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55 points, 3 stars

Quote:

“Were the poets of your people among those who used to be slaves?”
“Most.” She ducked her head. “And a slave will tell the stories his master wants to hear.”

Review:
The Witch King is the final book in a fantasy romance trilogy. It has its place, and its demographic. However, for me personally I just ended up disappointed. I felt that the series promised more than the finale delivered on.

I have read all three books now, and Holland was still a newer author when book one came out. The best thing I can say is that Holland has definitely grown as an author in the time between books one and three. Technically better with every new book. I look forward to looking into her in the future to see where she grows into.

Unfortunately, I found that the biggest draw of the book, the romance, was completely lacking in substance. In fact, while Holland has improved her writing, she seems to have taken several steps backwards when it comes to the romances. Kyr and Ciel were expected to be together at the end of the book by Holland, and so they were. Absolutely no care was taken into bringing about this outcome. They essentially went on a long walk, and they were in love before they even took off. Even though they had barely just met each other and didn't know anything about each other. I just didn't care for the romance at all.

Holland also still has a problem with too many ideas in each book. The author has so many ideas that she wants to include that she can't choose so she adds them all. Which ends up with each idea crowding out the last idea she had and everything running on top of each other. Which left me feeling like everything was half finished. It felt like the book should have been twice as long to flesh out all the ideas she had. It just didn't lead to a very compelling narrative.

Which was the same problem I had with the world and the ending. Too many ideas. Too many things set up that just didn't go anywhere. And not enough work put into everything.

However this was still readable. I think Holland will become even better in the years to come. I wouldn't be surprised if this series ended up with a spinoff, though. Holland clearly has a lot of ideas that she wants to write about when it comes to this world.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Nancy Holland, Tule Publishing, and Netgalley for providing the opportunity to review this copy. ( )