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ninjamike's review against another edition
5.0
The best of the series so far.
Spoiler
This one starts with Deus Ex Machina (which is very difficult to pull off) but it works, and the story is great, all the way to the end.laughlinesandliterature's review against another edition
4.0
I love this series but man, the POV switching really takes me out of the story. My favorites are Janel, Kihrin, and Teraeth. Thurvishar also is tolerable. I am still mad at Qown, and you can't change my mind. I dove right into the next book, so it is definitely intriguing and enthralling.
bookish_notes's review against another edition
5.0
I think it's a good thing I don't have much of an attention span for long, drawn out chapters, because this book knows how to keep me on my toes and FOCUSED. There is a lot of jumping around between characters and the timeline jumps are kind of fucked up, if I'm being honest. It really works for me though? I didn't really have trouble following the story, but I can see why people might have a hard time with this type of storytelling. I think if you're already reading book three in this series, I don't think this will be difficult for you to read either. The book DOES end on a cliffhanger, more so than the last books. You'll want to have the next book ready to go once you've finished reading the epilogue here.
The author, once again, does provide a very helpful recap of the previous book. I love that. This story is told from Thurvishar and Kihrin's point-of-view. There is still the present-day where Thurvishar and Kihrin are chatting, then there's Thurvishar recounting...pretty much everyone else's stories leading up to present-day but in a way that jumps around a lot, and then there's Kihrin recounting his timeline of events in-between Thurvishar's. But Kihrin's story is sequential at least. With Thurvishar and Kihrin telling the story, we get Feodor Chin (voice for Thurvishar) and Vikas Adam (voice for Kihrin) back for the audiobook.
Content notes include violence, deaths, gore, misogyny, mentions of rape, rape (secondary characters), mentions of slavery, mentions of emotional abuse/grooming, characters drugged and having sex under the influence, and unprotected sex.
From a romance reader standpoint, this book is FASCINATING. We finally get some backstory into Kihrin and Janel (and their past lives). Then of course there's how Teraeth is involved with them in all of this. This is when we know that the story between all three of them isn't just a love story from THIS lifetime, but one that has been CENTURIES in the making and I just want them all to be happy, okay? They deserve to be happy for once.
This book focuses a lot on family and bloodlines, and while I FEEL like I have a solid grasp on who is who, and how they're related to other characters, please don't quiz me on any of it. There are maps and timelines at the end of the physical and e-book versions for reference. They are actually really helpful, but my one critique is that these weren't included as guides with the audiobook because I feel like that would be super helpful for people to reference as they're listening.
One of the key focuses of this book is surprisingly Therin D'Mon, Kihrin's dad (and NOT his grandfather like we thought for most of the first book). I feel like the main question this book challenges you to think about is whether or not you like Therin or still hate his guts. His side of the story takes place about a month after the events at the end of book one. Therin is a very grey character for me. He is (was?) the head of house D'Mon and stood idly by while knowing his son Darzin was abusing HIS son (Therin's grandson) Galen. Darzin loved to torture people for fun. He was just a sadistic and evil bastard and Therin did nothing. Yes, life in the capital of Quur is all about power and trying to stay one step ahead of everyone trying to take you down, including your own family, but now removed from the capital we get to see a different side of Therin in this book and I don't know how I feel about that. We know Therin was never a good person. His own father was awful (it runs in the family apparently) and Therin had killed his own father. I think the story said it was for good reason though? I'm not entirely sure. So, do with that what you will.
Now in this book, we see a Therin who has basically lost his entire family to his previous...lover and slave and it's a VERY tangled mess. The power dynamics here are MESSY. Because the Stone of Shackles came into play here (which is a cornerstone that is the cause for all the body jumping confusion in this series when the wearer of said necklace is killed then the wearer's soul jumps into the body of their killer, which is what happened to Miya who turns out to be Queen Khaeriel IN Miya's body because the servant was trying to assassinate the Queen).
