Book Review: The Rise of the Rain Queen by Fiona Zeddie

I saw a black girl on the cover of a book and clicked on the digital galley and requested it, yes, solely on the cover I selected this book, then, I read the book description and after that researched the author.

Book Summary: Nyandoro was born the favourite. As the only girl of her parents’ six children, she gets everything she wants without even asking for it. When the latest thing she desires is the wife of a village elder, she faces consequences she never had to before.These consequences come with the dawn of a passion she didn’t know existed, a carnal feast of flesh she can’t get enough of. But on the night she gains the ultimate satisfaction from the woman she’d always wanted, she also loses every good thing she ever had. This loss takes Ny from the shelter of her family and home to the unknown wilds of a new world flush with ancient power, and into the arms of an old lover who has always been by her side.

So from the description and the book’s publishers, Bold Strokes Books, I knew this was a lesbian romance novel. Then, I Googled Fiona Zeddie and fought out that she was born in Jamaica, and I got excited.

 I read this book in one sitting (or lie in, I was in bed and stayed up to read it). I wanted to love this and the book started off so good. I was intrigued, I adored Ny, her youth, her infatuation with Duni and her interactions with her family members. The novel is a magical realism erotica, that is best genre mashup I can come up with to categorise it.

I genuinely enjoyed the first part of the novel, or most of it. The story is divided into two, and the first part was brilliantly written. The world building and descriptions are amazing. The book is set in what is termed the “Tanganyika Region in 141″4 and in Jaguar Village the community is accepting of gays and lesbians and polygamy. Members of the lgbt community are simply known to be in marriages that will not produce children.  Fiona is an amazing storyteller, she incorporated aspects of West African Orisha myths, and these   gods and their whims and negotiations are what moves the plot along.

This ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!