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A Vow so Bold and Deadly is the third and final book in the Cursebreakers series by Brigid Kemmerer.
Face your fears, fight the battle.
Emberfall is crumbling fast, torn between those who believe Rhen is the rightful prince and those who are eager to begin a new era under Grey, the true heir. Grey has agreed to wait two months before attacking Emberfall, and in that time, Rhen has turned away from everyone—even Harper, as she desperately tries to help him find a path to peace.
Fight the battle, save the kingdom.
Meanwhile, Lia Mara struggles to rule Syhl Shallow with a gentler hand than her mother. But after enjoying decades of peace once magic was driven out of their lands, some of her subjects are angry Lia Mara has an enchanted prince and a magical scraver by her side. As Grey's deadline draws nearer, Lia Mara questions if she can be the queen her country needs.
Warning: Does contain spoilers. This book is honestly pretty difficult for me to review. I like the series overall. But this book was just the build up of all the bad decisions it seemed Kemmerer made >.<
First off, I love this world. I love the idea of how its magic works, the history behind the kingdoms, the characters... Okay, the characters when they were actually *in* character.
This book honestly just made me really angry. It had so many sparks of things I may have liked. I flipping adored the concept of tackling Rhen and Harper's relationship as Rhen had to re-figure out who he was now that he was a true prince with time flowing normally and them tackling the aftermath of their lies.
I adored seeing Grey transition from being a soldier to more princely, and to see Lia Mara figuring out how to be queen over a people so different from who she knew they could be.
Imagine this: these two concepts explored *without* Lilith ever having returned, and both kingdoms brought together to battle another threat that put both kingdoms if not the entire world, maybe even Isaak's home, at risk.
Characters get to develop more naturally, their mistakes aren't the fault of some greater force so perhaps could be lessened to a degree so they aren't so flipping stupid and out of character, and when they come together, it isn't out of some need and they can actually be learning and trusting one another.
There was *so* much potential with how this would go, but all of it was ruined by the fact that Rhen had to be the villain in book 2 and the return of Lilith. And those continued to show over and over and over again by tainting book 3.
There were moments I loved so much, like Grey trying to guide Lia Mara to being kind but firm, and Harper reminding Rhen that he wasn't at war with his own kingdom.
But it was just dragged so hard by all the bad. Like, why the flip flap paddy whack did Grey even want to rule Emberfall in the first place? Why why *why* did it end with Rhen losing all of his rule and just being some advisor? I get the angle of he only knew to be a prince, but it was flipping stupid and forced in. And my gosh, the way of beating Lilith... Sudden return of the monster! Also sudden discovery of Isaak's son after Isaak dies!
And oh my gosh, don't even get me started on how many loose threads there are on the end. The sloppy conclusion to this series doesn't *deserve* an open ending that can be picked back up.
This read like the first draft conclusion of the series. It made little sense. It was forced in so many places. Very few things felt truly *right.*
And it all started with how Rhen acted in book 2. And here it just... it spread everywhere.
Even Rhen's fear of magic made sense, but Grey! It was flipping Grey!
Speaking of, Rhen and Grey were great to watch interact, and although part of me adored the introduction of the notion of "were they ever truly friends" interesting, again... Everything about it just became forced and weird and...
I'm sad. I'm really flipping sad because I wanted to like this series. I was in love with the first one. I liked the second. But things I hoped would get fixed only became worse, and the conclusion to this story I held out for was just so, so bad.
My friend says it read like a single book story that got pushed into being a trilogy. I believe it. But I also believe it could have worked... If more time had been put into the plot, if more of the world had been used, if the characters had just been allowed to be them rather than warped for the plot... I'm just extremely sad and disappointed v.v It never quite reached the highs of book 1, and although book 2 got close... Book 3 was just in the pits.
I'm sure there's more I want to say, but it would likely just be more screaming at ways this could have been better v.v
