#Review - Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova #YA #Fantasy

Series:  Incendiary (#1)
Format: Hardcover, 464 pages
Release Date: April 28, 2020
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

I am Renata Convida.

I have lived a hundred stolen lives.

Now I live my own.

Renata was only a child when she was kidnapped by the King's Justice and brought to the luxurious palace of Andalucia. As a memory thief, the rarest and most feared of the magical Moria, Renata was used by the crown to carry out the King's Wrath, a siege that resulted in the deaths of thousands of her own people.

Now Renata is one of the Whispers, rebel spies working against the crown. The Whispers may have rescued Renata years ago, but she cannot escape their mistrust and hatred-or the overpowering memories of the hundreds of souls she drained during her time in the palace.

When Dez, the commander of her unit-and the boy she's grown to love-is taken captive by the notorious Principe Dorado, Renata must return to Andalucia and complete Dez's top secret mission herself. Can she keep her cover, even as she burns for vengeance against the brutal, enigmatic prince? Her life and the fate of the Moria depend on it.

But returning to the palace stirs childhood memories long locked away. As Renata grows more deeply embedded in the politics of the royal court, she uncovers a secret in her past that could change the fate of the entire kingdom-and end the war that has cost her everything.

Incendiary is the first installment in author Zoraida Córdova's Hollow Crown series. Set in a lushly drawn world inspired by Inquisition Spain, (Kingdom of Puerto Leones) Zoraida Córdova's anticipated new fantasy is an epic tale of love and revenge. Protagonist Renata Convida has spent a lifetime dealing with her gift - or curse, depending on who you ask. As a member of a dying, oppressed people - the Moria - Ren has the rarest gift of all: the ability to read and steal memories aka Robari. 

Ren unknowingly helped the Andalucia crown hunt and exterminate possibly thousands of her fellow Moria...and she has spent the past eight years struggling to make amends after joining the Whispers, the last rebels standing against the crown's cruelty. For 8 years, Ren has tried to prove herself to the Moria with little movement in accepting her completely. Some of her own teammates (Sayida, Margo, Esteben) would gladly kill her rather than trust her. Yet when Ren commits a mistake that costs her the boy she loves, she must return to the palace and take his place, else the resistance fail entirely. Political intrigue and murderous intent abound as Ren struggles to find her allegiance and who she is. 

Renata simmers with barely-restrained fury at the prospect of a weapon created by the king that steals magic from its users. Hell-bent on seeking revenge for all the years she was forced to use her magic to extract people’s memories as a servant of the King’s Justice, Renata infiltrates the palace in order to destroy their plan from the inside out. But while living in the palace, old memories resurface, including who really saved her on the night the rebels tried to overthrow the King, and Renata may be forced into using her magic to become the monster that others always viewed her as. 

Ren might hold the memories of hundreds of others, but she has lost so many of her own hidden within the Grey that blocks her from her past. Her remembering is the story. She has never been trusted, never been truly safe. Both her usefulness a weapon and as an inescapable danger to others shapes their every interaction with her. Leo gives the story a bit more balance as he hold some interesting secrets which may or may not align with Ren's own past and what happened to her 8 years ago. 

In this world, other Moria are called Illusionari, Persuari, and Venturi aka lie detectors. *Note* some sources say this is the first book in the Hollow Crown series, some say it's the Incendiary series. Incendiary really is about a girl returning to her past and facing some hard truths, while trying to figure out her place in a world that has rejected her. There is some romance involved in the story between Ren and Dez, and likely Dez and Prince Leodardo. We shall see how that works out now that turbulence has made Ren choose a path which will lead to a conflict with her former allies, and quite possibly, King Fernando.  

“I have to be the one to find the alman stone and I have to be the one to return it to your father.”

A smirk plays on his lips. “And here I thought I was the glory seeker.”

“I don’t want glory,” I say, a bitter laugh on my tongue. “I don’t even want praise.”

The wind changes, smoke encircling us.

When I look at him, he could be one of my stolen memories, coated in a layer of gray, somehow distant and close all at once as he asks, “Then what do you want?”

My heart tugs painfully because the answer is complicated. He of all people should know this. But how could he, when even in the moments I’m the surest of this answer, a new kind of want overpowers the next? I settle on the simplest and truest answer I can.

“Forgiveness. I want the Whispers to know I’m not a traitor. The only way I can do that is by getting as many Moria on the next ship to Luzou as I can.”

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