King Vaxon is sadistic and cruel. After taking the crown of Castre for himself, hes finally squelched the rebellion of Magi who fought against him. The remaining ones will be thrown in an arena to fight to the death. Vaxon knows its unlikely they will fight each other at first. For this reason, hes sending his own son, Kyren, into the arena with them. As a powerful Dark Mage, Kyren’s job is to … job is to kill the Magi. If he doesn’t, then his own father will kill his wife and children.
Kyren will do whatever it takes to keep his family alive. Even if that means he must die after slaughtering his own comrades. Is it possible to rebel in a fight you’ve already lost and still keep your families alive?
Fans who love fast-paced action combined with fantasy and magic will love and enjoy this 40,000 word, action-packed, character-driven story.
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I absolutely love this author! Her imagination is mind blowing!
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Yes, it could get confusing in parts, and there is a lot going on through it. However, it is well worth the time spent reading it, and I believe that much like Joanna White’s other books, it reveals much about humanity and the flaws that we attempt to hide.
The main character is not a perfect person. He does things that we would condemn as we are looking in from the outside, but when placed in the same situation, we would likely make many of the same choices. This book is not about a noble hero who sacrifices everything in his life in order to make his part of the world a better place. This book is about a flawed human being that makes mistake after mistake, betrays old friends, and who, at the end of the book, finally realizes that perhaps the choices he was making weren’t for the benefit of anyone but himself.
Honestly, I would go back and read this book over and over again based on the simple facts that the characters are not perfect and they are much like each of us in their own ways. The author does a fine job of making us question what we would do in a similar situation and pointing out that perhaps our motives are not as they appear.
I received a free ARC of this book. This is an honest, unbiased review of this book.
I really wanted to like this book, really wanted to get hooked in the first chapter like I always do starting books, but I only managed to get through the first chapter before I realized it just wasn’t the book for me. I was honestly lost through it. There was just too much going on in the first chapter, too much at stake before I really learned to care about the characters, and not enough explained as to why the main character was treated like he was, or why his family had such a horrible vendetta against him. I think it would have been better if the first chapter, at least, was set in the past and showed his downfall to his present state. I would have been truly captured to see a prince fall to a slave, as that’s nearly unheard of in stories, but I feel this book was started in the wrong place.
This book was definitely not what I normally read but glad I did. The struggle to chose good over evil is a struggle that anyone can relate to. The choices Kyren makes trying to protect his family were because of his dark, and evil father, whom he doesn’t want to be like. This dark magical journey cost many lives, some at Kyren’s own hands ends on defeating some of the bad and leads to his own redemption. So break out of your normal box and give this book a chance because I sure did.