This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews

I was thinking that I was going to be kicked out of the Romantasy Reader’s Club if I confessed that This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, the first book in the Maggie The Undying series was my first Ilona Andrews’ book – but then I remembered that I’ve read one previous book – Iron and Magic which contains characters from the Kate Daniels series (which I’ve yet to read) – whew! Clearly I have many backlist books to catch up on but on the strength of the author duo’s reputation I thought it would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to read their new book. It’s an exciting story with plenty of twists and turns and (spoiler) a cliffhanger ending, and I can’t believe I have to wait who knows how many months for book two!

Imagine waking up in the middle of your favourite as yet unfinished fantasy series, right near the beginning where you know what’s going to happen next, but not how the whole thing ends. That’s the experience of Maggie, a young woman from our world who goes to sleep one morning and wakes up in this exact situation, penniless and homeless with only her wits to keep her alive. Well, until she dies. And wakes up again, to discover that she can’t be killed in this world, but she also doesn’t have a clue how to get home. With the knowledge of the world around her, and more importantly, knowledge of the characters’ backstories, futures, and secrets, it’s easy to start trading on that information to enable her survival and to try to achieve her most important goal – preventing the rise to power of a man who will lead the Kingdom of Rellas into a catastrophic civil war. To do that, she needs the help of a mercenary and great swordsman, Reynald. Having an idea of where she is in the game’s timeline, Maggie is able to plan a ‘chance’ meeting and give him enough information about his past to have him believe that she is endowed with important magic and have him join her on her quest in return for her help in finding and rescuing his kidnapped son.

With Reynald’s help, Maggie the Undying (as she calls herself) rescues some young teens from a slave trader and assembles a motley crew to help her in her quest to return home. Along the way she meets the rich and powerful members of many families, some coming to her aid, some becoming her sworn enemies. It’s a Game of Thrones situation where no-one is safe. And when Maggie realizes that because of her, the timeline of events is changing, things turn into a desperate race to stop what seems inevitable. She can’t let the bad guys win, and she’ll do anything in her power to keep her new friends safe.

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is the type of book that keeps you up late reading and turning the pages swiftly to find out what happens next. There are a couple of situations that literally had my jaw dropping when Maggie discovers that things she had thought were true, were, in fact, not. There is romantic tension between Maggie and Reynald, and while this isn’t a romance per se, it’s clear that there will be more to their relationship as the series progresses. The worldbuilding is stellar, the magic systems and political dynasties are well described and while there are a lot of characters to keep track of, it’s an exciting and action packed story, and definitely a book that I plan to reread. If you’ve been waiting for a new series from Ilona Andrews, you’re in for a treat.