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The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.
At his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.
Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory–or to an unimaginable doom.
And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life–and love–he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save–or destroy–all that he knows. 

Good news, I managed to not skip 60 pages of this book like I did with A Reaper at the Gates. I’m glad to say that I’m fairly sure the issues I had with book 3 of this series were largely due to my problems and not problems with the book itself. I definitely managed to focus on this one more and enjoyed it a lot more because of it! After my strange experience reading A Reaper at the Gates I made sure with this one to really pay attention to the different points of view and focus on all of the information, which definitely helped.

I also definitely enjoyed this one more due to the way the characters began to intertwine once more. I struggled a little with them all having completely different narratives, being in different parts of the world and the side characters being different to. It felt jarring to change between their points of view for some of the story, but that definitely improved with this one.

You are broken. But it is broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest.

I also liked the more character focused elements of this one, and I found it had a slightly slower pace with more scenes with just one or two characters. I definitely enjoy books that look in depth into characters and feel I have more of a connection to them, so that felt right to me. It also meant that when the characters were going through tough points in their lives, I could sympathise with them a lot more. I know a lot of people aren’t happy with how this book ended, and although I can see why, I didn’t mind the ending and felt like it closed off the story well.

The plot was good, but also felt a bit anticlimatic. I just didn’t feel as connected to the story as I wanted to be in it’s most crucial and climatic moments. I definitely enjoyed Elias’ viewpoint more than any other in this book, which was a bit of a shock to me. I have enjoyed reading about all of the characters throughout the series, but I really felt for him as a character fighting against himself and just found his subplot to be the most interesting to me.

It is broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.

Overall I have enjoyed this series but it hasn’t blown me away as much as I expected it to. I would still recommend it and I feel like I might find more of a connection to it in the future if I decide to reread it. It has definitely been a unique fantasy story, but I did find An Ember in the Ashes to be my favourite in the end!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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