I can’t remember how I found this trilogy, but I borrowed this first book from my library as an audiobook. The narrator had an awesome voice and read the story really well. It’s amazing how a narrator can make a book so much more enjoyable.
Anyway, I LOVED this series.
We start out visiting a group of prisoners who are being banished / exiled to the forest of the dead. We’re not really sure what that means, but we know it’s bad. Ronin is the character we first focus on. We get a teeny bit of his story, and then he somehow gets a knife from this strange girl who talks to ghosts (from his viewpoint).
Flash forward one year later – we meet the two main characters Moria and Ashyn. They’re the seeker and the keeper of Edgewood (their town). These twin sisters are in charge of keeping the bad spirits at bay, and sending the spirits of the recently deceased (in this case the exiled prisoners in the forest of the dead) to the second realm.
You get a real sense of the relationship between the twins and their different personalities in this first book. Something terrible happens to their village, and they’re forced to leave. They head out with one of the surviving guards – Gavril, and the aforementioned banished prisoner (who somehow survived his yearlong exile) Ronin. The twins are separated and journey with the boys through lots and lots of bad stuff. Their goal is to make it to the Imperial palace and let the emperor know all the bad stuff that’s happening (including the destruction of their village). I can honestly say that I gasped at the twist at the end of the book.
Also, spoilers abound after this!!
This is the second book in the trilogy. I’ve read reviews that call it a filler book, but I didn’t think of it that way at all. I actually bought this audiobook as CD’s and listened to the entire story in my car. It was the same narrator, so I loved it.
The twins are on the road again, but with slightly different escorts. Here comes the major spoiler, the one that made me gasp – Gavril’s betrayal. At the end of the first book we find out that his father is the mastermind behind all the super bad stuff that’s happening (shadowstalkers – basically smoke-based zombies / berserkers, terrifying creatures of legend brought to life, kidnapping of children…). The king’s bastard son Tyrus is Moria’s new buddy and sparring partner. Ronin is back with Ashyn, but she’s a little jaded from their previous journey. They’re delivering a message that is bound to start a war.
Tyrus is put into difficult positions that he’s not quite prepared for, and so are the twins. Rumors abound about Moria and Tyrus after a betrayal during a battle. Moria is kidnapped by Gavril’s evil father, and the twins are separated again.
Wow, this was a great third and final book. Moria and Ashyn have grown so much throughout the trilogy. They’ve gained so much confidence and figured out the limits and nuances of their powers. They’re only sixteen, but the fate of the entire empire rests on their shoulders. There were a bunch of times during these stories that I forgot how young the girls were. Then they’d say something or do something, and I’d be like “OMG they’re just teens” and realize how hard their jobs are.
Moria “rescues” herself from Gavril’s dad just as Tyrus is on his way to rescue her. Then the emperor shows up and lets Moria know that he wants her to get re-kidnapped by Gavril. Throughout this story, we learn about how our main male characters interact / interacted with their families. Moria and Ashyn were immensely loved by their mother, who gave her life for the girls, and their father adored them both and taught them about life. The boys have it a little bit harder. Gavril wasn’t allowed to form attachments with anyone because his father saw attachments as weakness. Tyrus just kept his head down and trained as a warrior because he never wanted to be in politics. His father expects a lot out of him though. Ronin has been on his own for years as his father died in exile in the forest of the dead. Basically all the teens in this story had it rough!
Oh! There’s also this whole reawakening dragons subplot! Ashyn is reunited with her long-lost grandfather, who actually turns out to be a bad guy imposter who needs her blood to awaken the dragon. I don’t want to give everything away, but they’re all basically marching to entire empire war!
I love the way that this story comes together at the end. I was (of course) crying throughout, but especially at the end. I thought the author gave the characters justice and their growth throughout the story made sense with the way everything ended. I would definitely and have already recommended this trilogy.
