Rating: 4 out of 5.

This is the final book in this fantastic Fantasy trilogy. Queen Everleigh Blair of Bellona has survived the mass murder of her royal family, trained and become a fierce gladiator, learned to harness her magic, usurped the traitor that took her family’s crown, become a queen and survived multiple assassination attempts. She’s tired. And she’s pissed.

Everleigh decides to take the fight to her enemies and vanquish them once and for all. She and her cohorts plot to do this during the Regalia Games, something similar to the Olympics when warriors, nobles, and royals every kingdoms comes together to compete in sporting and fighting events. The gang has concocted plans, and back-up plans, and back-up plans to their back-up plans – and they will need them all. When things don’t go as planned, the group will need to improvise, be daring and risk their lives to kill the King of Morta and bring peace to Bellona and the rest of the kingdom.

I enjoyed reading a more confidant Everleigh. She’s come into her own with her abilities, and even though she’s still not comfortable being a ruler, she does what she must to protect her people. But, she still holds out hope that another family member survived the massacre and continues the search for them. I also liked her relationship with her consort, but he seemed pretty wooden and robotic. Other than being protective of her, he didn’t have much of a personality or add much to the story. I mean, I get it. It’s Everleigh’s story, but still. The author could have done a bit better in fleshing out his character and giving him a few more lines. But, that’s a minor criticism because I really enjoyed the Court intrigue in this book and loved her giving as good as she got when it came to snarky and sarcastic remarks.

I really enjoyed this book and am sad that the series has come to an end, but am beyond excited about the next trilogy set in the same kingdom. The first book is Capture the Crown and I can’t wait to read it.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and HarperVoyager. All opinions are my own.