{Fifth of 5 of Medoran Chronicles; fantasy, YA, adventure}(2019)

The last instalment in the Medoran Chronicles sees Alexandra Jennings and her five closest friends - now paired off - journeying to the city of Vardaesia in Tia Auras (which always reminds me of the Maori greeting 'kia ora') to request the help of those immortals against the immortal Meyarin army Claimed by Aven Dalmorta which he is using to eradicate all mortal life on Medora. The first part of the book details the sequence of trials they have to undergo to prove that they are worthy of the Tia Aurans' aid and the last part is the final battle of the world against Aven and his army.

“Many eons have passed since we banished the Meyarins from our world,” Tayros said, his voice deep and silky smooth, like heated syrup. “We have no desire to reignite a war long since won.”
Alex had to bite her cheek to keep from jumping in, determined to wait until they were finished before she would argue her point again.
“However,” Calivere said, as if he and Tayros were tag-teaming their discussion. “The threat of the one named Aven does trouble us, if only due to the question of where he will next turn his gaze once he has conquered your world and slaughtered your mortal races.”
“This guy sure has a way with words,” Jordan muttered from beside Alex.
Calivere’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t engage other than to raise his head and watch Jordan emotionlessly from his throne.
When no one else said anything, Alex took that as permission to speak. Her heart pounding with hope, she asked, “Does that—Does that mean you’ll help us?”
It was Empress Saefii who answered.
“We will.”
Alex’s face broke into a wide smile as her spirits soared. She couldn’t believe it—after everything she’d been through to get to this point, it seemed surreal to receive such a positive response. She turned to share beaming looks with her friends, but all their expressions froze when it became clear that Saefii hadn’t finished speaking.
“We will,” the empress repeated, “but only if you prove yourselves worthy.”

This book brought the series to a fitting end, tying up all the threads quite well - though the time-loop paradoxes are mentioned but still left as mysteries.

I had a few small quibbles about this book; I felt that the writing could be a bit more polished (Noni’s English tends more towards American than British but I did catch one or two Australian phrases like 'Good on you, mate', which I appreciated) and Alex's boyfriend is a bit too perfect but I thought the final resolution worked. It seemed biased to me that all the non-fighters (who therefore were left to the healing and patching up) during the final battle were women, even though the main protagonist and the author are female.

As a whole the series was fun; my favourite instalment was Draekora, Alex's sojourn in the past before Aven turned. It could be me (I do seem to be remembering fewer details) but I could do with more physical descriptions of characters, especially Alex's friends, rather than their emotions because they don't seem to stick in my memory very well; there was one mention of DC's red hair which surprised me because I had forgotten that she has red hair (it's been a long while since that was last mentioned). Alex's parents are a bit convenient, disappearing for months on end so they don't get in the way of her adventures. I'm not sure my parents would be quite so blithe if I told them I was going off to sacrifice myself to save the world (and I'm not a teenager). Mind you, I doubt they'd believe it, either :0)

I see that Lynette Noni has written a couple of other series which I will look out for.

September 2021
3 - 3.5 stars ( )