This book was my least favorite of the series so far. Kellen seems to be less capable/competent the further in we get and, unfortunately... somehow... his one trick is more diesel than ANY other mages' arsenal.... maybe excluding his sister. That fact is both predictable and boring.

I'm usually intruiged by a good yarn steeped in gritty political machinations. In this book, however, it vacillated between snooze... shocking depravity back to snooze again. Could be awesome, right? It wasn't. If I wasn't so invested in this series I'd have given up midway through book #3- Charmcaster... it is THAT predictable/yawn inducing. This is definitely not suitable for all ages anymore... I'd say it's now a firm PG13 + BUT I won't judge it too harshly on that considering I'm most likely not its intended demographic.

Onto that ending. You wait out an entire book of MEH and get to the final scenes where the culmination will validate all of the time you devoted to this (audio)book/series and guess what?? It was a ginormous letdown!! The deaths were clinical... not an emotional reaction to be found... the ending was anticlimactic. There was one aspect that was interesting and not easily sussed out ahead of time and it had to do with the queen. Our MC, once again, did not up his game... he did not pass GO... he did not collect 200 dollars... he, under no circumstances, learned a new trick. Waa waa waaaaaaa. Maybe next book old chap.

What was redeeming?? You probably guessed it... the best/most consistent part of this entire series was the audiobook's narrator who AGAIN, saved this (audio)book from the clutches of doom. My husband and I are both in agreement, this series is going downhill quickly. Thankfully there is only one more book to go and then we'll be merrily on our way to a new series. ( )

I am not sure why this series isn't more popular because I am loving it. I am listening on audio which is fabulously read. As usual Kellan has wandered into trouble and finds himself caught in empire politics and manipulated by all around him. The story takes some very dark turns in the second half - really dark turns. Getting into impossible situations and then out of them is the mark of this series but here it is from one impossible situation straight to another. But I loved it - straight on to the final book to see how it all concludes. ( )

By this point, I CANNOT put this series down. It has the light adventure feel with all the darker currents of modern fantasy while being a YA with a lovable trickster with a nasty penchant for destroying everything he grows to love.

*Sigh*

But you know what? It' impossible not to love it. It's like a YA version of Brust's Vlad series with the hardcore coolness of applied magic a-la Sanderson's Law. (Magic must make sense, have rules, be awesome.) :)

Most of all, however, what drives this is the charm. :) Being an outlaw is cool and all, but politics is politics and the machinations of nations can be a very, very dirty business. It's a shame that he has to follow his heart. ; ;

This one was somewhat rough. Not like we couldn't figure that out by the title, of course. But my heart breaks. For several reasons. ; ;

( )