Welcome to a new series that I'm creating called Book Thoughts. It's one of the ideas I had to create content for my readers and engage with them.

As the name suggests, this series will focus my thoughts on the various books I've read and will read. They're not reviews in the strictest sense. They won't be coherent or structured enough for that. Rather, Books Thoughts will just be me gushing and rambling.

So, without further ado, let us begin with our first book: This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews, the first in the Maggie the Undying series.

I'm a longtime fan of Ilona Andrews, a husband and wife duo that write under a pen name. I've read most, if not all, of their books. The Kate Daniels series, Innkeeper, Hidden Legacy, etc. The list goes on. This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is their latest book thus far, and it's one of my favorites.

To give a brief summary, the story is about a woman from our world named Maggie who ends up in the world of a fantasy series she read. This is a familiar premise to anyone who reads a lot of otome isekai (OI) stories like me. In fact, it's obvious that This Kingdom Will Not Kill draws a lot of inspiration from OI. Hell, there's even a cold duke of the north in this book.

But I digress.

Maggie has to survive in the cruel and indifferent world of Rellas, using her wits and her knowledge of the original story. Along the way, she meets a colorful cast of characters, making allies of some and enemies of others. However, like many OI protagonists, she has a special power that sets her apart: she doesn't die. I'd call it a spoiler, but she discovers this within the first two chapters, and it's the name of the series.

My favorite part of the book are the characters. Each of them feels like a person with their own goals, motivations, and feelings. They have their own lives, and the book portrays them as such. They're all the the main characters of their own stories, not just side characters in Maggie's story.

Maggie herself is my favorite character, though that may be because she's the main character and the one we get to know the most. Other than her ability to not die, she's just a normal person from our world. In the beginning, she's frightened and confused, with no idea how to survive in a world so different from her own. However, over the course of the story, she adapts and grows, becoming someone who sets events in motion rather than someone who reacts to them.

My second favorite part of the book is the worldbuilding. Kair Toren, the city where the book takes place, is such a rich and vibrant place. It feels like a place where people actually live, not a stage to play out the books events. This applies to Rellas as a whole as well. There are several different peoples, with their own customs and cultures. Readers only get a glimpse of them all in this first book. However, I hope the other books in the series explore the rest of the setting.

Overall, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me succeeds at what matters the most to me in fantasy: wonder. Rellas is a world of magic and danger, one that filled me with a sense of wonder. The more I read the book, the more I explored its setting, the more I wanted to keep reading and keep exploring.

All in all, I recommend This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me. As for Ilona Andrews' other books, I'll save them for future Book Thoughts. Keep an eye out for those.

Until the next time, I wish you all a great day.