ANYWAYS. Khaeriel has decided to take control of Therin's mind and now the roles are reversed because now she's got him brainwashed. The whole situation is a huge mess and I am still left confused whether I hate Therin or feel bad for him. I don't want him to die for Kihrin's sake, but also we have to remember Therin was a shit father and grandfather. But I will admit I enjoy his scenes with Teraeth's father, Doc (also known as Terindel from years past). Remember from the first book that Therin, Doc, General Qoran Milligrest, and the previous Emperor of Quur (Sandus) were all best friends once when they were younger.
The most interesting part of this story is seeing Kihrin, Janel, Teraeth, and Thurvishar going on an adventure together and who everyone was in their past lives. This story is about the group wanting to warn the vané about Relos Var's plans, and let's just say the vané didn't take too kindly to the group showing up on their doorstep. There's a lot of politics in this one in regards to the succession of the vané throne. I'm not sure I could explain it even if I wanted to.
So, we'll just go with it.
Teraeth and his father are in the clearest line of succession. And hilariously people seem to be incredibly onboard with Teraeth marrying Kihrin because of that messy succession stuff. This book reminds us often that Teraeth and Kihrin are NOT released so their relationship isn't incest, and I didn't think about it before but now has me second guessing WHY their relationship could be considered such. I think it has to do with all the body jumping messiness.
The book is still very action-packed and there's a lot more deaths in this book than maybe even the previous books? And all of this will have extreme ramifications going forward in the series.
We finally figure out what Xaltorath's backstory is, and that was a FASCINATING revelation. I was very wrong in my prediction of who Xaltorath could be, because never in a million years would I have predicted any of this. "Xaltorath" meaning "Queen of Demons" should've given it all away but I don't often put things together so I missed the hint.
And that's what I love about these books. Their unpredictability. I've read a lot of high fantasy books for years and years before I got into reading romance, and sometimes they can fall back into a predictable rhythm, and that's totally okay. But I feel like there's none of that predictability here. There's so many characters coming from all directions and you never know who's going to die (or if they'll come back), that it keeps you on your toes and interested in what's coming next. You never know who the book is going to make you like either. And I think the fun thing about this series is that even when there's so many characters and various POV chapters, I don't particularly feel confused between all the chapters and time jumps. Many characters are back who I did not expect to be back from the first book. And that's when I learned that not all dead characters will stay dead in this series. It'll be interesting to see where they go in this series, and if they'll make it through to the end.
There's a lot more Xivan in this book, which is news to me. I didn't think much of her in the last book, but only because she wasn't IN much of the last book. She is an undead being (a vampire who eats souls to...survive? look young?) and is on the hunt for the god Suless who killed most of her Yoran people who had been at the castle at the time. Suless has taken her husband, Duke Azhen Kaen or Yor, and her son Exidhar as captives. And look, the Duke and their son are not good people by any means. But I do feel for Xivan's plight over her husband and son, who she clearly loves very much. Her search to take down Suless absolutely consumes her. Her saving grace in all this is Talea.
We see a lot of Talea. Talea was once a slave to Darzin D'Mon and later bought (and set free almost immediately) by Thurvishar D'Lorus. She was also sister to Morea, the slave girl Kihrin was infatuated with in book one and murdered by a mimic called Talon. Talea has fallen for Xivan, but realizes that Xivan still very much loves her husband. But that doesn't stop Talea from being very much in love with Xivan, even if Xivan refuses to believe it.
There's a LOT of blossoming relationships in this book, and not to spoil too much about certain characters making a reappearance in the series, but we should talk about Thurvishar and Senera because it's been obvious since the end of book two. I NEED THE ENTIRE BACKSTORY - how they met, when they realized they had feelings for each other, EVERYTHING. They are both intelligent and they are the storytellers documenting these books we're reading. So, it's interesting to see them write about the other in their books. But one thing ESPECIALLY is that in the last book we saw how much Thurvishar panicked over the thought of Senera being killed in the battle of Atrine, and then the way he addresses this book to her in the prologue??? MY HEART. Obviously, Thurvishar is on Kihrin's side, and Senera is on Relos Var's side. But Thurvishar is working his hardest to convince Senera that maybe Relos Var has not told her everything regarding his plans, and she needs to ditch the man and come over to Kihrin's side.
