This book exceeded any and all expectations I had before, during and after reading it!! I am absolutely floored by how quickly and completely it drew me in and ensnared me. If you're looking for a wild emotional rollercoaster ride with courtly intrigue and a gut punching plot? read on...

 

There were a slew of things going on simultaneously and almost nothing was as it seemed on the surface. It wasn't until the epilogue that I got the full breadth and scope of the book. There was a regicide trial. There was a war brewing. There was a budding/highly unlikely romance slowly percolating. There were magical people being persecuted and there were rampant duplicitous actions abound.

 

Our MC, Hesina, ascends the throne early on but who can she trust? Can she trust anyone? Can she even trust her fallible memories? She is young, malleable, impetuous, head strong, stubborn and a bit naive SO is she ready to rule? Is she ready to rule a country on the brink of war? With nefarious people and deeds amiss, can she navigate court and ferret out her father's murderer? I was swiftly swept up in the beauty of the writing, the plot, the world building and most of all the complex loveable/loatheable characters. There were twists and turns... even the turns had turns. I got to a point where I found myself saying (to myself) "I've read enough books in my life to see where this is going" I sat with a sneer on my face and then BAM!!! our MC was sitting in the dirt and the game totally changed. Not only didn't I see major plot twists ahead of time, I apparently had no idea what game was being played altogether. As you can imagine this left me wanting.. nay, needing more. I couldn't stop reading. I made excuses to hide away and read just a bit more. I waited in my daughter's car rider line, at school, an hour early just so I could continue reading. I read while the rest of the family watched t.v. together. I skipped meals and read through the dead of the night. I was addicted... in the best possible sense. I was a puppet on Joan He's strings and reacted just as she commanded. I loved then loathed then loved then felt conflicted right on cue... AND that ending... it slayed me!! I might have cried. Okay, I did cry but I dare you not to shed some (completely understandable) tears. I was swept up in all of the emotions. I am still reeling days after finishing the book. I let it sit and ruminate in my mind to see if the endorphin high would wear off but I am still just as touched and obsessed as when I read the very last word. I desperately wish I could start over again, naive to what lay ahead...experience this book anew. BUT alas...it will have to live on in my memories and of course in my favorites list.

 

Over all: I LOVED this book!! It deftly elicited all the Feels. It ran me through the gamut of emotions and surprised me at almost every turn. I did guess one twist but that seems paltry compared to how many there were that I failed to foresee. This is going straight to my favorites list and I will wait until the end of time for book #2!! If you're still reading this... what are you waiting for?? Go and pick this one up toot sweet!

~ Enjoy

*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***

The Fourth Descendant by Allison Maruska
This book starts out with a man contacting the others whose family also possessed a special key.
They are told to find it and they'd meet as a documentary film is to be created as they open the special vessel.
What I like about this is the action, adventure, travel to various places and just the thought of this book.
It's so believable that this could happen and I enjoyed reading it and following along as other events occur that bring them together, some closer than others.
Wish this concept was as easy to administer in today's world to help others.
Summary of other works by the author are highlighted at the end.
Received this review copy from the author and this is my honest review.

The Last Descendant - Megan Haskell Rie is a changeling - a human adopted by elven parents, though she enjoys little of the culture she's a part of. That's because humans are lower than low in the Upper Realm. So when her courier duty is interrupted by an assassination, it seems her only option is to travel to the Shadow Realm to find out who is behind the attempt on her life if she has any hope of saving it.

The action in this is great. Rie is strong and powerful, but thinks little of herself (though not so little as to be annoying, most of the time). She makes friends with a vampire (blood sidhe) and the half-blood dark prince along the way, and they help her navigate the shadow realm.

I do, however, have one complaint. The vampire is a compelling character until the dark prince takes over, and suddenly the vampire's role is a little less secure, and ultimately a bit baffling. And though promising to help her fit in, you never see him teach her how to accomplish that (and really, besides her wardrobe, there's little that changes about how she behaves in order to fit in).

But overall, a thoroughly enjoyable tale, and one I hope to follow through the series as time and means allow me.

Nikki and Liberi face some of the biggest threats to their existence – a furious and vengeful Olympians and a genocidal campaign of actual gods. Which is a big step up from the descendants

And Anderson, their own god on side, is absent, leaving everyone with unanswered questions and a sense of betrayal.

 

 

 

In this book Nikki really steps up as a leader of the Liberi – and it’s really excellently done. She doesn’t demand, she doesn’t start dishing out orders. But she steps up. Anderson is missing and also heavily discredited; everyone is confused, betrayed and sad and kind of lost. Someone needs to step up, someone needs to take over. Someone needs to stop the Olympians from crushing them now their protector who has gone missing. Someone needs to have difficult meetings with Cyrus, head to the Olympians. Someone needs decide what to do about Niobe and her potential world ending campaign. Someone needs to try and find a solution that is both morally acceptable and will save humanity and get some sense of justice. And that someone was repeatedly Nikki. It was excellent to see her becoming leader because she truly earned it. She’s a leader because she showed leadership, she’s a leader because she led when everyone else was hiding and backing down and panicking – she rallied them, made them put aside their differences and kept many disputing factions together to address the actual problem.

