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![Crier's War by [Nina Varela]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sy2uHV1wL._SY346_.jpg)
Crier's War Kindle Edition
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From debut author Nina Varela comes the first book in a richly imagined epic fantasy duology about an impossible love between two girls—one human, one Made—whose romance could be the beginning of a revolution.
Perfect for fans of Marie Rutkoski’s The Winner’s Curse as well as Game of Thrones and Westworld.
After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, designed to be the playthings of royals, usurped their owners’ estates and bent the human race to their will.
Now Ayla, a human servant rising in the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging her family’s death…by killing the sovereign’s daughter, Lady Crier.
Crier was Made to be beautiful, flawless, and to carry on her father’s legacy. But that was before her betrothal to the enigmatic Scyre Kinok, before she discovered her father isn’t the benevolent king she once admired, and most importantly, before she met Ayla.
Now, with growing human unrest across the land, pressures from a foreign queen, and an evil new leader on the rise, Crier and Ayla find there may be only one path to love: war.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherQuill Tree Books
- Publication dateOct. 1 2019
- Reading age14 - 17 years
- Grade level9 - 12
- File size5968 KB
Product description
About the Author
Nina Varela is a nationally awarded writer of screenplays and short fiction. She was born in New Orleans and raised on a hippie commune in Durham, North Carolina, where she spent most of her childhood playing in the Eno River, building faerie houses from moss and bark, and running barefoot through the woods. These days, Nina lives in Los Angeles with her writing partner and their tiny ill-behaved dog. She tends to write stories about young people toppling the monarchy/patriarchy/whatever-archy. On a related note, she’s queer. On a less related note, she has strong feelings about hush puppies and loves a good jambalaya. Crier’s War is her first novel. You can find Nina at any given coffee shop in the greater Los Angeles area or at www.ninavarela.com.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.Review
“Dizzying political machinations intertwine with a burgeoning romance. The plot zooms ahead with nail-biting tension. A fresh, suspenseful take on the robot apocalypse.” -- Kirkus Reviews
“Rife with mystery, romantic tension, and political intrigue, Varela’s debut novel is perfect for readers craving queer fantasy with dense world building.” -- Booklist
“A lush #OwnVoices fantasy debut with science fiction elements and LGBTQIA+ representation, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass.” -- School Library Journal
“Masterful storytelling, woven with gorgeous poetic prose. You can’t help but be lured into this vividly imagined world. As heart-wrenching as it is unforgettable.” -- Erin Summerill, author of the Clash of Kingdoms trilogy
"Captivating political machinations among intricately linked characters create a suspenseful read with particular appeal to fans of queer romance." -- Publishers Weekly
“This interesting mesh of sci-fi and fantasy situates androids within court intrigue, enhanced with a steamy, well-paced lesbian romance that will make readers impatient to nab the next novel.” -- Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books --This text refers to the paperback edition.
From the Back Cover
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 in 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 grapples with what it really means to be human.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.Product details
- ASIN : B07MDRY4XK
- Publisher : Quill Tree Books; Reprint edition (Oct. 1 2019)
- Language : English
- File size : 5968 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 434 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #96,860 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Nina Varela was born in New Orleans and raised on a hippie commune in Durham, North Carolina, where she spent most of her childhood running barefoot through the woods. These days, Nina lives in Los Angeles with her tiny, ill-behaved dog. She tends to write stories about weird magick, girls in love, and young people toppling monarchies. You can find Nina at any given coffee shop in the greater Los Angeles area, or at www.ninavarela.com.
Visit Nina at:
www.ninavarela.com
twitter.com/ninavarelas
instagram.com/ninavarelas_
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Customer reviews
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Top reviews
Top reviews from Canada
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We have two main characters, who alternate viewpoints: Crier, an Automae noble, and Ayla, a human servant who hungers for revenge. I liked both of them equally; they're both so different from each other and so interesting. Crier's so curious and inquisitive, and she has so much empathy in her, while Ayla's angry and determined to do the right thing, and they work so well together. There's so much great character development and inner discovery from both of them.
The romance is slow burn mutual pining enemies-to-lovers which is literally everything I could ever ask for in a f/f book, and the romance totally lived up to the expectations. It was tense and full of yearning and small touches and denial, which is how I like my enemies to lovers. Crier and Ayla might start out on different sides, being told that each should hate the other, but over the course of the book they learn so much from one another and come to mutual understandings and love.
I found the pacing to be slow through most of the book; rather than a lot of action, Crier's War is a fantasy that focuses very much on how the world changes through politics and revolution. Kinok, Crier's fiance, leads the Anti-Reliance Movement, yet holds deeper ambitions, and a lot of the book is devoted to figuring what that is as well. Both Crier and Ayla do a lot of sneaking around and finding out intrigue, and slowly putting the pieces of a mystery together. It does pick up greatly near the end, with promises of things bigger than Crier or Ayla looming.
I adored the worldbuilding: it was a cross between steampunk and medieval fantasy, and it reminded me of Detroit: Become Human while I was reading it. However, the book dumps a lot of lore on you at once, which is why I found the beginning to be slow and a bit hard to get into. A lot of the lore is essential to understanding the story, so it's not skippable. Nina Varela's writing is gorgeous.
Crier's War is a wonderful f/f enemies to lovers story with great worldbuilding, and it's just all around soft. There's so much in this book that comes together in such a quiet yet meaningful way, and I'm very much looking forwards to the next book.
It was told from two different perspectives and I really enjoyed going back and forth between the two characters. It is really refreshing to see one person's opinion and then see the other person's opinion and how it differs. What each is thinking and wondering how it will all play out when they are on 2 different sides. The tension between these two characters is intense and it builds up as the novel progresses. One of the many reasons why I could not put the book down.
I write other book reviews like this on my blog Breakeven Books.
I found this book to be a perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy. It was really cool how they used magic and robots blended together. I will be anticipating the second and final book to this duology when it comes out!
The world is rule by Automae, humans that were made by an alchemist for a Queen who couldn't bare children but really want a child. But after a war, Automae now rules over humans and see them as an inferior Kind.
Crier is an Automae, she was made to be flawless and beautiful and to follow the legacy of her father. But she discover he's not the King she tought he was and admired. Crier also become betroyed to Scyre Kinok, but he as secrets and an agenda of is own.
Ayla, a human, as see her family and village murdured by Automae and want revenge on the king. She thinks that by destroying the think he loves most, his daughter, will do. But when she become her handmaiden and learn to know Crier and both of them seems to share a strange attraction.
And this book leaves us on a cliffhanger. Can wait for the sequel.
Top reviews from other countries