I think something fun in this book is that we're back to Thurvishar documenting the story and has his little comments in the footnotes. And something that gets mentioned from Senera (and hilariously pointed out again by Kihrin in this one) is that Thurvishar likes adding POV chapters based on what he THINKS a character is doing or thinking at a specific time, which Senera doesn't do in her documentation. So, that's a bit of a loophole in the storytelling the author manages to wiggle in. I just think it's really funny it's Thurvishar doing it.
A common theme, if you can call it that, is that all these characters had awful parental figures. Xaltorath with Janel, Thaena with Teraeth, Therin with Kihrin, and Relos Var with Janel, Senera, and Qown. I guess Therin gets off easy with how his relationship with Kihrin is compared to everyone else because Kihrin has the benefit of being raised by the musician Surdyeh in the Lower Circle instead of in the D'Mon household. Every other person I've listed here were using their child for their own means, and viewed them as expandable and it's really sad. Qown's complicated relationship with Relos Var is possibly the most heartbreaking. Relos Var saved Qown from his own terrible family life, and Qown had viewed Var as a father figure and would hang on to his every word. If the man was willing to gaesh someone who adores him without a second thought, what can't he be capable of? We find out in the last book that Var doesn't care for anyone or anything else except his own means and goals. I guess we could've figured that out when we found out how Vol Karoth was created, BUT apparently nothing has changed in the thousands of years since.
A new character we meet (or maybe he was mentioned before in previous books but I don't recall) is Grizzst. He is nearly as old as Relos Var, which is to say THOUSANDS of years old. He's a fascinating character because while present-day he appears to be an alcoholic and a good for nothing scoundrel, he is actually one of the smartest people EVER to exist. He basically helped create Quur, and for better or worse, helped Relos Var and the immortals return back to...normal(?) after the ritual that Var fucked up to create Vol Karoth.
One thing to note with the audiobook is that this audiobook jumps back to being narrated by narrators who did not narrate the second book. So, the biggest shock is how Qown's name is pronounced. I'm not sure where the miscommunication fell between the books because the second book pronounces his name as k-OWN like the word own, and then this book is like "count without the t" at the end. It's very baffling. I want to say Galen's name is different from the first book too, but many audiobook hours have passed since we last heard about Galen, so I could be wrong about that.
I actually really liked this book and I would even dare to say this is my favorite of the series so far. If books one and two felt like introductions to the series, this is the book where things really get going. I liked the casualness of the present-day where it's just Kihrin sharing his story with Thurvishar, and it's just a nice little chat of them telling this story despite all the events that DID happen. So you could say the epilogue caught me by surprise. The events that happened there are events that occurs OUTSIDE Thurvishar's documentation and it was super shocking? He left out those events for a reason. I'm only glad that even though there's a cliffhanger, I had put this series on hold long enough that all the books are already out and I can jump immediately into reading the next book. Because you WILL want to have the next book on hand before you finish this one.
***Thanks to the publisher for approving me for this e-ARC to read and review***
The author, once again, does provide a very helpful recap of the previous book. I love that. This story is told from Thurvishar and Kihrin's point-of-view. There is still the present-day where Thurvishar and Kihrin are chatting, then there's Thurvishar recounting...pretty much everyone else's stories leading up to present-day but in a way that jumps around a lot, and then there's Kihrin recounting his timeline of events in-between Thurvishar's. But Kihrin's story is sequential at least. With Thurvishar and Kihrin telling the story, we get Feodor Chin (voice for Thurvishar) and Vikas Adam (voice for Kihrin) back for the audiobook.
Content notes include violence, deaths, gore, misogyny, mentions of rape, rape (secondary characters), mentions of slavery, mentions of emotional abuse/grooming, characters drugged and having sex under the influence, and unprotected sex.
From a romance reader standpoint, this book is FASCINATING. We finally get some backstory into Kihrin and Janel (and their past lives). Then of course there's how Teraeth is involved with them in all of this. This is when we know that the story between all three of them isn't just a love story from THIS lifetime, but one that has been CENTURIES in the making and I just want them all to be happy, okay? They deserve to be happy for once.
