kblincoln 's review for:

The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten

4.0

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Things have come very far for our young group of friends and the love triangle since the first book. Lore is without Nyxara and banished to the Burnt Isles to forced mining. Bastian is all but lost to Apollius and reigning at court with Allie and Emperor Jax as the Sainted King. And the other corner of the love triangle with Bastian and Lore, Gabe, is hanging out with Malcolm and the smugglers. 

Whitten has given them a quest-- find all the pieces of the font and have them converge on the Burnt Isles where the gods fell and the broken font languishes. It's a tidy plot with everyone duly finding their pieces and ending up on boats. 

Whitten isn't afraid to abuse her characters. Bastian goes through a lot as well as Lore. She's really in a penal colony and no one likes her. Still, she somehow manages to escape. 

We get some more background knowledge of the gods before they fell, and alot of Apollius being a megolomaniac, and alot of Gabe coming to terms with his protectiveness for both Bastian and Lore. 

And we get Allie making nice with the tyrannical Jax (who, if you remember, tore out Gabe's eye) which felt wrong to me. 

And in the end, there are two sacrifices-- which we could finally see coming. My only quibble here is that if you're going to make painful sacrifices and make a reader go through that emotional journey, it feels like a cop out to then create a situation where the character doesn't have to deal with the impact of that sacrifice. Let's just say Whitten ties up things a mite too neatly. Still a fitting end to the series.