 

I can’t stress enough how pretty awesome she was in this – this book was not about her special powers or her relationships or the world setting – this was about Nikki taking an absolute dog’s dinner not of her making, being surrounded by terrible options and finding a path through them for everyone to follow. She was good and unlike so many leaders in the genre, I am 100% behind Nikki

 

The whole plot excellently showcases this with great pacing and well conveyed confusion and uncertainty without the plot being either

 

I do like her relationships as well. Her relationship with Anderson is excellent – she is both in awe, and angry, she is respectful but disappointed, she both demands him being more human while recognising how alien he is. There’s a lot of layers to that

Her relationship with Jamaal is excellent. Jamaal has grown a lot since his early rage cursed existence. He’s not only moved away from that trope but he’s revealed to be a very emotionally complex character dealing with both the powerful effects of the death magic inside him as well as his own traumatic past an abused man and an ex-slave. And the way he works through that with Nikki is excellent – moving at his pace, exploring his triggers carefully, being kind and respectful and gentle. There’s no judgement, no impatience, no rushing and perfect respect of the limits he raises when he needs them and a willingness

 

 

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Review originally posted at RabidReads.com.

 

 

Finally, we have a book four in the Nikki Glass series. I’ve been waiting three years for this book to come out. I can say that I’m glad that this story is finally out in the world. After the long wait, I went through earlier this year and did a revisit of this series (and reviewed since I read these way before I was blogging). I’m really glad that I had the refresher. This book start where Rogue Descendant ends and it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I was glad to see the story take shape quickly.

 

Nikki is an immortal and a PI. As a descendant of Artemis, she is great at finding things, not to mention has flawless aim with whatever her weapon is. She is coming to terms with her new life. Anderson, the leader of the “good” Liberi is MIA after killing the leader of the opposing and less friendly Liberi group, known as the Olympians. Problem is that Konstantin had a failsafe to protect him. He knew Anderson’s secret, which is a big one. When Konstantin is killed, his failsafe goes into action and Anderson’s very large secret is unleashed upon the world. Nikki is hoping that Anderson is working on solving any ramifications of the secret that is out in the world. However, she doesn’t know for sure.

 

Also, a woman shows up at the mansion and has even more of Anderson’s secrets. Anderson is someone who isn’t as “good” as he had lead them to believe. All of the Liberi walk a line between good and evil. Anderson’s Liberi lean more towards the good side. After hearing about Anderson’s past, they start to question things even more. This woman is the sister of Anderson’s ex-wife. Needless to say, she is not happy to find out that Anderson is still alive and she is willing to destroy the entire human race to hurt him.

Maybe Niobe’s problem wasn’t so much that she was angry but that she was batshit crazy. I’ve never met anyone with taste in women as epically bad as Anderson’s. If he had a thing for crazy women, couldn’t he have at least stuck to ones who weren’t homicidal.

Another great part of this story was the relationship between Nikki and Jamaal. This is a relationship that has be slowly building since the first book. Well, it finally makes some forward process. Jamaal has issues from his past that have really kept the relationship from making any progress. His past as a slave and the one mistress that owned him and enjoyed his scars and forced sex from him really did a number on him. Add to that the stress of his death magic as a descendant of Kali, makes him quick to get angry.

 

Although him finding Sita, his tiger which is a manifestation of his death magic has helped him with his stress, she is a jealous tiger and doesn’t like Nikki. Sita and Nikki have a heart to heart, as much as you can with a magic tiger who can’t talk, but thinks on a higher level than a normal tiger. They learn to deal with each other so that they can both make Jamaal happy.

“I’m surrounded by the dead in the middle of the night hoping to pull a previously unknown power out of my ass. What could possibly go wrong?”

“You, however, couldn’t look harmless if you had flowers in your hair and were carrying an armload of kittens. And that face you’re making proves my point.”

This series continues to have wonderful characters and a great premise. I also love the action that goes on this book. There aren’t a ton of fight scenes that you see in some urban fantasy series, but it does have some great suspense that kept me glued to my Kindle.

 

Jenna Black wrote this where it could be the end of Nikki Glass or where she could continue the series. I for one and hoping that the series has a few more books. I would love to see where Nikki goes from here. If she decides that she isn’t going to continue the series, she did leave it at a place where I could be happy with the series. You can voice your opinion as to whether the Nikki Glass series should continue on Jenna’s website (I’m not sure how long she is taking feedback, but it was open when I posted this review).

 

The Nikki Glass Series
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