As the characters contend with fantastic creatures, cunning revolutionaries, and their own differing objectives, Okungbowa builds up the culture, politics, and history of this world in stunningly rich detail. The novel follows a trio of central characters: Danso, the frustratingly naive but good-hearted scholar who dreams of finding a place he fits in his intended, Esheme, a ruthlessly ambitious young woman determined to rise above her mother’s station in the Bassa empire and Lilong, a member of an island population long thought to be dead, who has the power to wield the magical mineral ibor. In Son of the Storm, Okungbowa delivers a wholly original story set in a bewitching and brutal universe inspired by pre-colonial West Africa. This cutthroat and sapphic novel will grip you until the very end as it follows Priya and Malini’s campaign to claim their power and get their revenge on the society that wronged them. This thrilling start to Suri’s new epic fantasy trilogy immerses readers in an intriguing new world inspired by India, complete with fascinating political intrigue and seamlessly built out cultures, religions, and nature-based magic system. But when Priya unintentionally reveals her long-repressed, forbidden powers in front of Malini, it sets off a chain of events that irrevocably bind their fates together - and may just reshape the entire empire. The one tasked with looking after the ruthless princess during her captivity is the tenderhearted Priya, who will happily do any task as long as it doesn’t threaten the anonymity she’s cultivated to hide her secret past.

After refusing her emperor brother’s order to be “purified” through death by fire, Malini is imprisoned in an ancient temple until she accepts the pyre as her fate.

Future Feeling by Joss Lake