Red-Haired Ash Reads

Recovery specialist, Lexi Bowen, has taken a new job that has unfortunately brought her back to Valovia. When she realizes the job was actually a trap by the Empress to capture her, she finds herself being reduced by Nilo Shoren, the Valovian teleporter who stole one of her jobs and part of her heart. Now they have to work together to get off Valovia and get to their friends who are trying to recapture former Commander Morten back from the Empress’s Fiazefferu, Sura Fev. 

This was a wonderful blend of action, romance, and danger. Lexi and Nilo have great chemistry and their relationship has been hinted at since they were introduced in Hunt the Stars. Lexi and Nilo want each other very badly from the very beginning of this book, but they both have baggage that they need to work through first. I liked how we got to see them working together to fight and make their relationship work. I especially loved how caring Nilo was when it came to Lexi’s trauma with his abilities. He let her set the pace and just supported her throughout, and it was great. Also I loved that even though Lexi was struggling with her PTSD around valovian abilities, she still fought through it and let Nilo, and the other Valoffs help her. 

While I did enjoy this, the ending felt a bit rushed. A lot of the bigger questions were just answered in one or two lines, and a lot of the trial with Morten was handled off page. For being the last book in the series, I was expecting more details about why all these attacks were happening and why they were trying so hard to restart this war. I still enjoyed the book though, but I just wanted a bit more explanation at the end. 

TW: PTSD; death; war; violence; murder and attempted murder; torture; nightmares; panic attacks; alcohol consumption; death of parents mentioned; 

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Previous books and reviews for the series:

#0.5 Honor and Shadows
#1. Hunt the Stars
#2. Eclipse the Moon