Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.
She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind doesn't mean she has...
NOTE: This is the third book in a series. See review for book one here and book two here.
After reading Dark Triumph I wasn't really sure whether this book could come close to how much I was engrossed in that book. It turns out that this book was even more riveting than Dark Triumph! Out of the three books, this is probably my favorite!
In this book we follow Annith. She's been training her whole life to carry Mortain's will. She's an expert in almost every skill she's been taught. But, she has yet to be given a mission. She's stuck at the convent, watching her friends, even girls younger than her, go on missions. When she discovers that the Abbess wants Annith to become the next Seeress, Annith is furious. She has shown no sign of having Seer abilities and it is a waste of her skills. What's worse is that a Seeress never exits the convent and stays coped in a room, isolated. Annith does not want that life and suspects it is not the one Mortain wants for her, so she runs.
Part of the reason I wasn't sure about this book at first is that we are taken back to the convent. After all of the action in the last books, the convent seems calm and I really didn't know what interesting things would happen. Thankfully, I had no reason to worry because this was a very compelling read. Even the parts at the convent were interesting only because we really got to understand Annith and feel furious about her situation with her. What really struck me about this book is that out of all of the books in this series this one has the most supernatural elements. We do get some supernatural elements in the previous books, but Annith spends a lot of this book in the company of the Hellequins. The Hellequins are Mortain's army of the dead. They hunt at night for souls and after meeting their leader Balthazaar, Annith becomes a part of their group. It was really intriguing seeing more supernatural elements and how Annith interacted with them. We also get a much better understanding of the Mortain, the other gods, and their place on the physical world.
With each of these books it is really clear that each girl has their own strengths and their own distinct personalities. Annith certainly felt different and I feel like her story with the Hellequins reflected her personality and struggles. She has so much skill and she is confident that she is not meant to be a Seeress, yet she has this doubt that it is Mortain's wish and she is now defying her god. She desperately wants to be a devotee of Mortain, Mortain's daughter [highlight to view spoiler] although, I bet she's glad that she is not Mortain's daughter by the end of the book! [end of spoiler], but she also wants to have her own will. She is certainly a strong character and throughout the book she gains a better understanding of all of this. I'm trying to avoid spoilers, but so much of the amazing things about this book are spoilers! Sigh. Let's just say that some pretty big secrets and twists happen in this book.
As for romance, well... it was really interesting. I have nothing bad to say about it, but I don't know what all to say without giving spoilers! It was certainly interesting and surprising!
IN CONCLUSION
Overall, this was a really strong conclusion to the series! I really like how everything came together in the end and it really felt like it added so much more to the supernatural secrets of this world! I know that there is a spin-off series that just came out and I'll read it...eventually. For now, I'm just glad that I finally finished this series.
I hereby give this book
4 Stars!
Meaning: I really liked this book!
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