Hooboy, I’ve been waiting for this one. The End of Touraine and Luca’s stories. When it popped up in my feed, it was an easy decision to grab this review copy.
Thanks to the author as well as Orbit via NetGalley for the review copy.
Luca is the new queen of Balladaire. Her empire is already splintering in her hands. Her uncle wasn’t the only traitor in the court, and the Withering will decimate her people if she can’t unearth Balladaire’s magic. The only person who can help her wants the only thing Luca won’t give—the end of the monarchy.
Touraine is Luca’s general. She has everything she ever wanted. While Luca looks within Balladaire’s borders, Touraine looks outward—the alliance with Qazal is brittle and Balladaire’s neighbors are ready to pounce on its new weakness. When the army comes, led by none other than Touraine’s old lover, Touraine must face the truth about herself—and the empire she once called home.
A storm is coming. Touraine and Luca will stand against it together, or it will tear them apart once and for all.
This is the end of Luca and Touraine’s story. Luca is the Queen of Balladaire now, and Touraine her General and Consort. Balladaire, its lands, and its people are going through The Withering, which is killing people almost as much as it’s killing crops. On top of that, the Alliance between Balladaire and Qazal is withering in its own way, and it looks like a battle is on the horizon.
I really enjoyed this series. The parallels between what was happening here, and France’s colonization of Northern Africa was interesting, and it made the story seem more realistic because of it (magic possibly excluded… a bit).
Touraine has always been an easy character for me to root for. I just really like her style (you had me from the cover of book one, Touraine(‘s arms)).
Luca continues to be… Luca in this one, to the point where I actually said ‘ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW QUEEN F-MOTHERING LUCA?’ so, it does have that energy of making you put so much feelings towards a character that you have -a reaction- when they do things that are… things. Very…. fffff… things.
All told, I enjoyed this one – it was a satisfying conclusion to the story. I’d recommend this series to anyone who loves to get invested in a story, even if it will make you angry sometimes. 4.5/5 stars!~
superstardrifter 
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