Fellow nerds, if you’re looking for a delicious slowburn queer enemies to lovers romance set in a fantasy world, I urge you to pick up Crier’s War, the first book in a planned duology. It is an absolute masterpiece that everyone needs in their life.
Crier’s War is set in a world where Automae have overthrown their human Makers and now rule over humans. In the kingdom of Zulla, there once was a queen called Thea. She could not bear children, so she founded the Royal Academy of Makers, and commissioned them to build her a child, one that would resemble a human in every way. This was a request thought to be impossible, until a Maker called Thomas Wren created Kiera, the first Automa. She was Designed with two human pillars: Intellect and Organics, and two Automa pillars: Calculation and Reason. Suddenly having a pet Automa became all the rage amongst the nobility. However, situations led to a vicious war between humans and Automae, and the Automae emerged victorious. They rose to power and practically enslaved humans.
Crier is the Made daughter of the present king Hesod. A possible flaw in her prevents her from abhorring humans the way the rest of her Kind does. Ayla is a human girl who has had everything taken from her by the Automae. All her life she’s prepared to avenge the deaths of her family, so when Ayla is offered a job as Crier’s handmaiden, she decides assassinating Crier would be the best way to utterly wreck Hesod. But as time goes by, her resolve weakens and something impossible and tender blooms between Crier and Ayla instead, something none of them can put a name to.
Nina Varela’s writing has something raw about it as her words pull you in like a siren’s call. She gives her two protagonists decidedly contradictory voices and yet entwines them so completely that they complement each other, whilst doing both of them justice. Her prose is rich and beautiful to the point of flowery at times, but that never conflicts with the fast pacing of the story.
Crier’s War is intense from the very first page and always keeps you on your toes; you keep expecting the worst and yet the plot twists manage to mess you up thoroughly. With political intrigue, the manipulations and twisted deceptions among those in power, and amidst it all, the beginnings of a revolution. This is a story that will keep you hooked from the beginning to the end. Varela provides you with enough information to keep you guessing what happens next, only to prove you wrong every time with a sudden turn of events.
Crier and Ayla were incredible together, and this is for sure one of the best enemies to lovers stories I’ve come across to date. It was very refreshing to read about a forbidden romance where the ‘forbidden’ bit has nothing to do with the fact that the lovers are queer. The angsty slowburn was painfully good, and I definitely look forward to seeing more of those two. Both of them were fantastic as individual characters too. Their journeys throughout the book were the exact opposites of each other: Crier is an idealist, she is scholarly, compassionate and so, so naive. Meanwhile, Ayla is fierce, calculating, and driven by vengeance. As the story progresses, Crier gradually wakes up to the full extent of the horrors of her world, and spending time with Crier makes Ayla believe that there might still be some good left in the world after all. Their separate paths lead them to meet halfway that’s very gratifying to watch, and their clashing personalities guarantee an interesting dynamic.
One of the things that made the book really stand out was the way Varela handled and blended some serious themes and issues, like oppression, colonisation, privilege, and appropriating a culture, without the tone ever being preachy. Crier’s War also discusses time and again what it really means to be human, and that aspect was immensely satisfying to me as a reader.
However, Crier’s War did stumble at places. The setup wasn’t the most original to begin with. There was very little worldbuilding, and the sole focus on the two leads rendered most of the side characters one-dimensional and forgettable.
That being said, none of those things actually interfere with your enjoyment of the book. Crier’s War is a gripping, marvellous, emotional rollercoaster of a book that you’d want to revisit again and again. It makes me really happy that the YA audience now gets to read an ownvoices f/f story this good and see themselves represented. On that note, I’ll leave you with these words from the author herself, from the Acknowledgements section of the book:
“To the queer readers… Some people will try to tell you your story doesn’t matter. That is the biggest lie you will ever hear. Reader, everything you feel and experience and create is vital to this world. Never sit down; never shut up. Nobody else wants to write about us, so: screw it. We’ll do it ourselves. We will write ourselves into every genre. We will make it impossible for anyone to pretend we don’t exist.”
Crier’s War is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Impossible love between two girls —one human, one Made.
A love that could birth a revolution.
After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, Designed to be the playthings of royals, took over the estates of their owners and bent the human race to their will.
Now, Ayla, a human servant rising the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging the death of her family… by killing the Sovereign’s daughter, Lady Crier. Crier, who was Made to be beautiful, to be flawless. And to take over the work of her father.
Crier had been preparing to do just that—to inherit her father’s rule over the land. But that was before she was betrothed to Scyre Kinok, who seems to have a thousand secrets. That was before she discovered her father isn’t as benevolent as she thought. That was before she met Ayla.
Set in a richly-imagined fantasy world, Nina Varela’s debut novel is a sweepingly romantic tale of love, loss and revenge, that challenges what it really means to be human.
