TOUR / REVIEW: The Fever King by Victoria Lee / magical reads

**I received an ARC of this book for this tour. These are my honest opinions, and in no way was I compensated for this review.**

The Fever King by Victoria Lee

Release Date: March 1, 2019

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Summary: In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.

The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous,and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear.

Caught between his purpose and his heart, Noam must decide who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of the greater good.

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I'm so happy to be a part of the blog tour for The Fever King! Today my stop includes my review and some of my favorite quotes. There's also a giveaway, and don't forget to check out the rest of the tour, schedule below!

His body had fought magic and conquered it.
That made him a witching.
Witching.

Truthfully . . . I was not expecting to fall so in love with The Fever King. I make it a point to not expect much from anything new I read now because there have been some cases of over-hyping that make the book even more of a disappointment. Fortunately, The Fever King lived up to the hype and then some. This book entranced me from the very beginning with its magic.

The writing is so so so good, both the prose and the world-building. I found myself irritated at times with some characters' inability to communicate, but that was actually a good thing. It was intentional for character arcs and for certain reveals throughout the book. In other words, I was actually affected by the happenings of this book; it was like I was there in the world with the characters.

Lee sends us into a world that is fully developed. I got slight vibes from The Darkest Minds, in that both are set in a fractured US after the epidemic of a disease that leaves magical powers. Here, the powers are rooted in science; your presenting power stems from something you have an intrinsic knowledge of, and you can develop different powers from there. For example, Noam is a technopath and can manipulate technology, and he eventually develops telekinesis after forming a better understanding of physics.

"Where've you been?"
"At the library."
"Oh yeah? Those jeans're so tight I can see your religion. Does the librarian make you bend over to get the good books?"

I would genuinely lay down my life for these characters. Dara, if you're reading this, know that I love you. Noam is a great protagonist and I love following the story from his point of view. And a bi main character! I love!! Truly, I don't know how much more I can articulate my love for them and the other characters in Level IV without giving away spoilers, so just know that I am desperate for their happiness and I cannot bear to see them suffering (the next book is really going to hit me hard, huh).

I absolutely cannot wait for The Electric Heir after that ending. This book gripped me with its politics and its idealism, the characters and their relationships. The Fever King's magic is lasting, in that you won't be able to put this book down, nor will you be able to stop thinking about it when you finally have to; it's exhilarating and heartbreaking and hot, it's bold and extraordinary, it's magical and thought-provoking, it's . . . electrifying.

Here are some more of my favorite quotes!

Noam held a storm in his hands, and he couldn't feel a thing.

"Do you ever think about . . . All of it — it's all random chance. The universe. Us. An infinite cascade of chaos. A series of impossible accidents is the only reason we even exist."
Noam hadn't thought about it. That was the sort of thing he'd known, on some level, but never felt. Not before Dara said it to him, like that, soft as a secret.
Dara had a way of making even the mundane extraordinary.

Noam swore he tasted magic in the air, sharp as spiked blood.

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About the Author: Victoria Lee grew up in Durham, North Carolina, where she spent twelve ascetic years as a vegetarian before discovering spicy chicken wings are, in fact, a delicacy. She’s been a state finalist competitive pianist, a hitchhiker, a pizza connoisseur, an EMT, an expat in China and Sweden, and a science doctoral student. She’s also a bit of a snob about fancy whiskey.

Victoria writes early in the morning, then spends the rest of the day trying to impress her border collie puppy and make her experiments work.

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