Review: Heir of Blood and Secrets by Linda Xia!

 **I was given a copy of this book from the author for free, this does not affect my review, which is unbiased and entirely my own opinions**

I'm always on the lookout for more diverse dystopian books, and while this book doesn't heavily go into a different culture, the main character does deal with being different in a world where status and what you look like/are can get you far. 

Heir of Blood and Secrets by Linda Xia

*I was given a free copy of this book by the author, this does not affect my review, which is unbiased and of my own opinions*

Our main character, Scylla, is a daughter of a Magistrate, which is a government official in charge of certain things, her mother, who is not from Devovea, died when Scylla was young. Scylla was humbled by going to school outside of the "castle" in a place called the "tiers" (think like Ba Sing Se from Avatar or the town in Attack on Titan, the further out from the leader, the worse the conditions). Scylla reminds me of a cozy mystery MC, she will throw herself into situations to get the answers she wants without regards to what happens to her. Overall not a bad MC, I was never annoyed with her, and even thou there is a slight romance going on, it didn't overtake the story, nor did Scylla turn dumb once with the boy or to get the boy. 

The mystery itself was good, thou I knew who it was at around the 40% mark, but Xia did a good job of making me doubt myself when she kept throwing more suspects/motives at me. 

I enjoyed the world building, the only issues I had was Xia explained in detail the gondola system twice, and I had slight confusion when it came to if Scylla had been to Galen's apartment or not. Once it was said "I know where he (Galen) lives, but early on he had made me promise to never visit unless it was life-or-death" but then later states "I've know where Galen lives for quite some time, but I've never actually entered his apartment. Mostly because Galen refused to let me in the first few times I'd randomly showed up at his door. After a while, I'd just stopped trying, accepting it as one of his quirks". Just comes across confusing, to me anyhow. *shrug*

Overall a good book, and I'd pick up book 2 if this was a series or try another book from the same author.