After already powering through both Lady of Darkness and Lady of Shadows by Melissa K. Roehrich this month, I simply could not resist continuing the “Lady of Darkness” series by reading its third installment Lady of Ashes. I actually haven’t been reading anything else lately, so that’s why it’s so quiet here. Was it worth it? This review contains spoilers for the previous books.
About the book
Series: Lady of Darkness #3
Published by Independently published on April 26, 2022
Genres: Fantasy, New adult, Romantasy
She will not be the same as when she left…
Fire and Shadows.
Scarlett Semiria knew the cost of her actions the day she sacrificed everything to keep her family, her Courts, and her twin flame safe. At least she thought she did. When she discovers the cost was more than she could have ever anticipated, she finds herself once again forced to choose between saving innocents or saving the ones she loves. But this choice might just leave her so broken, even the stars won’t be able to bring her back.
Light and Dark.
Crown Prince Callan is more than happy to leave the Fire Court behind, along with the woman who chose someone else. But when he arrives home, he finds there is no escaping the world of darkness he has been dragged into. To protect his people and his kingdom, he is forced to enter into a dangerous deception that quickly turns into a game of cleverness and strategy, and he finds that he has allies in the most unexpected places.
Beginnings and Endings.
Fae Queen Talwyn Semiria has been waiting for decades for her cousin to return home. She had expected to find a kindred spirit. What she got was a brash assassin who does things her own way and flouts all traditional decorum. But she refuses to let Scarlett stand between her and what is best for her Courts. She will play nice for now, but when it comes down to going after the true evil that resides across the sea and threatens their lands, she’ll take it all and sacrifice everything.
Everything hangs in the balance.
One wrong move, and the scales will tip.
Only ashes will remain.Lady of Ashes is book 3 of 5 in the Lady of Darkness series. It is a new adult, dark fantasy romance novel. It may have triggers of love-hate themes, sexual scenes, graphic violence/gore, references to sexual trauma, and jealous/possessive themes. It will end on a cliffhanger.
My review
Expectations
As Lady of Shadows ended on a huge cliffhanger, I expected Lady of Ashes to follow up on this. I also expected some more questions to be answered and backstories to be revealed. Besides, I also expected more growth in both characters and world. I’m happy to report that all my expectations came true.
Characters
Well, these characters keep growing and growing. In this particular novel, we know all of them, we will neither meet new ones really, nor get extra POVs. This book continues with the already existing POVs. However, the relationships between all characters get tested to the limit here and this also influences both storyline and atmosphere. The characters have a lot on their plate and a complex mission at hand, so there are a lot of tense moments here. There seems to be little room for witty and light banter, which is different from the previous books. Inspite of them having a lot to navigate, the characters keep growing both individually and together. Even if this might cost them allies and relationships.
Writing
I might sound like a broken record now, because I also stated this in my review for Lady of Shadows. However, the writing is again very indulging, I was sucked into it from start to finish. I barely read series back-to-back, so that says a lot right? I really like the multiple POV narration here, I believe this to be a necessity for this layered story. The world is already being enriched more and more in this book, but I can already tell you it’s getting even expanded in the next installment.
Plot
When starting this series, I was expecting another, honestly quite shallow and thirteen-in-a-dozen plot. Well, I’m certainly wrong, because this plot has a lot of layers and complexity. However, I don’t mind this at all as I’m easily able to understand wat’s going on. The world is enrriched with every book andI’m only curious for what’s to come next. I’ve been intrigued the entire time and again, the cliffhanger. Oh the cliffhanger. It’s horrible.
Final thoughts
Just like the earlier books in this series, Lady of Ashes is a great read. It’s so layered which I never would have expected and I just am way too curious for the finale. When this post goes life I’m well into book 5, so it was quite hard to write this review to be honest.
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