This book focuses a lot on family and bloodlines, and while I FEEL like I have a solid grasp on who is who, and how they're related to other characters, please don't quiz me on any of it. There are maps and timelines at the end of the physical and e-book versions for reference. They are actually really helpful, but my one critique is that these weren't included as guides with the audiobook because I feel like that would be super helpful for people to reference as they're listening.
One of the key focuses of this book is surprisingly Therin D'Mon, Kihrin's dad (and NOT his grandfather like we thought for most of the first book). I feel like the main question this book challenges you to think about is whether or not you like Therin or still hate his guts. His side of the story takes place about a month after the events at the end of book one. Therin is a very grey character for me. He is (was?) the head of house D'Mon and stood idly by while knowing his son Darzin was abusing HIS son (Therin's grandson) Galen. Darzin loved to torture people for fun. He was just a sadistic and evil bastard and Therin did nothing. Yes, life in the capital of Quur is all about power and trying to stay one step ahead of everyone trying to take you down, including your own family, but now removed from the capital we get to see a different side of Therin in this book and I don't know how I feel about that. We know Therin was never a good person. His own father was awful (it runs in the family apparently) and Therin had killed his own father. I think the story said it was for good reason though? I'm not entirely sure. So, do with that what you will.
Now in this book, we see a Therin who has basically lost his entire family to his previous...lover and slave and it's a VERY tangled mess. The power dynamics here are MESSY. Because the Stone of Shackles came into play here (which is a cornerstone that is the cause for all the body jumping confusion in this series when the wearer of said necklace is killed then the wearer's soul jumps into the body of their killer, which is what happened to Miya who turns out to be Queen Khaeriel IN Miya's body because the servant was trying to assassinate the Queen).
ANYWAYS. Khaeriel has decided to take control of Therin's mind and now the roles are reversed because now she's got him brainwashed. The whole situation is a huge mess and I am still left confused whether I hate Therin or feel bad for him. I don't want him to die for Kihrin's sake, but also we have to remember Therin was a shit father and grandfather. But I will admit I enjoy his scenes with Teraeth's father, Doc (also known as Terindel from years past). Remember from the first book that Therin, Doc, General Qoran Milligrest, and the previous Emperor of Quur (Sandus) were all best friends once when they were younger.
The most interesting part of this story is seeing Kihrin, Janel, Teraeth, and Thurvishar going on an adventure together and who everyone was in their past lives. This story is about the group wanting to warn the vané about Relos Var's plans, and let's just say the vané didn't take too kindly to the group showing up on their doorstep. There's a lot of politics in this one in regards to the succession of the vané throne. I'm not sure I could explain it even if I wanted to.
So, we'll just go with it.
Teraeth and his father are in the clearest line of succession. And hilariously people seem to be incredibly onboard with Teraeth marrying Kihrin because of that messy succession stuff. This book reminds us often that Teraeth and Kihrin are NOT released so their relationship isn't incest, and I didn't think about it before but now has me second guessing WHY their relationship could be considered such. I think it has to do with all the body jumping messiness.
The book is still very action-packed and there's a lot more deaths in this book than maybe even the previous books? And all of this will have extreme ramifications going forward in the series.
We finally figure out what Xaltorath's backstory is, and that was a FASCINATING revelation. I was very wrong in my prediction of who Xaltorath could be, because never in a million years would I have predicted any of this. "Xaltorath" meaning "Queen of Demons" should've given it all away but I don't often put things together so I missed the hint.
And that's what I love about these books. Their unpredictability. I've read a lot of high fantasy books for years and years before I got into reading romance, and sometimes they can fall back into a predictable rhythm, and that's totally okay. But I feel like there's none of that predictability here. There's so many characters coming from all directions and you never know who's going to die (or if they'll come back), that it keeps you on your toes and interested in what's coming next. You never know who the book is going to make you like either. And I think the fun thing about this series is that even when there's so many characters and various POV chapters, I don't particularly feel confused between all the chapters and time jumps. Many characters are back who I did not expect to be back from the first book. And that's when I learned that not all dead characters will stay dead in this series. It'll be interesting to see where they go in this series, and if they'll make it through to the end.
