It’s time to risk everything. Adrienne has lost more than she ever imagined. Friends lie dead. The man she loves has been captured. The alliance she worked so hard to forge is close to breaking. She might have a plan to rebalance the world’s chaotic magic, but enacting it requires the help of other enchanters. Unfortunately, they’ve all been recruited or killed by Geralt. That leaves her with … leaves her with only one option: infiltrate his cult.
Masking her innate magical ability, Adrienne embarks on a dangerous mission to lure cult members to her side. That won’t be easy since Geralt has bought his followers’ loyalty and filled them with suspicion of the outside world. Adrienne has little to offer against his promises of protection and belonging. But manipulation goes two ways, and Adrienne is no stranger to using the cult’s tactics for her own ends.
When Adrienne begins to bond with those she only intended to exploit, her compassion for the cult members clashes with her loyalty to the Underground. Caught between two worlds, with countless lives on the line, Adrienne must figure out what she truly stands for before she loses what little she has left.
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I was lucky enough to get an ARC and the finale was everything I hoped it would be! I kept guessing at what would happen or how the conclusion would go, and man, I guessed wrong the whole time – something I think I’ve said of previous installments but it keeps ringing true. I’m sorry to see the series come to an end (and would LOVE to get a novella or three about some of these quirky and hilarious side-kicks), but the story ended on a perfect note and I so enjoyed the adventure.
4.5 for me
This was so INTENSE. I honestly didn’t know what i was getting myself into when I read the first book, and now that the war has come-and-is-almost-done, I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did. Adrienne chose to fight for the last time by infiltrating the cult she’d been running from all her young life and seeing her having to interact with them again was heady. Not because of what she had to pretend to do, but because Spahn really gave us an insight on what the ‘other side’ looked like. It proved that not everyone was innately bad or good, and seeing the people in the cult reminded her of just what it was she was fighting, and what really mattered.
I loved Adrienne’s struggle to maintain her essence- the very thing she felt needed to be sacrificed for the greater good when she decided to lead the Underground in war- and it blows my mind with how Spahn did it all. I got reminded so many times that not everything is black and white, that things are more complicated. Knowing that Geralt isn’t as villainous, or that our heroine and her friends aren’t that perfect, it all made the series feel well-rounded. This installment is probably my favorite because of everything that happened, and i thought it tied up any possible loose ends while making you feel like it’s not over yet and more needs to be done. I’m not ready to say goodbye!
It’s always hard to come to the end of a series. You don’t want to say goodbye to the characters you’ve come to know and love. But when it’s done as well as this? Well, that makes it so much easier.
Adrienne is desperate, as are all the people in the Underground Resistance. Desperate times call for desperate measures. So, Adrienne takes one. This is as authentically done as it is unexpected. I’ll let you read what she does and how she accomplishes it because I don’t do spoilers. Just know it’s a brilliant idea…all the way up until it isn’t.
In a time when magic is going a little bonkers, Adrienne and her group realize something needs to be done to stabilize it, but it appears Geralt has already devised a plan. Only problem is, his plan calls for Adrienne’s death. Needless to say, Adrienne and group would rather find a different way. And they think they have. Only before this is done, they have to do something to neutralize Geralt and his cult, or turn them to their side.
This is a harrowing story fraught with danger, magic gone awry threatening to kill all of San Francisco, anger, desperation and such overwhelming fear. Amy Spahn takes us through this tale with smooth expertise that at times leaves us holding our breath and at other times holding back tears. It’s a touching tale of loss and gain that is expressed so very well.
It is also an end to a series that I have thoroughly enjoyed and am going to miss. But I will say that the ending was one of the cleanest I’ve ever seen. It touched on every point that was left to question, it gave us closure on the outcome of their desperate measures and it allowed us to feel that we really had been told the whole story, no stone left unturned. I believe that is very hard to do, but she did it beautifully. I can’t give her enough praise for how complete this was.
I am just sorry to see a series I was enjoying end, not to mention not being able to continue reading Amy Spahn’s work. But, however long it takes for her to come out with her next series, whether it be next week or next year, I will be here waiting for it, because I believe I’ve found a new writer I want to be reading for years to come.
Very Well Done, A.C. Spahn! Very Well Done indeed! I couldn’t have asked for more.
I received this as an ARC from the author, and I give this review of my own volition and in my own words, as always!