“A traitor to the Blades must die.
With his betrayal revealed, former Blade Leith Torren flees into the Sheered Rock Hills, pursued by King Respen's vengeful Blades.
Left behind at Nalgar Castle, Renna Faythe tries to find her purpose, yet that purpose isn't what she expected.
Brandi Faythe has been torn from her sister, and that isn't all right. If Leith can't rescue Renna, Brandi will take matters into her own hands.
War demands sacrifice. Courage falters. Who will find the strength to defy King Respen?
Acktar rests on one hope:
The Leader is ready.”
Series: Book #3 in the “Blades of Acktar” series. Reviews of Book #1 Here and Book #2 Here!
Spiritual Content- 1 Samuel 17:10, 45-47 at the beginning; Scriptures are mentioned, read, remembered, & quoted; Songs/Hymns are sung; Stories about Daniel are shared and paraphrased; Prayers & Blessings over food; Witnessing; Many talks about God, Jesus, His will, Daniel, David, trusting God, God being with us, being in God’s hands, Heaven, & praying; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; In this world, being a Christian and/or owning a Bible is illegal and Christians are persecuted for their faiths; Brandi struggles with her faith after previous events and feels like God is far away, but finds comfort in the story of David; Many mentions of God, Jesus, trusting Him, God being with us, being in God’s hands, waiting on God, & being changed by God; Many mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & those and events in the Bible; Mentions of Christians, faiths, salvation, & witnessing; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of hidden churches, church going, secret services, & ministers; Mentions of Heaven; Mentions of cross necklaces; A few mentions of miracles; A couple mentions of sins; A mention of devotions;
*Note: Renna notes that she’s always been taught that no child of God could ever permanently lose their faith and wonders what that means for Respen (if he never truly had a faith or is it possible he has temporarily wandered away but could regain it again); Before his wife’s death, Respen would take part in Christianity to make her happy, but when she died, he became bitter towards God; *Major Spoilers* Though Renna tries to talk to him about God and forgiveness, Respen still believes that Christianity is a weakness, the churches are filled with self-righteous hypocrites, and is arrogant to the point that he doesn’t need his Maker *End of Spoilers*; A couple mentions of a man having evil lurking in him; A mention of a possible shrine for a person.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘what in Acktar’, two ‘shoot’s, and two ‘stupid’s; A mention of a curse (said, not written); Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Brandi lies (see spoiler in Note section below for context); Seeing/hearing an execution & Grief (barely-above-not-detailed); Killing, fighting on battlefields, & guilt over killing (*Spoilers* When defending herself, Brandi kills a Blade and feels guilt; When talking to Leith about it, he tells her that killing always has consequences even when doing it to defend someone; Brandi relates to David in the Bible and decides to become a fighter *End of Spoilers*; up to semi-detailed); Lots of near death moments (including nearly being beheaded), fighting and killing on battle fields, fighting, being attacked, being cut (including on the throat) and stabbed, being held at knife and arrow-point, holding others at knife-point, being tortured (including being whipped and burned), major pain, injuries/wounds, blood/bleeding, & passing out (semi-detailed); Seeing others killed (up to semi-detailed); Remembering seeing & hearing murders/deaths (up to semi-detailed); Finding a mangled corpse (up to semi-detailed); Helping others badly injured and bleeding (including giving stitches and helping an injured horse, semi-detailed); Grief (up to semi-detailed); Being concerned for a horse dying (up to semi-detailed); Eavesdropping; Leith is a former assassin & has killed or helped killed others before; Many, many mentions of deaths/murders (including of parents), executions, assassinations and attempts, planning to kill someone, bodies, blood/bleeding, weapons, & grief (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of torture, beatings, & being punched/slapped and whipped (including as punishments); Mentions of wars & fighting; Mentions of faking deaths & bloodied bodies; Mentions of screams, people being shot and stabbed, & attacks; Mentions of injured horses and concerned for them dying or being killed (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of lies, lying, & deception; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of gossip, rumors, & eavesdropping; A few mentions of suicide missions; A few mentions of thieves; A few mentions of poisons & being poisoned; A few mentions of throwing up; A few mentions of alcohol (mostly for treating wounds); A few mentions of hunters & hunting animals (for food); A mention of an abusive drunk (Leith’s father); A mention of the smell of dead animals;
*Note: Brandi wishes to wear trousers when adventuring (rather than skirts that get in the way) & wishes to be able to fight (despite her being a girl and not allowed to join an army); *Spoilers* About halfway, Brandi gets the idea to disguise herself as a boy to join the fighting, lies about her identity, and kills on the battlefield for the sake of others *End of Spoilers*; A few mentions of Brandi finding boys disgusting (after seeing their outdoor bathrooms with no privacy, comparing chest hair, & making rude noises).
Sexual Content- A fingers-to-lips touch, a hair kiss, a not-detailed kiss, two border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kisses, and a semi-detailed kiss; Remembering a kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Tingles, & Nearness (including a couple unwanted touches, barely-above-not-detailed); Remembering touches & embraces (barely-above-not-detailed); Seeing a couple share kisses & embraces (barely-above-not-detailed); Renna shudders at the thought of letting a man “kiss her…and more” if they were to get married and how it won’t be a marriage in name only (because of who the man is; not Leith); Mentions of courtship, romance, attraction, & liking someone; A mention of a man’s suggestive tone; Some love, falling/being in love, & the emotions;
*Note: A couple mentions of women being frisked for weapons (and a guard blushing); A mention of Brandi not having “enough of a girl’s figure” yet to be noticeable; A mention of a dress not being low-cut or revealing.
-Leith Torren, age 18
-Renna Faythe, age 17-18
-Brandi Faythe, age 14
P.O.V. switches between them
422 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
It’s been a while since I’ve been concerned for the lives of fictional characters in a series and if they will make it to the end. The prior books in this series has been very intense and pretty violent—and this book was no different in that regard. I was pretty nauseous while reading when it came to roughly the last 35% of the book. Book 1 had a lot of near-death/near-assassination moments, Book 2 had a lot of executions and bloodshed, this third book had a lot of torture and battles. It was rough. Like, really rough. I think I need to go read a cute rom-com or something right now, not gonna lie, because it was intense.
Prior to the last third of the book, though, I did find it a little slow. There was a little too much play-by-play of everyone’s actions which made the book feel a little long, but it was over four hundred pages so that’s also probably part of that feeling. That said, once the action (and violence) comes into play, the plot massively pick-ups and I think my heart was in my throat for the last 150 pages or so.
Unlike the first two books in this series, we get the POV of Brandi, Renna’s little sister, in this book. This girl stressed me out and probably gave me two new grey hairs (thanks a lot, kid) with her actions in this book. I think some of her scenes were probably unrealistic, but I’m willing to stick my fingers in my ears and mostly ignore them because like I said above, I needed all my characters to make it to the end of this book alive and her risky/stupid actions helped in that regard. Mostly.
The faith content was just as strong as the previous books and continued to be what kept me reading. While I might disagree with a couple comments theology wise in this book, this series has been highlighting Christian persecution in a way I usually only see in a non-fiction book and shows the characters growing stronger in their faith and trust in God despite their brutal circumstances. I truly wanted to give Renna a hug for her growth especially.
I’ve been told that the last two books in this series are less violent than this book and Book 2, so I’m going to count on that and hope for maybe some cute moments between our main couple & also more forgiveness and witnessing to a new character in those. It’s definitely way more violent than I would ever usually recommend—again, I have to say, this series has been violent and is not for everyone—but the faith content has been really good overall.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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