There's a lot more Xivan in this book, which is news to me. I didn't think much of her in the last book, but only because she wasn't IN much of the last book. She is an undead being (a vampire who eats souls to...survive? look young?) and is on the hunt for the god Suless who killed most of her Yoran people who had been at the castle at the time. Suless has taken her husband, Duke Azhen Kaen or Yor, and her son Exidhar as captives. And look, the Duke and their son are not good people by any means. But I do feel for Xivan's plight over her husband and son, who she clearly loves very much. Her search to take down Suless absolutely consumes her. Her saving grace in all this is Talea.
We see a lot of Talea. Talea was once a slave to Darzin D'Mon and later bought (and set free almost immediately) by Thurvishar D'Lorus. She was also sister to Morea, the slave girl Kihrin was infatuated with in book one and murdered by a mimic called Talon. Talea has fallen for Xivan, but realizes that Xivan still very much loves her husband. But that doesn't stop Talea from being very much in love with Xivan, even if Xivan refuses to believe it.
There's a LOT of blossoming relationships in this book, and not to spoil too much about certain characters making a reappearance in the series, but we should talk about Thurvishar and Senera because it's been obvious since the end of book two. I NEED THE ENTIRE BACKSTORY - how they met, when they realized they had feelings for each other, EVERYTHING. They are both intelligent and they are the storytellers documenting these books we're reading. So, it's interesting to see them write about the other in their books. But one thing ESPECIALLY is that in the last book we saw how much Thurvishar panicked over the thought of Senera being killed in the battle of Atrine, and then the way he addresses this book to her in the prologue??? MY HEART. Obviously, Thurvishar is on Kihrin's side, and Senera is on Relos Var's side. But Thurvishar is working his hardest to convince Senera that maybe Relos Var has not told her everything regarding his plans, and she needs to ditch the man and come over to Kihrin's side.
I think something fun in this book is that we're back to Thurvishar documenting the story and has his little comments in the footnotes. And something that gets mentioned from Senera (and hilariously pointed out again by Kihrin in this one) is that Thurvishar likes adding POV chapters based on what he THINKS a character is doing or thinking at a specific time, which Senera doesn't do in her documentation. So, that's a bit of a loophole in the storytelling the author manages to wiggle in. I just think it's really funny it's Thurvishar doing it.
A common theme, if you can call it that, is that all these characters had awful parental figures. Xaltorath with Janel, Thaena with Teraeth, Therin with Kihrin, and Relos Var with Janel, Senera, and Qown. I guess Therin gets off easy with how his relationship with Kihrin is compared to everyone else because Kihrin has the benefit of being raised by the musician Surdyeh in the Lower Circle instead of in the D'Mon household. Every other person I've listed here were using their child for their own means, and viewed them as expandable and it's really sad. Qown's complicated relationship with Relos Var is possibly the most heartbreaking. Relos Var saved Qown from his own terrible family life, and Qown had viewed Var as a father figure and would hang on to his every word. If the man was willing to gaesh someone who adores him without a second thought, what can't he be capable of? We find out in the last book that Var doesn't care for anyone or anything else except his own means and goals. I guess we could've figured that out when we found out how Vol Karoth was created, BUT apparently nothing has changed in the thousands of years since.
A new character we meet (or maybe he was mentioned before in previous books but I don't recall) is Grizzst. He is nearly as old as Relos Var, which is to say THOUSANDS of years old. He's a fascinating character because while present-day he appears to be an alcoholic and a good for nothing scoundrel, he is actually one of the smartest people EVER to exist. He basically helped create Quur, and for better or worse, helped Relos Var and the immortals return back to...normal(?) after the ritual that Var fucked up to create Vol Karoth.
One thing to note with the audiobook is that this audiobook jumps back to being narrated by narrators who did not narrate the second book. So, the biggest shock is how Qown's name is pronounced. I'm not sure where the miscommunication fell between the books because the second book pronounces his name as k-OWN like the word own, and then this book is like "count without the t" at the end. It's very baffling. I want to say Galen's name is different from the first book too, but many audiobook hours have passed since we last heard about Galen, so I could be wrong about that.
