Summary

En is a weapon.
Battle spells are carved into her skin, she’s trained to work through pain, and she’s magically compelled with loyalty to the archmage. When she’s sent on a mission to retrieve a group of infamous traitors from exile in a land of unpredictable and deadly magic, she’s forced to team up with a common soldier to have any chance of success, or survival.

Tamol is a disaster.
En isn’t fooled by the soldier’s silver tongue and good looks. Tamol is flighty, cowardly and the worst soldier En has ever met. But she’s also brilliant at magic and kinder than En has any right to expect. When she saves En’s life, it takes everything En has not to start falling for her. That is, until En discovers Tamol is one of the very traitors she seeks.

The empire never forgets.
Years ago, the exiled traitors were just normal students with a vision for a better kingdom. They put their lives on the line fighting for it and lost. So they were exiled to the Far Peninsula to die. But now, the empire discovers the traitors may yet live, and they’ve unearthed something in the wilderness that the archmage will pay any price to get.

But the might of an unforgiving empire isn’t the greatest force in all the land. Something monstrous is living in the Far Peninsula that does not discriminate between soldiers, traitors, and kings.

The future of the empire is unexpectedly in the hands of En and Tamol. At least the perfect soldier would

Artwork by @avliot on Tumbler

Review

I love Winter’s Orbit. I’ve read it a number of times. Ocean’s Echo was phenomenal too so when I saw Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell I knew I had to read it. 

As always, Everina Maxwell absolutely blew it out of the park. En has to be one of my all time favourite leds. Her journey rediscovering her humanity was both heartbreaking and deeply funny. She got snarkier and more self assured with each chapter and I was intoxicated by it. 

Tamol is described as a disaster but I think that’s more how she sees herself. She’s, in fact, a sunshine smartass who is very powerful. Her growing affection for En was so sweet. Tamil does such a wonderful job supporting En in reclaiming personhood. 

The world itself seems vast and lived in without being bogged down by details irrelevant to the plot. There is a complicated system of magic allocated only to those rich enough to access it and  a political structure with competing factions that reminded me of Rome’s Reds, Blues, Greens, and Whites. For much of the story, they are bound to a huge mountain side covered in heather which is one of my favourite planets and such a wonderfully vivid detail.

This review is based on an e-ARC generously provided by the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review.