by Emily Gee
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!
Publish Date: 24th June 2015
Title: The Blood Curse
Author: Emily Gee
Published by: Solaris
Book: 3 of The Cursed Kingdoms
Genre: Fantasy
Found: Netgalley
Rating: 4.5 Voodoos
The amazing conclusion to the Cursed Kingdom’s Trilogy.
Those who drink the water shall thirst for blood. They shall be as wild beasts.
A blood curse is ravaging the Seven Kingdoms. Fugitive Osgaardan prince, Harkeld, is the one person who can destroy it. Guarded by Sentinel mages, pursued by Fithian assassins, he begins the final—and most dangerous—stage of his quest: entering the cursed kingdom of Sault, where drinking even one drop of water means madness and death.
But the mages aren’t the only travellers heading east. Princess Brigitta, abducted by Fithian assassins, is also bound for Sault—unless she can escape. And in close pursuit is her loyal armsman, Karel.
Young orphan, Jaumé, is also headed for Sault—where he will be forced to make decisions that will change the fate of the Seven Kingdoms forever.-Netgalley
I was so excited when I saw this in the lists on Netgalley, I’d just about given up waiting for the rest of this series, then there it was! The perfect end to a brilliant series. Well, almost perfect. The last words were “The End” and I’m sorry, but that wasn’t the end. The world was still in turmoil and they hadn’t even done more than sort of talk about what they were going to do next. Where are all the epilogues?!?! In this case I’m seriously holding out for a second series set in this world a few years later. I like happy endings and I like seeing them tidying up after they’ve saved the world. You learn a lot about the characters that way. It’s because of this lack of a wrap up, I gave it 4.5 instead of 5.
What was in the story however was just as good as the rest of this series. In fact I really enjoyed it and I think this was my favourite of the series. No more lies, everyone starts to settle and accept and, of course, the conclusion!
Harkeld finally knows all the lies that have been told to him and he’s been told a few hard truths that have put the whole adventure in perspective for him and he’s re-assessing his assumptions of life. He grows quite a lot in the last part of this story and it’s nice to see. He doesn’t realise it but he’s certainly on the right road to becoming the sort of man he wanted to be.
I think that the biggest growth though, belongs to Britta (with Petrus being a close second). She is far from the young princess of book one and despite all she’s been through I really think she’s pleased with her transformation, certainly she’s not the only one!
Once they caught up with the curse things got a little frantic and scary, I was impressed. I’m also pleased to report that the majority of the book was NOT about Jaumé. Though the story lines invariably crossed and they spent the end over lapping I felt Brittas line was the sort of main one, as Harkeld was mainly travelling (though perhaps it was about the same and the walking just bored me?)
I’ll certainly keep an eye out for all other books written by Emily Gee and I intend to read The Laurentine Spy which is the last of hers I haven’t read yet.
