For those of us who have been waiting for the finale of the Rook and Rose trilogy, I have good news for your future. If you’re looking for the bad, or that which is neither, you won’t find it here. Marie Brennan & Alyc Helms (collectively known as M. A. Carrick) absolutely nailed the landing.
Past here: BEWARE OF SPOILERS for the first 2 books.
The story begins (not a spoiler because it’s literally in the first few pages) when who should show up in Nadezra but none other than Letilia Traementis, loudly and publicly delighted to be reunited with her darling daughter Renata. Letilia is determined to reclaim her place in Nadezran high society, and who better to grease the wheels than Renata Veraudux Treamentis? With, naturally, the threat of consequences if Ren doesn’t help her to the best of her abilities.
While trying to manage Letilia, Ren also is agonizing over when and how to admit everything to Donaia and Giuna. She’s sick of having to sneak around with Grey, and wants to embrace him publicly - which would be an enormous scandal for a Liganti noblewoman to be involved with a Vraszenian. Grey is struggling with the destruction of the Rook triggered by his unwillingness to sacrifice Ren to destroy the medallions. The Vraszenians in general, and the Stadnem Anduske in particular, are getting restive in advance of the approaching Great Dream.
Oh yeah, and those medallions drawing on primordial spirits of chaos are still all over the city with no one knowing how to destroy them.
Everything is, once again, a terrible tangle. It’s got everything you know and love about the Rook and Rose trilogy, though this entry tends more towards the political maneuvering and away from the swashbuckling compared to earlier volumes. There’s excitement, and romance, and truly delightful flirtations, and an obscene twelve year old.
I don’t want to give much away, but I will share this. My favorite scenes in this series have generally been the moments when characters decide to be honest with each other and share what they’ve been hiding. That continues here, as expected, but probably my favorite moment of all is when the lies and deceptions have gotten so tangled that one character reveals a major secret to another simply because they lost track of who knew it and who did not. I love it.
As for the actual ending: extremely satisfying all around.
Highly, highly recommended.