The Wolf of Oren-Yaro
K.S. Villoso
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A queen of a divided land must unite her people, even if they hate her, even if it means stopping a ruin that she helped create. A debut epic fantasy from an exciting new voice.
“I murdered a man and made my husband leave the night before they crowned me.”
Born under the crumbling towers of Oren-yaro, Queen Talyien was the shining jewel and legacy of the bloody War of the Wolves that nearly tore her nation apart. Her upcoming marriage to the son of her father’s rival heralds peaceful days to come.
But his sudden departure before their reign begins fractures the kingdom beyond repair.
Years later, Talyien receives a message, urging her to attend a meeting across the sea. It’s meant to be an effort at reconciliation, but an assassination attempt leaves the queen stranded and desperate to survive in a dangerous land. With no idea who she can trust, she’s on her own as she struggles to fight her way home.
I saw quite a few people talking about The Wolf of Oren-Yaro which encouraged me to read it sooner rather than later. I ended up really enjoying the book – it took turns I didn’t expect, and it sets up a world that you want to explore more. I feel like I was expecting a more Girl King vibe, but the only similarity was the female leader.
Talyien was a great character in that she was strong but could still let her guard down when needed. Whilst she’s built her tough queen persona to survive her world in Jin-Sayeng, we as readers see a lot more of her and we understand her actions a lot easier. The book itself is very character focused and Talyien is the driver.
We find out that whilst Talyien has been prepped to rule from a young age, she’s still extremely naïve and this is even more so after she travels to Ziri-nar-Orxiar. She’s a mother and a wife (although estranged) and these aspects of herself push her decisions. Whilst throughout the book she often makes poor judgement, these decisions are understandable because of the amount of work put into her backstory. Villoso really knows how to get into her characters heads.
We’re mostly in one region, which isn’t Talyien’s home region for this book – so you do get a sense of exploration as we uncover the different cities we visit within Ziri-nar-Orxiar. Through Talyien’s eyes we get to see the differences between this place and her home. The world itself seems very Asian inspired, with Villoso being Filipino herself. The rice fields, outfits and small details all point to the author pulling from her home.
After the initial set up and arrival, the plot picks up the pace. With assassinations aplenty, daring escapes and uncovering mysteries the book is full of action. Alongside the action we see character development for both Talyien and the secondary characters – as well as uncovering information about her estranged husband, ex-best friend, new friend, and her guards.
Talyien has multiple relationships which are explored throughout the book. Each person seems to have a backstory with her, and so the relationships are built on this. This allows for a lot of depth, which is explored in different ways. We also meet Khine who we watch Talyien form a relationship with based on her true self rather than that of a queen – this is emphasised with the lack of relationship to her own cousin because of her title.
I did not realise this book would be a trilogy when reading it and was quite distraught at the end as there’s obviously some things left to deal with. I’m very excited to get my hands on the next one!
Positives of The Wolf of Oren-Yaro
- Character and relationship depth
- World building
Negatives of The Wolf of Oren-Yaro
I received The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review
