I borrowed a copy of Ilona Andrews‘ This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me from my local library.
When Maggie wakes up cold, filthy, and naked in a gutter, it doesn’t take her long to recognize Kair Toren, a city she knows intimately from the pages of the famously unfinished dark fantasy series she’s been obsessively reading and re-reading while waiting years for the final novel.
Her only tools for navigating this gritty world of rival warlords, magic, and mayhem? Her encyclopedic knowledge of the plot, the setting, and the characters’ ambitions and fates. But while she quickly discovers she cannot be killed (though many will try!), the same cannot be said for the living, breathing characters she’s coming to love—a motley band that includes a former lady’s maid, a deadly assassin, various outrageous magical creatures, and a dangerously appealing soldier. Soon, instead of trying to get home, she finds herself enmeshed in the schemes—and attentions—of dueling princes, dukes, and villains, all while trying to save them and the kingdom of Rellas from the way she knows their stories will end: in a cataclysmic war.
While this wasn’t my favorite Ilona Andrews book and it took me a surprisingly long time to get invested, I still enjoyed the heck out of it. I thought it had plenty of sarcasm, humor, nerdy references, and purposeful use (and misuse) of tropes; the cast was varied and interesting, and the isekai world was creative. I also didn’t see all of the twists coming, which was a bonus. There were a lot of characters, though, and I lost track at times. I repeatedly had to remind myself who was who. I really would have appreciated a character list. It was also a little repetitive and info-dumpy. But I’ll still be waiting to read book two whenever it comes out.
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