Thank you, C. P. Du Toit for allowing me to read a digital ARC for this story!

A Certain Slant of Light is a New Adult Fantasy based in an alternate reality where the continent of Africa was never colonized. The story follows Shale, a regular Black girl who finds herself transported to a new realm on her 20th birthday. Her entire life as she knows is completely and irrevocably changed.

I really enjoyed reading this story! After about the first 25% I did not want to stop reading.I appreciated the way the author handled the exposition when the main character lands in a new realm. You really get a sense of the world through multiple senses, partible visually with the author’s use of color. I would love to go back and tab up a physical copy with all of the instances of color. The dusty browns for the more common and subservient, the gold and greens and shades of red for royalty and landscape. The play of colors and patterns relating to the court as well as the land of Izwe. I really think Du Toit nailed the imagery for me. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of my reading experience.

Overall the story had a great balance of plot and character development. I really felt like Shale was captured well for her age and circumstances. Her choices and reactions were believable (and relatable). Her stubbornness was laughable and infuriating in the best way!

I also loved how Du Toit handled Shale’s various relationships. Every main side character had their own independent relationship with the MC and it was clear which connects were strong and filled with love and which one’s gave the MC pause. I also enjoyed hte interplay of the different side characters with each other. I believe this will be at least a duology so I feel the author has left plenty of room to grow with the characters, but also I felt invested enough  in the relationships that were portrayed by the end of the book.

As far as plot goes, there was enough suspense and action sprinkled throughout the relationship building and spark of romance. I am looking forward to more detail on how the magic system fits into this world and hoping to see more of it on page in the future. Even though there was not much detail about the magic system, I was still glad it was there and am hopeful that it will play a bigger role later on.

I would recommend this book if you’d like:

Favorite Quotes
 
“Or perhaps this was a wild dream, one where everything looked and felt and tasted real—so real that when you woke up, you almost swear that reality was the dream, and the dream was the truest life that had ever existed.”

“One day, I would make a piece of art with my gathered seashells and the whole would take form as something new entirely.”

“...but it also taught me about who I was. It brought my parents, their parents, and their parents before them to life. And through knowing them, I began to know myself just slightly.”

“Sometimes you have to make happiness for yourself.”

“I could feel, in my bones, that this place was me. My blood ran through the soil and stone. My breath was the wind that whipped over the palace.”