By: Rebecca Ethington
Published: February 23, 2016
374 pages
Source: Personal Kindle library
(Goodreads / Amazon)
Summary:
Underneath the deep red barrier Edmund has placed over the city, Prague is in ruins…MY REVIEW:
Vilỳ hide in the darkened alleys, waiting to attack anyone who passes, while Edmund’s men roam the blood-soaked streets, scouring every crumbling building in a mad attempt to flush out Ilyan and his men.
Among the danger, Ilyan and Joclyn are trapped, unable to leave the city. trying to keep their people safe behind a powerful shield, unseen from Edmund and his scouts.
Wyn spends her days haunted by her daughter and watching Thom waste away from the mysterious curse slowly taking him.
Ryland has risen above his father’s control, ready to take his place as his brother’s second. However, Sain needs his help first for a simple assignment, or so he thinks.
Their safety is about to be shattered.
A mole behind those safe, Cathedral walls has begun whispering through the survivors that Joclyn is unstable, that her magic is an uncontainable force that will destroy them all in the end.
Determined not to let the rumors affect her, Joclyn battles ahead, only to have reality and sight intersect in an explosion that shatters the walls between future, past, and present, leaving her imprisoned in a seamless existence she must learn to control … before Edmund and Ovailia control her.
Before Sain unfurls the plan he has been orchestrating for centuries.
I hate to say it....but my initial feeling upon beginning this book was a sense of disconnect due to the length of time between each book and how long this series has gone on. What once felt like a fluid moving story through the first 3 books as I was able to read them back to back, three books that really drew me in and captivated me, now has begun to feel to me, through the last couple of books specifically, as just being drug out and not really connecting me, the reader, to what's going on. The more time that passes between each book, the less I feel emotionally connected to the characters. Book 5 felt like filler material to me, (it started out as a novella and then was turned into a lengthier novel), not really taking us forward in progress much with the characters and their situation. Then book 6 opened and it was clear that significant time had passed since the last book but I couldn't immediately figure out how much time and why all of a sudden it had jumped ahead several months when the characters have been in the midst of a battle to the death with Edmund and his followers in a magical cage surrounding the city of Prague.
However, aside from my initial feelings of disconnect, this story is told from multiple POV's. Ilyan, Jocyln, Sain, Ovaila, Dramin, Ryland, Wyn to name several. It's always interesting to see into the minds of various characters in a story. The biggest reveal to me within the first 20% was who was really pulling the strings and manipulating so many around them and had been for centuries. All because of revenge, however misplaced it really is. The lies and manipulating goes so far deep that it's a wonder things have panned out for as long as they have with this character. This betrayal, and playing both sides of the war, is one that can't possibly end well for all involved. And wouldn't you know it, by 50% through, the truth and the light of this person's true intent is finally starting to show to those on both sides.
Dang, I must be extremely slow...or maybe I've just forgotten if I had previously discovered this. Some of the language spoken by the characters is Czech. I figured that out in like book one. And I HAD to know what was being said, so I would use Google Translate to find out the dialogue spoken in Czech. Well...it just dawned on me, in this book, yes book 6, that there were some words used often to describe the different races of magic wielders that I couldn't remember what they meant (or if I ever looked them up to begin with). Skriteks, Draks, and Trpasliks. So I used my handy translate tool and discovered (I think for the first time this series) what they mean. Trpaslik means dwarf, Skritek means elf, and Drak means dragon. Mind. Blown. Man, certain things make so much more sense to me now! Don't misunderstand. Just because those words translate to those meanings, it doesn't necessarily mean that the characteristics you would normally associate in other fantasy stories apply to these characters.
All in all, I'm ready for the series to wrap up. I often don't enjoy more than 3 books in a series. This is a total personal preference, but I find that after about 3 books, especially if the plot still hasn't been resolved, I just lose interest.
Lastly one aspect I enjoyed immensely for several books was the depth of the romantic connection between Ilyan and Jocyln, all while remaining what I would consider to be clean content. For me, being a fan of romance in stories, it was too minimal for my liking in this part of the series.
If you're new to this series, I encourage you to go back to the beginning and see what I initially fell in love with.
#1 - Kiss of Fire (4 stars)
#2 - Eyes of Ember (5 stars)
#3 - Scorched Treachery (5 stars)
#4 - Soul of Flame (4 stars)
#5 - Burnt Devotion (3 stars)
Top Favorite Quotes:
"There is always another choice in this life. There is always a chance to fix what was broken..."
"Life is a journey meant to be experienced, Ry. What's the fun if I tell you all the stops along the way?"
Language: 0 (none)
Mature Content: 0 (none)
Final Rating: 3.5 stars
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