K S Villoso

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro is my latest buddy read with my friend Kat =]! It has been so interesting to have an older female main character who has a child and is still every bit of a badass as you’d want from a fantasy protagonist. But, she also has her weaknesses, such as letting love blind her and not seeing things which should have been plain until it was too late because of it. Queen Talyien (Tali) would do anything for the sake of her kingdom and her son, and when conspiracies come together to keep her away from both, she fights with all she has to get back. She may be more alone than she ever has been and in an enemy land, but this turn of events only serves to strengthen her determination and reveal those who are truly loyal.

One of my favorite parts about this book is Tali’s character development. At the beginning of the book she has only ruled for 5 years and those years have mostly been trying to stave off the warlords from starting another war. And she has had to do it all on her own, as her father and brothers have died and her husband left right before being coronated. On top of this, she has a young son and there are challenges to her right to rule from left and right. As she gets thrown into the desperate circumstances later in the book though, she is finally able to look more closely within and figure out what her duties are, what she wants, and how those two things intertwine.

I also love books with good plot twists! And without giving anything away, I’m just going to say that this one has some good twists!

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro: 4/5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆… (més)

Wow. This book was so different and so much more than what I was expecting. In all the best ways possible and I loved it.

It’s a richly imaginative adult fantasy that’s brilliant to read. This world is so amazingly vivid that I felt like I was living in it. I could so easily vision the world, the places that the story took place in, the food, the disgruntled warlords, all of it. I absolutely loved the world building within this book, I thought it was so good, and I think that it is some of the best world building that I have experienced in any story.

This story is all about the Talyien, know as the Bitch Queen, as she tries to unite her divided land that is pulled apart by the quarelling warlords and the absence of her husband Rayyel. Who left her the night they were meant to be crowned as rulers of Jin-Sayeng, five years ago.

Talyien loves her country, her son and her husband. She wants to bring him home, less for herself than her son and to try to bring some harmony to their land. When she gets an invitation to meet him across the sea in an empire neither of them have any power in, Talyien travels there in the hopes that they can reconcile and go home together.

Queen Talyien was a very different character to what I expected when I first read the blurb for this book. I expected a queen that wouldn’t be afraid to cut off a few heads and to not let anyone tell her what to do, instead Tali is soft-hearted with a tough exterior and blunt personality. She is a very honest character, even if she can be a bit too blunt or harsh sometimes, and appreciates it in others. She’s not one for flowery words, empty promises, etc.


The romance between Talyien and Rayyel was pretty complicated. They’ve been betrothed since Talyien was born and have known each other for almost two decades. There’s just so much between them and it’s not easy to say what will happen to them. In a relationship like their’s, one that began to bring to clans together and to symbolise the end of war and bloodshed, there isn’t really much room for romance. But they could be happy. Maybe.

It’s really hard to say just what their relationship will end up being in the end as there is still so much left between them and so much that needs to be said that hasn’t. I really loved the flashbacks into the past as Talyien grew to know Rai over the years, how their relationship wasn’t prefect and how it began to have cracks in it. I just would have liked more scenes with the two of them in the present day. When they interacted I felt like Rai came alive and became more than just Talyien’s husband and father of her child. The first time they had a scene together in the present was when I really became engrossed in this story.

Their relationship is such an integral part of this story, it’s part of what motivates Tali and moves the story forwards, and yet Tali isn’t very forth coming with the facts. The mystery of what their relationship was/is, what happened on the night of their coronation that sent Rayyel to walk away for five years, how they came to be what they are mixed with the high stakes of their land falling into war or ruin, their sons life being in danger and what might happen next kept me turning the page.

Talyien’s mission to reunite with her husband and bring him home, while also trying to find out who tried to assassinate them was so great to read. There were so many twists and turns, one second I would think I knew what was happening and then a new piece of information would make everything shift and change. I really loved how this story just grew and grew with each chapter. Becoming more complex and intriguing.

I probably could just keep going on and on about this book but then this review might never finish.

It really is an amazing story to read, this book has become one of my favourites and I am so excited to read the next book in this series.

If you love fantasy, complex worlds, witty characters, a queen that is soft, kind, tough and all around amazing then I would say that you should read this book.… (més)

I had mixed feelings whilst reading this one, but I loved its world-building - I gained a distinct sense of the differences between Jin-Sayeng and the Darojo Empire - and its hot-headed heroine. It can be hard to care for the Bitch Queen of Oren-Yaro (it's not you, it's her), but she's an entertaining protagonist: impulsive, short-tempered, proud and determined.

I was expecting politics and swordplay; I got far more romance and angst than I bargained for, but Villoso does a fine job of drawing out the jagged edges in her characters' relationships. Once I gained a sense of the backstory, I wanted to see Talyien and Rayyel get a chance to confront their past (...although if the flashbacks hadn't sufficed to make me dislike Rayyel Ikessar, that final scene certainly did the trick).

I'm not convinced the structure did it any favours and I could only shake my head at the absurd villain of the piece, but Wolf builds solid foundations for what promises to be a fun fantasy epic.

Full review

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.… (més)

None of it mattered. My duties were far from over. A wolf of Oren-yaro fights to make it right, down to the last breath. A wolf of Oren-yaro does not beg. A wolf of Oren-yaro suffers in silence.

I received an Advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I got interested in the book when I read one of my Goodreads friend’s review about it. The story had qualities that I like; Fantasy, A strong female lead, and touches of Asian culture. I was also hoping that it wouldn’t fall into my usual bane for strong female protagonists. The type whose strength falls sort of empty, like they were created just for the sake of simply having a female lead. But Tali or Queen Talyien for us commoners lest we risk losing our heads, is thankfully not that, she strong without overdoing it. She’s trained to fight and rule but it won’t make her defeat 5 armed men and solve the nation’s mess that she inherited in just a week or month, it’s realistic. She’s beset and outsmarted by enemies and falls into one trap to another. A smart, sarcastic, resourceful character who despite all this, is quite gullible and she may not admit it but is driven in the hopes of reconciling with her absentee husband who walked out on her the very day of their coronation.

Like many, I was curious as to why? I had many theories myself, but the author made the reading experience enjoyable. There was no dull moment. You could tell that nothing was going to be easy for the Queen and there were plot twists and a number of really interesting characters that I would find myself flipping the next page hoping I’d learn more about them. Told in the first person by Talyien herself as if you’re sitting on a mat right next to a warm fire as she recollects her experiences. I initially thought that it might be a fantasy-ya book but I was wrong, the plot is mature with adult complications. The world building is set as the story progresses with Jin-Sayeng reminding me of feudal Japan with warlords and their armies and states. There’s a touch of magic too! Crazed dragons and crumbling dragon towers used by the past powerful Dragon lords rulers of Jin-Sayeng to control them, the Agan a fabric that separates their world from the underworld and Mages who uses their affinity to create infrastructures in the Ziri-nar-Oxiaro Empire across the sea ,whose ways are ahead of Jin-Sayeng and where our lead journeys to meet her husband only to fall on various unfortunate events.

I was left wanting to learn more and looking forward to the next book. I can’t wait to see Queen Talyien rising from her ashes. If you’re someone who enjoys a book with several interesting characters and plot line set in a world with a feudal Asian feel, then this is for you.… (més)