City of Keys (Nightmarked, #3) ♦ Kat Ross | Review

After City of Storms and City of Wolves, Kat Ross pulled me again in to her amazing Nightmarked series. It was fun meeting up again with Kasai, Alexei, Malach and Nikola.

City of Keys started kind of slow, which let the suspense of the whole plot grew piece by piece.

Lust is a siren . . .

Greed is a dragon . . .

But revenge is the most seductive mistress of all.

Held captive in Dur-Athaara, Malach would give anything to return to the land he once despised.

But the witch-queen has declared him too dangerous to run loose, a prophecy that proves right when he escapes to wreak havoc on a continent already poised at the brink of civil war.

Across the sea in the icy fortress of Sinjali’s Lance, Alexei's brother grows more dangerous by the day. Desperate to find a cure for Mikhail's Nightmark, they return to Nantwich, where Kasia is hunting the Order of the Black Sun.

Forbidden to use her power, she walks a razor’s edge. The Red King stalks her dreams. Is she strong enough to resist his seductive whispers?

As armies gather, and the Black Sun rises over the Morho Sarpanitum, sworn enemies must join forces to stop an unspeakable evil from devouring the world.

City of Keys ♦ Kat Ross

Opinion

I really would like to say a lot of great things about City of Keys, but I do not want to spoil anyone by giving away too much of the plot.

While all the characters follow their missions and while I was drawn into each of their paths Ross never gave me a chance to really be sure of who is the true antagonist or protagonist in this story. This kind of suspense and curiosity kept me glued to the pages. But nevertheless I kept guessing. There were a couple of moments in the plot, when I thought I am sure just to be tangled up in another twist. Magnificent.

Kat Ross‘ has a very artistic and scenic writing style, and her detailed described world rounds up the plot. Sometimes I felt a bit overwhelmed by all these words due to the fact that English is not my mother tongue. But her battle scenes are extremely spectacular, and they felt quite realistic. Her world building in the third installment isn’t as strong anymore as in the previous books. But that’s fine, because by now I kind of know my way around. But Ross‘ character development is strong and unique.

The flawed heroes, or villains, keep rising to their challenges were very fascinating. Kat Ross also gave a bit more clarity on the different magical systems like the Marks, the Cartomancy, the Alchemy, and the Lithomancy, but she never over explained and therefore ruined the plot. The political drama within the plot offered some twists and turns.

Conclusion

In the end I have to say, even though Ross provided more explanation on the magic of her world, I still feel a bit left in the dark. This did not diminish the joy I had reading City of Keys. Quite the opposite. Now I am very curious what the author will have in store for me in the next and final installment City of Dawn.

I received an advance review copy for free at BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Nightmarked – The Quadrology

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