Huge thank you to Escapist Book Tours & L.L. MacRae for a copy of Moroda to review!

I am absolutely delighted to share my review for Moroda! MacRae has been one of my closest bookish friends both online and when we see each other at various Comic Cons. We met back in 2019 at London MCM Comic Con when I purchased her first two books: Moroda and its sequel, Palom. When MacRae announced last year that she was rewriting and rereleasing both these books I was delighted! 4.5 ⭐

Book Information:
Moroda  by L.L. MacRae
Series: World of Linaria
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Intended Age Group: 14+
Pages: 534
Published: May 30, 2022 (Second Edition)
Publisher: Self Published

Book Blurb:

“Linaria is a world where dragons are revered as gods, where airships rule the skies, and where war is stirring. 

For Moroda, a former Goldstone, her life of luxury ends following her father’s sudden death. When her city is destroyed by a dragon, she and her sister ally with a sky pirate and narrowly escape the carnage – only to find a vigilante from an exhiled race has left a trail of destruction everywhere his growing army has travelled. With compulsion at his fingertips, he strengthens his hold over Linaria’s people by stealing the power of dragons. It’s only a matter of time before Moroda, too, is forced to submit. 

With war nipping at her heels and danger lurking in her companions and adversaries, Moroda must quickly learn about herself, her world, and the dragons so intent on reducing it all to ash.”

My thoughts:

I loved reading Moroda, again! It’s the perfect example of an high-action fantasy adventure. Linaria is vast and I’m always completely immersed in it. Exploring the world alongside Moroda and her sister Eryn was wonderful and seeing them react to new challenges and the ever-developing chaos around them was such a treat. Amarah is one of my favourite characters in this series as she is the ‘gives no fucks’ badass I’d been dying to read about during my first reading and she was a joy to read once again! All the airship battles in Moroda made me so nervous! I was constantly on the edge of my seat hoping everything would turn out okay and Khanna (Amarah’s airship) would be safe! 

This book is very character driven, which is great and works so well as it really helps to flesh out the world and give it depth and personality. I love the idea of dragons being seen as Gods (because I absolutely LOVE dragons). The role they had to play in the plot was expertly written (don’t worry, I won’t spoil what it is) and the way they interact with magic is pretty cool!

In my last review I mentioned the pacing was mixed in places and sometimes it was hard to distinguish which character was speaking in large group dialogues. In this new version all of those issues were fixed and everything was so much smoother. In a lot of ways I wish more authors went back to their earlier works and gave them a little tweak here and there after a few years. MacRae has come a long way in a few short years, as perfectly displayed in her lastest novel The Iron Crown which is an absolute storm of a fantasy novel. Check out my review here if you haven’t already.

The World of Linaria currently has four books published with two more on the way. Palom, the sequel to Moroda, is has an updated version on the way too.

Book Links:
Universal Link: http://mybook.to/MorodaWOL
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61114984