The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: Son of the Morning
Author: Akwaeke Emezi
Published: November 2025
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: Romance, Heaven and Earth

One sentence summary: Deals with the devil never tend to end well, especially when the fate of the earth is at risk.

One sentence review: I had a lot of fun with this despite it not being a genre I’m not a fan of.

Review:

Akwaeke Emezi is an auto buy author for me. And while I’ve never been quiet about not really being a fan of romantasy, I had to see what Emezi’s take on the sub genre was.

Reading the blurb I was a little dubious to be honest, I’m not always a fan of angels and devils but I surprised myself and really enjoyed this. The angelic and religious aspects weren’t overbearing and the romance and fantasy elements were balanced, it was mostly romance with a juicy plot in true Emezi style.

It was refreshing for our main characters world to be matriarchal and I always appreciate the worlds Emezi creates.

The book itself isn’t too long and the plot reflects that. There’s definitely aspects I’d have liked to hear more about on reflection though.

I certainly had fun with this one and there are definitely * scenes * I will remember for a little while! I’m interested to see what others thought as I haven’t seen it reviewed much online.

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops and my work while doing so on Bookshop.org here or as an audiobook here.

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And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 01/06/2026