Review: The Immortal Heights

THE IMMORTAL HEIGHTS
The Elemental Trilogy #3
Sherry Thomas
Young Adult/Fantasy
432 pages
Balzer + Bray
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
In a pursuit that has spanned continents, Iolanthe, Titus, and their friends have always managed to remain one step ahead of the forces of Atlantis. But now the Bane, the monstrous tyrant who bestrides the entire mage world, has issued his ultimatum: Titus must hand over Iolanthe, or watch as his entire realm is destroyed in a deadly rampage. Running out of time and options, Iolanthe and Titus must act decisively to deliver a final blow to the Bane, ending his reign of terror for good.

However, getting to the Bane means accomplishing the impossible—finding a way to infiltrate his crypt in the deepest recesses of the most ferociously guarded fortress in Atlantis. And everything is only made more difficult when new prophecies come to light, foretelling a doomed effort....

Iolanthe and Titus will put their love and their lives on the line. But will it be enough?

With The Immortal Heights, Sherry Thomas brings the acclaimed Elemental Trilogy to its breathtaking conclusion.

MY THOUGHTS
The Immortal Heights tosses us right back into the middle of the fight between the villainous Bane and those who oppose him, giving us barely enough time to catch our breath from one minute to the next as Titus and Iolanthe lead the fight to bring him down. Ms. Thomas does her readers an enormous favor in the beginning chapters, working in reminders whenever a lesser-known character or past event is mentioned on page, ensuring we have our feet firmly in place as she moves everything forward. Even so, however, there are still times when the sprawling nature of this world and the fact that its scope includes three worlds (ours, that of the Domain and Atlantis, and the book world of The Crucible) can be a touch overwhelming–especially when combined with the various prophecies, magical abilities and connections between characters–but the strong bond between Titus and Iolanthe and the fight against the Bane keep us riveted.

One of the highlights in this final installment, as has been the case with both previous books, is the relationship between Titus and Iolanthe. Even as the moment of Titus's prophesied death inches ever closer, the two of them keep a fighting spirit, determined to go down swinging if they can't find a way to thwart what Titus's mother saw happen years ago. Titus does attempt the tried and true–and frustrating–“I'm leaving you behind for your own good” maneuver, but Iolanthe thankfully doesn't stand for it, not only fighting to catch up with him and his group after their significant head start but also giving him a piece of her mind once she finds him. They're partners through and through despite a few well-meaning and desperate attempts to save one another along the way, their romance free of relationship angst and full to bursting with love and support.

Accompanying Titus and Iolanthe on their journey to find and kill the Bane are Kashkari and Amara, two young people who bring the emotional intensity to a new level in this final installment. Kashkari's unrequited love for Amara (who's engaged to his brother) is brutal in the second half of this book, the two of them causing us no shortage of stress and worry as life and death prophecies plague their every step. The only small complaint with this series as a whole is with regard to the Bane himself, the reason he's feared shown largely through the words and actions of others rather than directly from his person, and when he does finally face Titus and Iolanthe in all his monstrous glory we can't help but wish we'd seen more of him throughout.

Overall, the Elemental trilogy proves itself to be enormously entertaining; love, loss, friendship and sacrifice all combining with impressive world building and magical gifts to create a story that won't soon be forgotten.

Rating: 4/5
 

Find Sherry:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the author  free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: The Perilous Sea

THE PERILOUS SEA
The Elemental Trilogy #2
Sherry Thomas
Young Adult/Fantasy
414 pages
Balzer + Bray
Available Now
Source: BEA

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
After spending the summer away from each other, Titus and Iolanthe (still disguised as Archer Fairfax) are eager to return to Eton College to resume their training to fight the Bane. Although no longer bound to Titus by a blood oath, Iolanthe is more committed than ever to fulfilling her destiny—especially with the agents of Atlantis quickly closing in.

Soon after arriving at school, though, Titus makes a shocking discovery, one that makes him question everything he previously believed about their mission. Faced with this devastating realization, Iolanthe is forced to come to terms with her new role, while Titus must choose between following his mother's prophecies—and forging a divergent path to an unknowable future.

MY THOUGHTS
The Perilous Sea is a story that both embraces and eschews familiar middle book elements, taking us on an epic journey with Iolanthe and Titus but at the same time leaving us standing on the precipice of something much larger, looking back and wondering what exactly happened to get us to this point. As with The Burning Sky, we start this second installment on slightly rocky footing given there is very little recap of the significant names and events of book one, and we also find our story divided into two separate timelines: One at present with Titus and Iolanthe reuniting at Eton, and one seven weeks into the future where an amnesiac version of both our protagonists await us. As a result, the opening chapters and a fair bit beyond are rather chaotic as we struggle to remember The Burning Sky as well as orient ourselves within the split narrative.

