e-Audio, 10:02:32
Narrated by: Cynthia Erivo
Release Date: June 25, 2024
Published by: Henry Holt & Co.
Read from: June 25-28, 2024
Legacy of Orïsha, #3
Source: Audible
Content Warning: Violence, War, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Torture, Excrement
For Readers Interested In: Racial/Ethnic Diversity (African), Fantasy, Magic, YANew allies rise.
The Blood Moon nears.
Zélie faces her final enemy.
The king who hunts her heart.
When Zelie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland.
Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands.
But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges Orïsha’s shores. It will take everything Zélie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good.
*MY THOUGHTS*
So many things I want to say about this one. And I have been terrified about saying it since I read it. As someone who read the first one before it was even out back in the day, someone who has multiple copies of the first one, and even passed it on to her aunt, I am so sad to say this one didn’t align with that first one at all.
Ok so the plot was banging! I cannot refute that. The skulls were back, the king was back, and just like the synopsis says, she finally came across her final boss lol There were so many twists and turns that kept me saying “WHAT?!” I couldn’t wait to get through this, so instead of reading my ARC, I just went ahead and waited for my audio. I wanted to be able to binge read this all at the same time. Because it was just that good.
One thing I didn’t care for tho was the fantasy part. In the first one the world was so immersive and there was so much description of everything and it was just so colorful. This one was just really like by the book. If that makes sense. It was like “Intro all the POVs, say what their struggle is, save all of them, and then it was over. It felt very formulaic to me. Nothing like the magical world we saw in the beginning. And while we already got that in the first one, it’s also been a long while since the last one and I just feel like it could have been a bit more for that. It was very tell vs showy, including the magic and that was disappointing. But as I’ve said time and time again, Idk if that was because I’m not a fantasy girlie and I was needing more that the average person didn’t or what. I’d be interested on reading a review from someone who reads fantasy on the regular.
But then I got to the end. I was definitely disappointed in this part. It was so RUSHED. This whole series was leading up to this and it was just like 3 chapters of super build up (and they were short chapters) and then another and then it was over. I am really appalled that the one scene on the mountain (IYKYK) lasted only that long. I thought it was my Listening time, but I had slowed it down to 1.5 because it wasn’t Bahni anymore. There was just no explanation or anything. I was sad. I just felt like there was ample time to write, just, more. But again, Idk if this was a me thing or what so I won’t hold it against the book.
Idk. I hate to write this, but ugh that’s what it felt like. I loved so much of being with these characters again, and I loved the twists and turns that it provided, but I just wish I could have been transported back to the world like with the previous 2. The first one was good, the second was ok, and this one was just eh. I hope that y’all read it and let me know your experience too. And I hope it was better than mine.
Overall, I give this
