A review by rinku
Prison Healer - Die Schattenerbin by Lynette Noni

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

4.0

The Blood Traitor is the last book in The Prison Healer series and was a great final book. The pacing and the ending are great, and I love the characters so much. 

After the events of the last book, Kiva is back at Zalindov. First, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this plot point, and I was worried that it would be too similar to the first book, but it luckily wasn’t. The beginning is really dark with Kiva’s misery being described so well. Of course, she
is able to escape the prison but learns that she should marry King Navok
. Like I’ve said, the pacing is really good, except for the two chapters where Kiva just gets told what has happened. We also see more of the world which was nice. I believe Noni is writing other books in this world currently, so I’m excited for this. 

There were some aspects of the plot though that I wasn’t the biggest fan of. It was so silly how the characters fall for the simplest “let us have a drink”, and how we need another random death game. The ring collecting felt a bit too much like side questing for me, if this makes sense. While our characters are doing this, we literally hear nothing from Kiva’s sister or Novak for like 200 pages which was weird. It was also so obvious that
there was a traitor among them and that he would reveal himself when they have all four rings
. 

Like I’ve said, the ending is great, even though I rolled my eye at the fact that
Cresta is Navok’s brother, this is just the laziest twist in existence that I never liked. I was also a bit sad that Kiva sacrificed herself for Jaren and lost her magic because of it. Besides this, I kinda expected that Caldon is still alive. What I’m also wondering about is the fact that Zalindov will apparently prevail, and that they put someone in there as revenge. You could ask how our characters are better than the villains then, but at least they want to change some things. Still, I would’ve loved if they abolished it
. 

I’ve said it before, but Kiva is such a strong character. It’s so sad how she’s controlled so much by the people around her. The other characters are so great as well, and there are especially many likable female characters. I also appreciate it that none of the male characters are machos but likeable guys. I really love Cresta, she’s probably my favourite characters. It’s also so adorable how
Tipp forgives Kiva
. Besides this, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers trope (that’s a mouthful lmao), but Kiva and Jaren are still cute together. It annoyed me as well that everyone in the group has to be romantically interested in someone. We have Rhess who’s ace but we never see her in this book, unfortunately. 

I would definitely recommend the Prison Healer series. The world and magic system are intriguing and the cast likable and just great. The series is not re-inventing the wheel plot wise, but I still liked a lot more than other contemporary YA high fantasy novels. 
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