"By the time the city pulls away, houses replaced by stretches of bright grass, well-manicured trees, a widening road, I've stopped trying to place myself in Niawa the story. I don't belong here anymore."

GENRE: Fantasy
RATING: 4.5/5
FORMAT: eBook Arc

Overall Impression: At the heart of it, A Day of Breath is Fantasy story that explores what it is like to have faith in a system vs to never believe in it and question it through an adventure of our MCs. This debut is done in a good way, combining conspiracies and relying on a system while navigating through your own personal life

Review:
A Day of Breath is a fast-paced story, that starts a bit before Day of Breath and ultimately focuses on a span of one day and how the lives of our MC changes over time. Oly, our Champion, is crowned and sent to live on the Edge so that she can protect the kingdom from the demons that come through a rift between the realms. She also experiences Anxiety and we go through it with her, see her thoughts and how she faces life as the longest standing Champion as well.

We also have Heir Fallon, one of the heirs, who we meet early on and is entirely satisfied with the system in place. He sees Oly become a Champion and then we start his adventure with the fact that he wasn't the chosen next ruler for the throne. Heir Fallon is a complicated character, one that you can see is entirely relying on the system. He fails to question why things are the way they are and is satisfied with his life as it is. Throughout the story, we see character development and see him change as he learns so many new things.

We do get to meet other MCs as well but ultimately A Day of Breath is a story about what happens when we question the system vs when we never question it and accept what we are told as facts. It is a test to see if humanity in the book can survive having their world shaken and they are left with nothing that they used to believe in. It questions whether those who rule are willing to put the community and their people first and foremost, no matter what. And finally, it questions is it worth saving what we have built and fix it or should we start from scratch?

A Day of Breath is going on my Fantasy Books list that I keep and call "Burn it all down" because ultimately it is about questioning the system you put your faith in and never fearing to do so. I really enjoyed the pacing of the book and the exploration of the characters, their own personal lives and how they fit into the bigger picture and the system itself.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for the Arc copy!