To say I am happy to receive the last book in The Taker Trilogy is an understatement. Alma Katsu sent me a copy of her latest book, The Descent at no charge for my honest review.
About The Descent:
Alma Katsu’s acclaimed trilogy—a supernatural epic that began with The Taker and sparked a chase around the world in The Reckoning—comes to a stunning conclusion, and brings Lanore McIlvrae to a final encounter with Adair, her powerful nemesis. Dismayed by Adair’s otherworldly powers and afraid of his passionate temper, Lanore has run from him across time, even imprisoning him behind a wall for two centuries to save Jonathan, her eternal love. But instead of punishing her for her betrayal, Adair declared his love for Lanore once more and set her free. Now, Lanore has tracked Adair to his mystical island home to ask for one last favor. The Queen of the Underworld is keeping Jonathan as her consort, and Lanore wants Adair to send her to the hereafter so that she may beg for his release. Will she honor her promise to return to Adair? Or is her true intention to be reunited with Jonathan at any cost?
About the Author:
Alma Katsu is the award-winning author of six novels, most recently Red Widow, The Deep, and The Hunger. She is a graduate of the master’s writing program at the Johns Hopkins University and received her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University. Prior to the publication of her first novel, Katsu had a long career as a senior intelligence analyst for several U.S. agencies. She lives in West Virginia with her husband.
All Amazon links are affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission (at no additional charge to you)
My Opinion:
This is the final volume in the trilogy that started with the very exciting The Taker. These books are far out of my usual reading box and I am so very glad I decided to take a leap into a genre I tend to avoid because if I hadn’t I would have missed some good reading.
The Descent picks up where The Reckoning left off – I don’t want to give any spoilers – so I’ll just write that Lanore is once again adrift but now she is having nightmares showing her first love, Jonathan as being shackled and held by the Queen of the Underworld and even though she does not want him back in her life she feels she needs to do what she can to help him.
The only way she can do that though, is with the help of Adair – the man who made her immortal, the man who loves her, the man who she fears most in the world. Can she face him with a request to help the man he despises because Lanny loves him and not Adair?
Lanny finds Adair on an island with two somewhat bizarre women and two goats. He is surprised to see her and torn by her request. He wants to help her to show that he’s a changed man but doesn’t want to lose her. He agrees if, and only if she promises to return. She does but things don’t work out quite as either one of them planned.
As with the first two books the writing is powerful. It pulls you into the story from the very first; from the descriptions of Adair’s island to the demons in the underworld the words flow to produce vivid images as you read.
The characters are all familiar by this third installment and it’s a book that showcases their maturity and growth. The overall result is a theme that showcases the power of love from its most destructive to its most protective. A fitting conclusion to excellent series.
Rating:
4.5
The Rest of The Taker Trilogy
The Taker
The Reckoning
Also by Alma Katsu:
The Hunger
