Author: I'm going to give you an epic fantasy with a ton of gray areas and nuance. Me: Great! Author: I'm going to make you understand both sides of this war. Me: As is how reality tends to go. Sounds good. Author: I'm going to give you two heart-wrenching romances and extremely deep characterization that's going to make you fall completely in love with people on different sides of the war. Me [getting nervous]: Wait... Author: And they're going to be trying to kill each other. Me: WAIT NO

i actually feel ill. this book series made me break my tumblr exile and there’s not even any fanfic 😭

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVENT READ DAUGHTER OF NO WORLDS AND CHILDREN OF FALLEN GODS- SPOILERS!

Okay I have so much I want to write but I have about 150 pages left and I just have this horrible feeling that Caduan is this nameless king. I really hope he isn’t because the thought that he can kill all these humans is so not like him. Like yes to destroying worlds to get Aefe back but like if that’s how his character develops? Into this cruel crazy king that would kill millions of people? That would be so sad. Caduan was my favorite character, I was SOBBING when he died. I just really hope there is a happier ending to this :(. He remained so strong when all his people were killed-he still appreciated humans and (vaguely?) respected them? It would make sense that losing aefe might make him a villain after everything, I just really hope not!!!!! I could also be wrong :) so just ignore this rant :) These are the best books I’ve ever read BTW :)

Anyway Max and Tisaanah are peak grumpy x sunshine. A reclusive scholar who was made to accept an ancient sentient magic with no moral code into himself and then physically forced by his ex girlfriend to do warcrimes with it who hates pretty much everyone with GOOD REASON being coerced into teaching a former slave girl who killed her slaver magic because she refused to give up so she could return to save free her people but is still so full of life and love despite it all and teaches him that there is still beauty in the world there are still reasons to fight for it and for those who cannot fight I’m ioihhhhhdhddddddddhhhhhhh War of Lost Hearts is soooooo goooooooddddddd I love the narrator for the audiobooks toooooo. If you choose to burn the world I will burn beside youuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

reorganizing my bookshelves—tempted to dedicate one whole section to my all time favourite series!!!!

laurent

damen

aefe

caduan

all live rent free in my mind!!

I really love this bit. I also love that even with his memories wiped, regularly tortured to the brink of death and beyond, with marks on every inch of him to contain his magic, Max is his own unbreakable, unbowed self who just can't be leashed and all he's planning is to get the hell out of there, the impossibility of it not even entering his mind, broken as it is. (Side note - is the pattern he's drawing that even he himself does not know what it is, Tisaanah's skin? Because aaaaaaaa!)

Honestly, I love it.

I also love Tisaanah basically losing it. She was all about her cause but she's fucking had enough and I love it. Honestly, 90% of the characters in this series make me want to smash them and I genuinely get Caduan's "all the humans should be wiped off the face of the earth what they did to the fey" agenda. His "kill them all, let god sort them out" honestly makes a little too much sense.

Also, Caduan x Aefe break my heart so much because I am spoiled and I know Max and Tisaanah get their happy ending but Aefe and Caduan do not. (Side note - I kept wondering why we kept getting Aefe narration in book 2. I liked it but I saw no connection to the main storyline and then to learn Aefe is Reshaye, BEFORE they stripped her personhood from her and turned her into a mad weapon to be implanted into others oh my GOD.)

Like - she had so much honor and talent and they took it and wrecked it and destroyed ger and he went through impossible hell to rescue her and it's still not going to be enough to fix it. UGHHHHHH

ETA: honestly they break my heart.

Aiofe watched the way Danika changed when Baxian stopped by, it was subtle but she seemed lighter, softer.

She could have that couldn't she? But she'd walked away from that, from that choice.

It wasn't some deep seated hatred like before. Now she just - she was so tired. She didn't think she could put in the effort for something like that.

So maybe that's why she kept going out, kept training till she couldn't see straight.

It made everything simpler, easier. If she was too tired to think she wouldn't do something stupid. Like find Caduan in events or around Einar's Manor and kiss him. Or beg him to give her another chance or -

She shook her head, fingers trailing over the old ink. The swirling stories she'd had rewritten for herself. She wouldn't let her skin be blank, she would let her story be forgotten.

Sarek still lived, still produced his drugs. Rumor was he'd found a mate now too, she pitied the female he had under his thumb. No doubt she was addicted to his supply as he was to power.

She looked to Danika with a snort.

"Remember the rest of us now that the puppy is gone? What did he want anyway? Did he miss you that much?"

