why was I surprised? Well, I thought the book would be published next year (and that was my assumption). Then, I was thrilled. I was curious who the Guardian of Wood was. Well, Ami more than answered my questions. But it also raised new ones, which I am sure will be answered in the next book.
Ami is the second book in the Guardian of Dawn series. It cannot be read as a standalone; you need to read book 1 to understand the backstory and events that lead into book 2.
Ami’s main storyline is centered around Li Ami and Jin Zhara. The storyline with Li Ami did make me sad. Ami had to deal with so much (her mentally ill father, her magic, and her feelings of inadequacy). She worked hard to overcome her feelings, tried her hardest to suppress her magic, and cared for and shielded her father. Ami even pleaded to take his punishment (when he stole a branch from the Pilar). By the middle of her plotline, though, I began to see the girl she’d become at the end of the book. She became more assertive and less shy but still suppressed her magic. It wasn’t until the end of the book that her full character emerged, and I loved her.
The plotline with Zhara was interesting. Her travels with the Bangtan brothers and Han (her love interest) were a little more exciting than Ami’s. In this storyline, the zombies were first shown in action, and a possible explanation was given for why they were being created. Yuli (the Guardian of the Wind) did make appearances (Zhara is her BFF), but she was dealing with a whole lot of shit at home.
Ami and Zahara’s storylines merge a little after the middle of the book. I liked the instant connection that they both felt to each other. But I liked the most that Zhara took the time to get to know Ami and her companions. She also doesn’t push Ami past her comfort zone but stresses the importance of their mission (to find and stop the Mother of Ten Thousand Demons, to stop the zombies, and to heal the Pilar).
I did like the LGBTQ+/nuerodivergent rep that the author incorporated into Ami. The book has autistic, lesbian, nonbinary, and asexual characters. The author did a great job of introducing and portraying those characters and the people around them. I felt nothing was forced or fake, and she didn’t play into stereotypes.
The fantasy angle of the book was well written. Ami, Zhara, and Yuli’s powers were enough to keep me reading. But then she added the other fantasy elements, and I was hooked. The whole zombie sub-storyline was interesting, as was how they were created (the explanation is wild). I also absolutely loved the storyline to save the Pilar (and what was eventually revealed). I also was curious about Gaden’s magic and how they used it. It was introduced mid-book and did cause Gaden some issues with Ami (and the rest of the group).
There is a romance angle in Ami. There were two. Zhara and Han’s romance continues in this book. Gaden and Ami’s romance, which made my day when I read it, was pure and sweet, and it was what I wanted to read in a fantasy book. Because of their scars, Gaden didn’t think they were worthy of love. That was until Ami saw beyond the scar to the person underneath.
There are a few twists in Ami that raised my eyebrows. The first is the confession of Ami’s father while he was in his right mind. That confession explains a lot about the Guardians and what Ami had to keep her power hidden. The second was about Gaden, and that caught me by surprise. I was not expecting Gaden’s true identity to be what it was. I also wasn’t expecting (even though, in hindsight, it did make sense) Gaden’s utter lack of caring about their true identity. There is a twist about the portal and the Pilar and Gaden’s connection to both.
I had mixed feelings about the end of Ami. On one hand, I was pleased with how everything turned out for this book. I liked that the Guardians (with Yuli being there in spirit, literally) were able to resolve the issue of the zombies and how they were being created. But on the other hand, I really wanted Yuli to be there in person. I was also very curious about the Guardian of Water because that epilogue wasn’t enough.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, NetGalley, and S. Jae-Jones for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Ami. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
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