My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Spice Rating: 🌶️
Title: Crown of War and Shadow (Kingdoms of the Compass, #1)
Author: J.R. Ward
Format: eBook (NetGalley)
Pages: 480
Publication Date: 2/17/26
Publisher: Bramble
Categories: Romantasy, Fantasy, Romance
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Bramble for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
An outcast burdened with a curse and a mercenary who’s out for himself collide in this star-crossed, slow-burn, high-stakes romantic fantasy from #1 New York Times bestseller J. R. Ward.
In the dead of night, passions rise and empires fall.
Welcome to Kingdoms of the Compass.
The Fulcrum is failing, and demons are slipping into the mortal world, stalking the night.
No one is safe.
Especially not Sorrel. An orphan and an outcast, she’s spent her whole life within the walls of her small village, ostracized for her mystical abilities. She wants to survive…and maybe find somewhere she can call her true home. But Fate has other plans.
Sorrel has been chosen. Cursed.
She must cross the Badlands to return the Queen’s crown and convince the fearsome female to save their world from destruction.
Well aware she’s no brave hero, Sorrel makes a dangerous deal with Merc, a brooding, commanding mercenary known only by his unscrupulous profession.
The deal? A night in his bed that she will never forget, in exchange for her safe passage.
But Merc has secrets of his own, and even though passion runs hot between them, enemies are around every corner, and danger and betrayal threaten at every turn.
Content Warning: violence, death, maternity death, animal death
I haven’t read a J.R. Ward book since the first few books of her Brotherhood Dagger series! So it’s been a decade maybe? So I was excited to be approved to read this book.
Sorrel hasn’t had an easy life, she’s an orphan and hiding behind a hooded shroud covering her face. She has some powers of healing, but also to look into the eyes of someone and determine how they will die. She also bring something back to life. When a mercenary comes into the tavern her fate and future is tied to him in good ways and bad.
I was actually surprised this didn’t have as much romance as I was expecting. I loved the bickering between Sorrel and Merc and right away there is a physical attraction – and though his request of payment for his protection is sex with her – it’s not something he pushes onto her and actually backs off. There is maybe 2 spicy scenes. Also, for all their bickering, and forced proximity whether it’s on one horse or one bed, the romance didn’t feel like the main focus at all.
The main focus was Sorrel’s journey from a young woman always hiding, to coming to terms of all that is revealed at the end of the story. She grows a lot. But there are times where she doesn’t know how to swim, and then swims like a fish. Or can’t ride a horse, and then ends up being exceptional on a horse. I wasn’t sure what was going but I went with! I actually loved all the moments when she connected to people, like her friend Mare, or a stranger like Lena. It was heartfelt because you knew Sorrel had a good heart. But she did test my patience at times because she didn’t Merc to even tell him about her powers, yet he’s almost dying on this quest with her.
And speaking about journey? This story has Merc and Sorrel traveling from town to kingdoms and back again. It’s a travel adventure story filled with a lot of action fighting off scary creatures. There are even dragons!
There is a twist at the end I wasn’t expecting but makes what comes next in book two very interesting.
Now because this was an arc copy, there were a lot of typos or missing words. Also there is a lot going on in the story, and I felt like it was a never ending things of what could happen to Sorrel next. At times it was too much that it felt comical.
Final Thoughts:
I read this one in two days because with everything going on in the story, it was hard to put down! But some things also felt off in this story because too many things were happening. I liked seeing Sorrel’s character grow so much. It was kind of nice not having the romance as a main focus, because that left more time for action and adventure. But I also wanted a tiny bit more romance. The ending had an unexpected twist and I’m wondering what will happen in book two.
Book Links:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Other Books I’ve Read From This Author:
Black Dagger Brotherhood Books 1-8
Past Midnight Book Reviews & More 