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[katara]

Title: The Bone Shard War

Series: The Drowning Empire #3

Author: Andrea Stewart

Genre: Fantasy, High Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Adult, Magic Realism, Young Adult, Science Fiction, High Fantasy, Sapphic, Adult, Young Adult, Queer, Book Tok, Netgalley

Date Started: February 3rd, 2023

Date Finished: February 4th, 2023

Status: Finished

Rating: 3.5/5

Sypnosis: The Bone Shard Daughter was hailed as "one of the best debut fantasy novels of the year" (BuzzFeed News). Now, Andrea Stewart brings us the final book in this unmissable, action-packed, magic-laced epic fantasy trilogy, The Bone Shard War.

Lin Sukai has won her first victory as Emperor, but the future of the Phoenix Empire hangs in the balance – and Lin is dangerously short of allies.

As her own governors plot treason, the Shardless Few renew hostilities. Worse still, Lin discovers her old nemesis Nisong has joined forces with the rogue Alanga, Ragan. Both seek her death.

Yet hopes lies in history. Legend tells of seven mythic swords, forged in centuries past. If Lin can find them before her enemies, she may yet be able to turn the tide.

If she fails, the Sukai dynasty – and the entire empire – will fall.

Review: When I found this book, the whole premise drew me in that I had to pick it up. Unfortunately, I had not realized it was part of a trilogy. So, I went back and picked up the first two books to read before I cracked open this one.

I am glad I did because I would have probably never understood it if I had not. LOL, I would be extremely lost knowing what was going on and would have been turned off from the book. But I am glad I did get a chance.

This book, however, was one of the weakest books of the trilogy. I actually struggled with this book that I nearly either DNFed it or I was just going to pick it up here and there to try to finish reading it. I pushed myself to do the latter. I wanted to see how this book ends.

The plot felt like something was either missing or parts of it felt out of place. I could not point out a specific part but the whole thing was meh. I could not even bother to connect with the characters as I had in the first two books. They had personalities and had grown as a character. These characters in the third novel felt like they had taken two steps backward. I can only think that with the feeling that the plot had nothing to really contribute to the story. We step two years into the future on a boat. Yeah. Nothing new has happened in between. There is a war coming on the horizon and a sword quest.

Even Mephi seemed to blend into the background. He was nothing notable unlike he had been in the first two books and I missed him. He was growing on me dammit.

Overall, this series is pretty good and well worth the read. The final book is a bit weak but it works well into finishing up the series. So, definitely give it a chance and you may just enjoy it yourself.


Thank you, Netgalley, the author, and their publishing company for a chance to read this book and give an honest opinion.