So, lovely prose, great forbidden love plot and oh, did I mention political intrigue and the hint of rebellion?
Onto their love story. Because we’re focusing on them separately for the most part, and we see how much Ayla despises the automae, though I can believe Crier has a deep affection for her, I don’t believe Ayla does. And though Crier has affection, there’s so little time that’s passed that I struggle to believe that she is in love.
So, while I love them, I’m still waiting to feel like they care for each other past friendship, and then we’ll work up to love.
Though the pacing was a struggle for me to look past, I am sincerely in love with Varela’s writing style, the plot between automae and humans, and the characters.
I buddy read this with Isabelle from Nine Tale Vixen, and expect a few more reviews from our buddy reads this month! [Also she does a way better job with explaining things in her reviews in general lol]
Overall, four cups of coffee from me! Bring on book 2!!! This also gets to go on my StartonYourShelfathon list because I preordered this gorgeous baby, but finally, I’ve gotten around to it! The sequel, Iron Heart, is out in September!



Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 28, 2021


I loved the queer normative fantasy world in this book and how the barrier for Ayla and Crier acting on their feelings were a political marriage and the whole "your dad killed my family so its kinda my life mission to kill his aka you" situation. Criers dad and fiance were such good antagonists in the book and I really loved Benji as a character and not just because he was the speaker of my favourite quote that perfectly sums up Ayla's perspective of the book "It was never treally a choice was it? Wanting her. Killing her."

The world is unique, in some ways the tech is amazingly advanced but society is still feudal and I thought I would have a problem reconciling it but the explanations at least are coherent even if they do venture towards the magical more than the science at times.
Overall I thought it was wonderful and took me somewhere I would never dream up myself. I think though it will be like marmite, you either love it or hate it. I hate marmite but love this.

Have you ever had that intense passion for wanting to finish something? Because I had to go out and put the book down with 100 pages left and all I wanted to do was finish this book.
It is so beautifully written, the characters have so much heart (human and automae). I cannot wait for the second one, of which I preordered while halfway through this one.
It’s full of drama and love and angst and adventure, like all queer books really, it’s not just about it including queer but it was just fresh and new and I just loved it!
I even told my friend about it and just got so excited I’ve ordered one as a gift to her house - I can’t do that for everyone SO YOURE JUST GONNA HAVE YO BUY IT!
I CANT BELIEVE I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE NOW! Well done, Nina, I love you, I hate you for not having a thousand more pages in my hand, you’re an amazing writer, you deserve all of your favorite beverages!