Title: Blood of the Prophet
(The Fourth Element #2)
Author: Kat Ross
Publication date: September 12th 2016
Category/Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Visionary. Alchemist. Savior. Saint.
The Prophet Zarathustra has been called many things. Now he spends his time drawing pictures of weird-looking goats. That’s what happens when you’ve been stuck in a prison cell for two hundred years. But the man who might be mad, and is definitely supposed to be dead, has suddenly become very valuable again…
It’s only been a few weeks since Nazafareen escaped the King’s dungeons with her daēva, Darius. She hoped never to set foot in the empire again, but the search for the Prophet has led them to the ancient city of Karnopolis. They have to find him before Alexander of Macydon burns Persepolae, and Darius’s mother with it. But they’re not the only ones looking.
The necromancer Balthazar has his own plans for the Prophet, and so does the sinister spymaster of the Numerators. As Nazafareen is drawn in to a dangerous game of cat and mouse, her newfound powers take a decidedly dark turn. Only the Prophet understands the secret of her gift, but the price of that knowledge may turn out to be more than Nazafareen is willing to pay…
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Title: The Midnight Sea
(The Fourth Element #1)
Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She lives in Westchester with her kid and a few sleepy cats. Kat is also the author of the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day (Skyscape, 2014), about a world where the sea levels have risen sixty meters. She loves magic, monsters and doomsday scenarios. Preferably with mutants.
4 “Don’t break my bond”
Stars
ARC provided by the author
Thank you!
Last May I read this super cool fantasy book
about daevas, Drujs, Magis, Necromancers, Water Dogs, and
I loved it. Once again, Kat Ross takes us back to this great world with awesome
characters and unique elements, and she does a great job keeping as interested
and wanting more.
For my review of the first book, go here.
In this sequel, we get to follow Nazafareen,
Darius, Tijah and Myrri as they embark in a new adventure: rescuing Prophet
Zarathustra from wherever he’s been kept for the last couple hundred
years. The Prophet is Nazafareen and Darius’ only hope of stopping the
destruction of all daevas bonded to the empire, like Alexander promised he’d do
if the cuffs weren’t broken. Since Prophet Zarathustra was the one who
created this cuffs in the first place, they hope to get him to break them.
Of course getting their hands on the Prophet
won’t be easy, and they certainly can’t freely look for him when the Empire has
put a price on their heads. So Nazafareen and her friends have to count
on the help of an interesting new character – the owner of a brothel – to get
things done.
While they try to get a plan together,
Balthazar (the Undead Queen’s most loyal follower) travels to the same place to
get his hands on the Prophet before anyone else does.
There’s also a third guy playing this game—Araxa,
an ambitious Numerator who takes a lot of pleasure from torturing people in
order to get the truth out of them.
In this book we get chapters from Naza,
Balthazar and Araxa’s POV, meaning we get to see how the pieces are being moved
by all the three main players at that point. While it doesn’t leave much room for
surprises, it serves a good purpose because we get to see inside the villains’
minds and understand their motivation a little better.
I expected Alexander and the Undead Queen to
have bigger roles, but Balthazar and Araxa are complex and rich characters, and
they keep the story moving when we are pulled away from Nazafareen and
her group’s adventures.
Things here don’t move as fast as it did in
the first book, but we get to see a little more of Nazafareen and Darius’
relationship (yay! I’m always here for that) and the friendship between the
three girls, Nazafareen, Tijah and Myrri. Let’s just say I’m glad that
happened because unfortunately we won’t get much more of that in the future.
I missed Victor, but I’m guessing he’ll be a
much bigger character in book 3 since the story ended with Nazafareen,
Darius and his mother going after his father. I’m curious to learn more about
the Undead Queen’s world and the Queen herself.
One of my favorite things about this sequel
was Darius. I really loved how he showed glimpses of this fun guy with a great
sense of humor. He made me laugh when he dressed up as a woman and made jokes
about it. He made me swoon when he refused to break the bond. And that scene
when he asks Nazafareen to take off her cuffs just for a while? *fans
self*
Nazafareen continues to be a badass,
super likable MC. I love how she doesn’t back down from a fight and how her
temper is serving a new purpose now that she found a way to manipulate the most
dangerous element to daevas. I can’t wait to see what else she does with her
powers.
Overall, this was a solid sequel that made me
anxious for the next book. BTW, is there any chance we’ll get chapters from
Tijah’s POV? And Darius’? A girl can hope.
*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.
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2 comments:
Great review! This sounds like a well written series and well developed overall, too! Glad you liked it! :)
oh, thanks so much for this lovely review, I'm thrilled you enjoyed the second one! and yes, your wish re: a Tijah POV is hereby granted, I was just writing some of her chapters today, I LOVE making her a bigger character in Book #3 with her own storyline.
And yes, we are finally back to Victor. I missed him too! :)
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