I actually really liked this book and I would even dare to say this is my favorite of the series so far. If books one and two felt like introductions to the series, this is the book where things really get going. I liked the casualness of the present-day where it's just Kihrin sharing his story with Thurvishar, and it's just a nice little chat of them telling this story despite all the events that DID happen. So you could say the epilogue caught me by surprise. The events that happened there are events that occurs OUTSIDE Thurvishar's documentation and it was super shocking? He left out those events for a reason. I'm only glad that even though there's a cliffhanger, I had put this series on hold long enough that all the books are already out and I can jump immediately into reading the next book. Because you WILL want to have the next book on hand before you finish this one.
***Thanks to the publisher for approving me for this e-ARC to read and review***
tikipoupower's review against another edition
5.0
Que dire ? Ce livre est très clairement mon livre préféré de l'année.
J'écrit ce commentaire après ma seconde lecture. La première m'avait entraînée vers une relecture des deux premiers livres pour pouvoir faire plus de liens.
Ce livre est très largement supérieur au deux qui précèdent (pourtant très bien déjà) car ceux-ci ne faisaient que poser le décor. Dans ce livre, on garde la même technique de narration c'est-à-dire que nous lisons un compte rendu qui a été fait par Thurvishar des derniers événements. Il regroupe les différents points de vue de Kihrin, ses parents, Teraeth, Talea (guerrière rencontrée dans le deuxième livre), Grizzst (un très vieux sorcier qui semble avoir eu beaucoup d'impact dans l'Histoire) et autres. Tout commence à être relié, des connexions sont faites, des réponses sont apportées mais toujours moins que de nouvelles questions sont posées ! Toutes ces réincarnations et changement de corps peuvent être parfois compliqués à suivre mais l'on suit l'histoire avec Kihrin et on apprend les choses en même temps que lui et que ses amis Teraeth, Janel et Thurvishar. Ce livre marque le début de leurs aventures ensemble pour lutter contre Vol Karoth (qui vient de se réveiller) et déjouer les plans de Relos Var qui semble vouloir sauver le monde en le détruisant.
Attention la fin finie avec plusieurs Cliffhangers.
Note : j'ai lu ce livre en anglais tout en écoutant le livre audio
J'écrit ce commentaire après ma seconde lecture. La première m'avait entraînée vers une relecture des deux premiers livres pour pouvoir faire plus de liens.
Ce livre est très largement supérieur au deux qui précèdent (pourtant très bien déjà) car ceux-ci ne faisaient que poser le décor. Dans ce livre, on garde la même technique de narration c'est-à-dire que nous lisons un compte rendu qui a été fait par Thurvishar des derniers événements. Il regroupe les différents points de vue de Kihrin, ses parents, Teraeth, Talea (guerrière rencontrée dans le deuxième livre), Grizzst (un très vieux sorcier qui semble avoir eu beaucoup d'impact dans l'Histoire) et autres. Tout commence à être relié, des connexions sont faites, des réponses sont apportées mais toujours moins que de nouvelles questions sont posées ! Toutes ces réincarnations et changement de corps peuvent être parfois compliqués à suivre mais l'on suit l'histoire avec Kihrin et on apprend les choses en même temps que lui et que ses amis Teraeth, Janel et Thurvishar. Ce livre marque le début de leurs aventures ensemble pour lutter contre Vol Karoth (qui vient de se réveiller) et déjouer les plans de Relos Var qui semble vouloir sauver le monde en le détruisant.
Attention la fin finie avec plusieurs Cliffhangers.
Note : j'ai lu ce livre en anglais tout en écoutant le livre audio
wjsanger's review against another edition
5.0
I ran into a bit of a wall during this one (not book’s fault) but ultimately got through and really loved it. All the craziness and twists and turns are prevalent as they have been previously. Not much more to say since it’s book three. Super fun series.
casperette82's review against another edition
I read this book years after the previous book in the series. It was too confusing to remember how different characters were related to each other in all their reincarnated lives.