Book Title: Incendiary (Hollow Crown #1)
Author: Zoraida Córdova
Purchase: Amazon
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Description from Goodreads:

I am Renata Convida.
I have lived a hundred stolen lives.
Now I live my own.

Renata Convida was only a child when she was kidnapped by the King's Justice and brought to the luxurious palace of Andalucia. As a Robari, the rarest and most feared of the magical Moria, Renata's ability to steal memories from royal enemies enabled the King's Wrath, a siege that resulted in the deaths of thousands of her own people.

Now Renata is one of the Whispers, rebel spies working against the crown and helping the remaining Moria escape the kingdom bent on their destruction. The Whispers may have rescued Renata from the palace years ago, but she cannot escape their mistrust and hatred--or the overpowering memories of the hundreds of souls she turned "hollow" during her time in the palace.

When Dez, the commander of her unit, is taken captive by the notorious Sangrado Prince, Renata will do anything to save the boy whose love makes her place among the Whispers bearable. But a disastrous rescue attempt means Renata must return to the palace under cover and complete Dez's top secret mission. Can Renata convince her former captors that she remains loyal, even as she burns for vengeance against the brutal, enigmatic prince? Her life and the fate of the Moria depend on it.

But returning to the palace stirs childhood memories long locked away. As Renata grows more deeply embedded in the politics of the royal court, she uncovers a secret in her past that could change the entire fate of the kingdom--and end the war that has cost her everything.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars 

Renata Convida is a rare Robari: a magic-wielder with the ability to steal memories. Through touch, she can take a single troubling memory, perhaps one that haunts your nightmares, or through prolonged contact, she can take all your memories, leaving behind a “Hollow” (which is exactly what it sounds like). As a young girl, Renata was kidnapped for her devastating power and forced to use it against the King’s enemies without really grasping what she was doing. One day, she was rescued by the rebel Whispers — largely made up of her fellow magic-wielders, also known as Moria — who took her in and trained her as one of their own, despite never quite trusting her given her previous service to the Crown.

One of the few rebels who does trust Renata is her sweetheart and unit leader, Dez. When Dez is captured by the bloodthirsty prince, Renata and her squad attempt a rescue mission that leads Renata back to the palace, under cover as a “rebel turned informant.” In the palace, she searches for clues to help Dez’s mission, but as she does, she uncovers some surprising secrets about her past and the Crown’s newest weapon.

On the surface, this book had everything I like. Quite literally, I was drawn in by the cover design, which perfectly reflects the atmosphere of Incendiary and stands out against other YA cover designs. Unfortunately, the book fell a little felt for me, largely due to a Mary Sue main character and her confusing magical ability.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot of Incendiary. The story was interesting, the stakes felt real, and the pacing was relatively good, for the most part. My attention was captivated quickly. Like Renata, I wanted to know more about the history of the country, I wanted to uncover the truth of the rumors at court, I wanted to understand the way magic worked.

The magic system was kind of cool, with the glaring exception of the mechanics of Renata’s memory-stealing power. The way it worked just didn’t make sense. For example, Renata steals an important memory from someone when they’re sleeping: their memory of a password that opens a locked door. The way the scene is described, it sounds like she solely steals the memory of a single instance of thinking about the password. I found this integral moment extremely confusing. Did she not steal the memory of receiving the password in the first place? Doesn’t the brain still retain that memory, then? What about all the other times the person thought of the password? Are those memories all gone? In the morning the next day, wouldn’t the person try to think of the password and realize they no longer could remember? Memories are nuanced and Renata’s “super rare,” “super powerful” magic isn’t described clearly enough at all for the reader to suspend disbelief.

Speaking of Renata, she was a classic Mary Sue. Of course, she was blessed with rare, amazing powers that just so happened to be both the key to the rebel cause and to the royal resistance. For a majority of the book, I couldn’t ascertain if Renata was purposefully written to lack depth and personality as a side effect of her power. Weirdly enough, all of the other characters are more interesting and dynamic than Renata. Fellow rebel Margo burns with rage, but she can set her trust issues aside for brief moments of bonding with sweet and strong Sayida. I wanted to know more about Esteban, Prince Casian, and especially Lady Nuria, who commanded respect with kindness and quiet intelligence. How could all those characters be so vibrant, while Renata lacked any defining traits? That lack of characterization had to be intentional, right? Right?!

And since the tropes are out of the bag, of course Renata’s love interest, Dez, was depicted as perfect (more like perfectly bland). He doesn’t do anything wrong ever, but he also didn’t do anything to win my affection over the course of the book. The villain is a misunderstood, brooding prince with a dark secret. In spite of that cliche, Prince Casian was actually a sympathetic villain and one of the book’s saving graces. Please write the sequel from his perspective, Ms. Córdova!

An overall issue with characterization was that the Whispers were described as well-trained soldiers, yet they acted anything but. They frequently acted on impulse and almost always failed to assess situations strategically. All those issues culminated in a number of repetitive scenes: Renata proposed an idea, the rebels didn’t trust her, they argued and begrudgingly agreed to the plan, before one rebel inevitably turned on another. Rinse and repeat. Renata’s inner monologues alone were plenty repetitive, testing my patience at every turn. As a result, I never fully invested in Renata’s journey and I didn’t believe in the Whispers.

Upon finishing the book, I realized I never understood Incendiary as the title or why it was occasionally used as a nickname for Renata. The word seemed shoe-horned in just because it sounded cool. I prefer books that end with some sort of character growth, and unfortunately, I felt like Renata didn’t grow much at all. However, I was intrigued enough by Prince Casian’s character development that I’ll hold out hope for the second book. A gripping sequel has the potential to turn this series around for me, so fingers crossed there’s some sort of explanation behind all this weirdness.