A review by koistyfishy
Lady of the Drowned Empire by Frankie Diane Mallis

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

WOW! This. Book. Is. AMAZING!
It completely took my breath away!

I have said it before and I will say it again, I AM FARTHER THAN LETHEA for this series and OH BOY did this instalment not disappoint. I literally cannot recommend a book (and series) more! Frankie has truly outdone herself with Lady of the Drowned Empire!

It has everything anyone could possibly want in a Fantasy Romance! There is an amazingly complex world with intricately woven lore, elaborate world-building and a unique magic system. The writing is spectacular, with the difficult-to-achieve balance of plot and character development. The story is an overall emotional rollercoaster juxtaposed with tense action scenes, multiple secrets, numerous unexpected twists, and heart-wrenching betrayals. And let's not forget the swoon-worthy forbidden romance.

For him, she’s brighter than the brightest star in Heaven.

This book starts almost immediately after the events of Guardian and is by far my favourite book of the series. Frankie has an amazing talent for being able to create beautiful emotionally broken and damaged characters that do not catch a break. I am not kidding, right from the start, our characters are thrown into gut-wrenching and painful situation after situation. The villains (especially the Imperator) are so sick and twisted and sadistic; that it is almost poetic how much you just want to despise and hate him. Every scene that he was in made me viscerally angry to the point that I almost wanted to throw the book across the room because I was dealing with so many emotions and so much anger internally for how much suffering my babies had to go through.

Lyr is a fantastic main character and my heart broke for her as she had to work through processing her trauma and insecurities following the events that transpired in Guardian.

Rhyan is what makes you set impossible-to-achieve standards in men! He is kindness personified and has the greatest capacity to love. But he is also brave, loyal, protective, and considerate...just perfect! He has experienced so much brutality and cruelty towards him but he keeps on fighting, coming out stronger.

“He’s just a rope,” I said urgently. “Just a fucking rope. And you know what we do to those.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and took a sharp breath before looking back at me. “We tear them the fuck apart.”

The relationship between Lyr and Rhyan is the epitome of what Shakespeare describes as love. Their relationship transforms the very definition of love. They are both willing to sacrifice the unthinkable and would be willing to go to the ends of the earth for each other! It's tragically beautiful how much emotion and passion these two feel for each other. They truly transcend the meaning of soul mate.

“Mekara,” he murmured.
“Mekara.”
My soul is yours. I reached for his face and stroked his jaw, my heart bursting as I answered, “Rakame.”
Your soul is my soul.
He shuddered, a tear in his eye. “My soulmate.”

This book also sees the introduction of a new POV, from Morgana. However whilst I liked the different perspective her POV gave, I found it difficult to connect to her character. She felt very Nesta-esque (from the OG Trilogy), and just seemed overly angry, that I battled to see any other emotion from her. I also don't fully understand all of her motives and decisions. I am not writing her off though as seeing the journey Lyr has gone through, I think we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of the plans for Morgana in the coming books.

Something I truly loved about this book, was being able to piece together small aspects of the puzzle that were slowly uncovered as this book progressed. Using clues from this book and the previous books, I felt like a little detective with Lila as we discussed theories, possibilities and speculated where the story would go! However, nothing prepared us for that final twist!

If I can leave you with one thing just do yourself a favour and pick up this series and pick up this book! It’s an utter disservice that the series is not yet finished but with HOW AMAZING IT IS more people need to experience it!

Frankie has done an amazing job and written an amazing sequel and I cannot wait to read this book from Rhyan’s point of view...THERE ARE SOME SCENES I NEED FROM HIS MIND IN MY LIFE!!!!!

Thank you Frankie for an eARC in exchange for a review!
All thoughts and feelings are my own 
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