I won a copy from the author with no review conditions attached. It has not affected my opinions.
Genre: Fantasy Age Range: YA Star Rating: 4 stars Series: yes - final book of trilogy
*SPOILER ALERT: contains SPOILERS for HEART OF MIST and REIGN OF MIST*
Blurb:
War is here.
Toxic mist drives all life to the brink of destruction and the conqueror queen, Ines, has her talons in the kings of the realm.
Bleak, having discovered her true heritage, must now scour the lands for the one thing that might save them all. But the search is a treacherous one – and it will push her to the very limits of endurance.
Amidst secrets, lies and the intricacies of battle, Bleak and her companions learn just how far they’ll go for the ones they love. But will it be enough?
As deadly forces grapple for power across the continents, families, friends and allies unite to take one final stand.
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
The finale to the Oremere Chronicles sees the characters team up to face the might of the sorcerer queen Ines.
It was nice to have them altogether at last, the individual dynamics getting reshuffled once they had to contend with more than one-on-one, plus some of the relationships were revealed to all (rather than just readers.) It’s three books worth of development wrapping up, seeing how much they’ve all changed in that time emotionally. Not to mention plenty of betrayals revealed to shake their confidence before they have to rally together to save the day.
There’s a lot of action in this book, with one major battle sequence taking up a significant chunk of the book. I appreciated that there was actually a cost to this battle, that they didn’t get away with it easily. It makes it seem more believable and the ending more earnt. Plus it’s in keeping with the tone of the rest of the series.
The way the battle is approached shows off how some of the characters have changed. They’re involved in ways that they never would have been in the first book, both in terms of knowledge and confidence. They’re also visually a lot of fun, with a lot of care put into making them feel big and epic (as you expect a series finale to be) without being over the top unbelievable.
There is a short story collection directly linked to this world and then a series set in the same world, which I am interested to try. I think I know how the next series links to this one, and if I’m right, that could be very different, exploring a part that came up in this book and looks very unsolved.
Read my reviews of other books by Helen Scheuerer:
Young Adult:
The Oremere Chronicles (this series):
- DAWN OF MIST (#0)
- HEART OF MIST (#1)
- REIGN OF MIST (#2)
Curse of the Cyren Queen (set in this world):
- THE CYREN QUEEN ORIGIN NOVELLAS (#0)
- A LAIR OF BONES (#1)
- WITH DAGGER AND SONG (#2)
- THE FABRIC OF CHAOS (#3)
- TO WIELD A CROWN (#4)
Adult:
The Legends of Thezmarr:
- BLOOD AND STEEL (#1)
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 