Pages: 433
Genres: Dark Fantasy, Fantasy
ASIN: B0C1WC7H5F
ISBN: 9781959443117
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Source: ARC, HiddenGems
Here I am again, fighting for my life.
You already know me. I used to be Madame Calixta Harlow Carlyle, the exotic prostitute of Talbert, but I am not anymore. Now, I am married to a Marquess and have accepted my position as the third Vanquisher of Alhambra. Things are getting from bad to worse in the Kingdom of Alhambra. My husband Dreyden and I destroyed the demon dragon Nartago, but I know crafty Jadro must have another wretched monster lined up. After the fight, we decided to stay in Elijah's village so I could give birth to my child. But now that my daughter is born, we must keep moving to the Fort of Marr. We are so close, and yet so far.
I'm Alesha. I used to be a prostitute, but now I am a huntress. I murdered my brother, and I'm not sorry. That bastard raped me, and he had to die. He will never hurt me again. But now I must run fast and get to the train station to catch up with Calixta and the others.OH, NO! I can see them boarding the train.
"Wait for me!" shouted Alesha.The train pulled away. Alesha ran behind it. But the train picked up speed, and she stayed behind in the city of Nhava.
"I will find them," said Alesha. But something worse than being left behind happened to her; Lord Shedfield, her first client and lover, found her on the train platform. He noticed she had changed her Trade Tattoo. "I am going to jail and maybe end up on the gallows for sure," said Alesha.I am Gálida the Elf, and second Vanquisher of Alhambra, and I am dying in the dungeons of the Fort of Marr. My people and I are locked in cocoons made to help us cure our injuries, but now they are our coffins. We are encased in perpetual sleep. We were gullible, and Jadro cursed us. Oh, but today, in the depth of my sleep, I can hear the steps of one that can break our curse. The one walks stealthily through the halls and searches for something not his to take. Could it be a thief or a hero?
I am Evelin, and you don't know me yet! I am water, wolf, and wind. I will kill Calixta one way or another."Not if I kill her first," said Jadro.
In this fantasy saga, Calixta continues with her quest for truth. This is a Grimdark Fantasy that many have also categorized as Gaslamp Fantasy. It is dark and has many adult topics. It is for adults only. Please visit the Author's website for the CW.
Tropes:
- Dark Fantasy
- Battle-Hardened Protagonists
- Brotherhood / Camaraderie
- High-Stakes Combat
- Sacrifice
- Moral Ambiguity
My Review
Received this as an ARC.
This was the 2nd part of the ARC I read, and though I enjoyed most of the story. It felt a little repetitive, although I feel this was due to the fact it can be read as a stand-alone novel, aswell as part of the series, so from reading book 1&2 back to back, a lot of the story was in both in places, but book 2 seemed to take the repeats with edits compared to book 1.
I thoroughly enjoyed book 1, so when reading this book and getting new differentiating details on things that have already happened previously, I was like huh, what’s this?! That never happened, you big liar!
If you’ve read both books you will understand.
I feel like the plot here was thicker and I truly appreciated that as we got more context and depth into the whole demon war situation, and it was nice to have some more side journeys for some of our heroes.
The story was definitely more intense in this book, I appreciated that, because I feel a sequel needs that. The story was a little slow to start for me, and I was genuinely worried I’d have to put this in my dreaded dnf’ pile. But I persevered, I’m glad I did.
I loved the continued growth of our female main character, she is such a badass. I was sad that we didn’t get as much growth on Dreyden. I felt like he was pushed to the sideline in this book, but then our lovely Alesha got a shiny new main character role and I LOVED that.
It was painful to read this ARC copy however, the spelling, grammar, and careless unproofed text passages that literally made no sense, thus made it hard to enjoy in spots. Luckily I used my head and was able to work out what it was actually supposed to say.
Whoever did a beta read on this, did you dirty Omayra, and I’m sorry for that. I hope you are able to fix the errors, because I am a fan of your work.
As always; be aware folks this book contains sensitive subjects of rape, forced proximity, sex slave trade, child loss, miscarriage, incest?, violence, death, war
Don’t let that stop you though, it was a fab read.
I give it a solid 3*!
I’ve only knocked a star off because I’ve got my panties in a bunch due to the bad reading experience, had the book been without errors it’d have been a perfect 4!
Thank you for allowing me to be an ARC reader for you. 🙂
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