The Chameleon with a Sword by B.L. Logan

I did really like how the author showed both Leena’s and Mordecai’s perspectives before revealing the larger conflict that bound them. I feel like I missed an episode and need to go back and start the show from the beginning, because I’m still a bit lost. I’m also not sure I fully (or even partly) understand the Oculan, or the Duro and the Nox, or why exactly Mordecai would want to trigger a Rupture (or what a Rupture really entails), even after reading the entire book. For example, the author calls one woman “Lord Kamare,” but Leena (and all other women I can recall reading about in the story) is called “Lady Niran,” yet there is no explanation for the distinction, which just made it kind of weird. And I understand wanting to step outside of social norms to differentiate your fantasy world from reality, but when no reason is given for making a change, it just leads to awkwardness and confusion. There are a number of territories in this kind-of-dystopian world, and the author drags us through them, but the information we learn along the way turns out to be mainly superfluous and doesn’t have much of a bearing on the overall storyline. It seemed dystopian at first, but then Leena ends up in the oddly peaceful suburbs, where she is dumped into more of a fantasy world with confusing magic.

The author built an incredible world, but that world-building was also confusing at times. It took me forever to get through this story, mainly because I found myself getting lost in obscure things that in the end were really not all that important and missing bits that could have helped me make sense of the story. The main reason I am not super excited about it is that I felt it could have been condensed or even split up into a duology. So, I liked this book, but I can’t say that I loved it. With a bounty on her head, Leena must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to protect herself, her dreams, her family, her world. Leena’s safety becomes the duty of another protector, but her fate is her own. By a government, a king, and a vengeful exiled prince seeking salvation for the illness killing his people. Suddenly, a nomadic fencer finds herself wanted. The sum of Day and Night-two ancient energy forces a king must keep in balance or risk blending life and death in a cataclysmic melee. A people synonymous with betrayal because of him. Traitors.Ī word once signifying respect and honor in Prince Mordecai’s homeland. A people who decided her destiny, but don’t even know she exists. A word that slices fear through sixteen-year-old Leena Niran the way her sword does enemies.

The Chameleon with a Sword by B.L. Logan