"Oh Aoife, what's wrong, jealous?" Danika countered with a smile as she moved to take a seat beside her. Even as she watched her friends, she understood they did not understand the connection she shared with Baxian. At least not yet...

Not until the moment when they finally fully connected with their match, when they finally mated to them - with or without permission.

She ran her finger of her lips, she remembered the feeling of him when they had been at it. They had been careful though, as much as sometimes her body craved him at her peak, she could not risk any unwanted pregnancies. Not while she was still under her watchful eye of her parents.

"He just wanted to check in, make sure I was okay and that you weren't all being boring." She teased.

Mother of Death and Dawn (The War of Lost Hearts #3) by Carissa Broadbent

Page no.: 720 Genres: new adult, high fantasy, romance Stars: ★★★★★ Publication date: February 6, 2022 Publisher: Independently Published

Review:

I want to start with saying, I do think it is a 5 stars book, no matter what, and Tisaanah and Max owns my heart. Their journey and healing is such a precious story, and one we don’t see as often these days, which is really a shame. But this being said, I wanted to set Aefe on fire through the whole book. 

I was struggling with my feelings about this book because of the Fey plot. It was something I had to grit my teeth to get through, and I think it is the weaker side of this journey. Most of the questions I have unanswered are connected to this plot, next to it being infuriating. I did like Aefe better as Reshaye than herself. As Reshaye, she was serving the mad vengeful goddess in venom style so well, but everything she learned went to trash when Caduan brought her back and brainwashed her.

On the other hand, I just love the whole arc of Tisaanah and Max’s relationship. The things they go through and the choices they make for one another are both heartbreaking and healing your soul. I lost it a few times through this book, but it hit the hardest when he realized the little girl he saw wasn’t Kira but his own daughter. That bit hurt. A LOT.

I think this series is different in many ways from what seems to be the trend these days and I’m so glad for it. It definitely has a special place in my heart and I know I will come back again and again for their love.

I refuse to watch Rings of Power for so many reasons, but the Aefe x Caduan energy with Not-Galadriel and Hot Sauron is so real.

Aefe: Will we kill Tisaanah and Maxantarius? Caduan [regretfully]:...perhaps, yes. Aefe: Will it mean killing the queen of Ara? Caduan: yeah that bitch gone

Caduan and Aefe are soooooooooooooooo Carissa Broadbent’s Solavellan AU like come on……. Not even just Thedas out here but she pulled the whole existence in Arlathan and revival in Thedas thousands of years later you absolutely cannot convince me otherwise. They’re SO Solavellan coded. Yes she wrote the vampire hunger games books PLEASE don’t overlook her Dragon Age AU series

"When it is right, it feels like ruination."

I'm so ready for a red-haired male love interest.

Jamie Fraser and Noah Agnew have to be getting tired from holding up this title all by themselves. Caduan if you don't mind being deeply morally conflicted.

I'm ready for 🔥☀️ Lucien ☀️🔥.

I freaking knew it. I called it.

I KNEW that Reshaye was Aefe and that some fragment of her was what had been placed in Tisaanah.

I KNEW MAX HAD SOME FRAGMENT OF CADUAN or that his magic was somehow a vessel where some part of Caduan was reaching for Aefe.

But here's my question after reading Children of Fallen Gods (and don't hesitate to tell me I missed something--I might have):

Max wielded Reshaye for years, and she was deeply attached to him in more ways than one. Once I developed my suspicion, my thought was that it was her clinging to Caduan or whatever magic of his that was familiar to her that she recognized in Max.

So here's my question or possibly the part I missed: why is Caduan only just now able to get to Aefe and to rip her from her Wielder? How was he able to essentially resurrect her, or re-create some version of her?

Also, I'm sorry, but I hope Caduan, Aefe, Tisaanah, and Max somehow all team up long enough to put Nura's head on a spike as the new decorative feature of the Orders entrance.

I have a really bad feeling that...

Reshaye may actually be some remnant of one of the Fey (Aefe's my suspicion) that got ripped out and bound somehow. That Tisaanah and Max are, in some twisted way, a parallel (or going to be a parallel) to Aefe and Caduan.

Either way, something Fifty Shades of Wrong is going on and I'm scared to find out what it is.

I also just...really sense a betrayal coming on.

I sense one coming on in the modern story, too.

Parallels.

Me: oh Max and Tisaanah both possessed by the same ancient being making them do warcrimes? What’s sexier than that?

Me, finishing Fallen Gods: oh, Caduan forcibly possessing Max and rediscovering Aefe’s lost soul forcibly possessing Tisaanah? And deciding to kill all of humanity in vengeance? Oh that’s sexier yeah