The present-day chapters are the ones that feel most familiar, the setting of the all-boys school beckoning us into the story with all the comforts of a reality we recognize just as it did in the first book, allowing us to pair back up with Titus and Iolanthe as they figure out their next steps toward defeating the Bane. The Sahara Desert chapters however, while providing fun moments full of banter and humor given Titus and Iolanthe don't remember one another, seem to serve very little purpose in terms of the overall story arc. Their time in the desert is entirely spent running from the agents of Atlantis, allowing the magical aspects of this fantasy story their time in the spotlight but ultimately leading us to question whether or not this detour of flight and sand is actually moving the plot forward.

Aside from feeling like a middle book in terms of building us up only to leave us on the last page at the moment we've been waiting for the entire time, The Perilous Sea also sees the dissolution of Titus and Iolanthe as a couple when Titus begins to delve deeper into his mother's prophetic visions. Though we initially can't help but let a sigh of frustration escape at the well-used plot device, Ms. Thomas wins us back over with the strength of her characters, as neither Titus nor Iolanthe are individuals prone to dramatics. They both bear their separate but shared pain stoically, not taking it out on the other person as is so often the case, and thankfully not turning to someone else to comfort them in their time of need. Though things are up in the air in terms of the romance for much of the book, there's no introduction of a new love interest, and our two protagonists remain pillars of support for each other to lean on as well as sounding boards off which to bounce ideas and theories.

Overall, The Perilous Sea meanders a bit, sending us out into the desert for half the book when nearly all the important revelations about the Bane's plans take place in the present-day chapters, leaving us to wish for a slightly different format for this second installment. That being said however, the characterization is as strong as ever and the pieces of the Bane puzzle that finally lock into place in the concluding chapters have us ready to usher 2015 in immediately just so we'll be that much closer to the release of book three.

Rating: 3.5/5

Find Sherry:

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: The Burning Sky

THE BURNING SKY
The Elemental Trilogy #1
Sherry Thomas
Young Adult/Fantasy
464 pages
Balzer + Bray
Available now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
It all began with a ruined elixir and an accidental bolt of lightning…

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death.

Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he's also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal.

But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Bane closing in, he must choose between his mission and her life.

MY THOUGHTS
The Burning Sky is a stunning fantasy, delighting us with the magic and the great mythological beasts that so define the genre while at the same time grounding us in the reality of a boys’ boarding school in 1880’s London, thus ensuring those of us who sometimes find ourselves overwhelmed by sweeping fantasy stories have no trouble finding our way in this tale. There’s not a great deal of backstory as to how the unrest in the Domain (over which Prince Titus rules, if in name only) and the rise of the Bane came to be, but it simply doesn’t matter in this first installment, so caught up are we in the richness of the world and its gorgeously layered characters.

Iolanthe is a gem of a heroine, her humanity and her status as an Elemental Mage combining to give us a young woman who both feels like a friend–full of strengths and insecurities–and someone with a destiny we can’t even fathom as power we’ll never experience thrums through every fiber of her being. She’s not the type of girl to gracefully accept the revelation that she’s to play a mighty role in the fight to break Bane’s grasp on the Realm, instead she understandably panics and doubts Titus’s faith in her, but she only does so for a brief period of time before throwing herself body and soul into a fight she never knew was hers. She has an untold amount of power, but she never seeks to flaunt it or lord it over others, instead she’s receptive to Titus’s teaching and gives everything she has to learning to wield it with enough skill to keep her and her prince alive.

Titus is as strong a character as Iolanthe, a man who beautifully plays the arrogant, exceedingly entitled ruler of the Domain in public yet is someone very different in private, his duality never failing to make our eyes widen in wonder when we see how expertly he masks his fear. And he is right to fear, for he faces not only a terrifying foe in the Inquisitor, but also his own impending death as is prophesied by his mother as well as the reality that he may lose Iolanthe if he can’t teach her what she needs to know quickly enough. Only we and Iolanthe ever know of the beads of sweat that trickle down his back and the rapid beat of his heart though, making our relationship with him feel intimately poignant.

While one might say there is romance in The Burning Sky, the word romance simply doesn’t do the relationship between Iolanthe and Titus justice. It’s more than affection or sexual tension, it’s genuine friendship, trust, and the shared knowledge that the two of them together stand between the complete fall of the Realm. There’s a certain gravity to their every interaction, even the lighthearted ones, that draws us in, witnesses to the beginning of something truly beautiful. One of the highlights of their relationship is the honesty between them, due in part to their desire to work together but also to an inescapable blood oath, but for all that they must speak the truth to one another, there are secrets in their silences; quiet moments where they tuck their feelings tight to their chests, not yet ready to be as vulnerable as their admission would make them.

Overall, The Burning Sky should not be missed, entertaining us every step of the way until we reach an end that is thankfully free of dreaded cliffhangers, but yet leaves us salivating for the next book just the same.

Rating: 4.5/5
 

Find Sherry:

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.