Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove by. Rati Mehrotra | Audiobook Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove

Author: Rati Mehrotra

Narrator: Zehra Naqvi

Format: audoiobook (borrowed)

Pages: 352

Publication Date: 10/18/22

Categories: Fantasy, Young Adult, Adventure, Romance

To learn what she can become, she must first discover who she is.

Katyani’s role in the kingdom of Chandela has always been clear: becoming an advisor and protector of the crown prince, Ayan, when he ascends to the throne. Bound to the Queen of Chandela through a forbidden soul bond that saved her when she was a child, Katyani has grown up in the royal family and become the best guardswoman the Garuda has ever seen. But when a series of assassination attempts threatens the royals, Katyani is shipped off to the gurukul of the famous Acharya Mahavir as an escort to Ayan and his cousin, Bhairav, to protect them as they hone the skills needed to be the next leaders of the kingdom. Nothing could annoy Katyani more than being stuck in a monastic school in the middle of a forest, except her run-ins with Daksh, the Acharya’s son, who can’t stop going on about the rules and whose gaze makes her feel like he can see into her soul.

But when Katyani and the princes are hurriedly summoned back to Chandela before their training is complete, tragedy strikes and Katyani is torn from the only life she has ever known. Alone and betrayed in a land infested by monsters, Katyani must find answers from her past to save all she loves and forge her own destiny. Bonds can be broken, but debts must be repaid.

Content Warning: violence, whipping scene, death

I read this one as an audiobook and I am horrible with retaining details when I’m doing an audiobook but I’m trying to practice by listening to more audiobooks! With that said I found this book to be very entertaining. The narrator did such an excellent job doing to the voices for everyone.

I loved the action, adventure and humor in this book. The world-building is lush and it’s inspired by medieval India, which I thought was cool. I really enjoyed the relationships between the characters. Katayani’s relationship with the royals she grew up protecting was so fun to listen to because they acted like siblings. There were a few twists in this book and some that are heartbreaking – this story is emotional. There is a romance and I thought it was entertaining with how it started since the Katayani and Daksh are such opposites in character. It got rough for the two of them though.

There were some parts in the second half of the book that I was pushing through and I couldn’t understand why I was ready for the story to be over – don’t know if it’s because it’s an audiobook and I was impatient to finish or something in the story wasn’t holding my attention.

Tropes: opposites attract

Why you should read it:

it’s a standalone fantasy
the romance between Katayani and Daksh
the adventure, world-building and relationships between characters

Why you might not want to read it:

some pacing issues

My Thoughts:

Overall, I found this one to be really entertaining. I liked the world building, relationships and Katayani’s strong personality. The adventure kept the story moving. It had only slight some pacing issues but I still think it was an enjoyable story.