Georgia Kostopoulou

“Nevernight“, gentlefriends, was a true love at first read. “Godsgrave” is a hell lot more! Have I told you how much I like Jay Kristoff’s writing style? Have I ever told you how much I love epic fantasy? Have you by now understood that after Brandon Sanderson I have another high fantasy favorite author? Tolkien is beyond competition, if you’ve been wandering. I’m in love and head over heels with The Nevernight Chronicles and if you still haven’t picked up this trilogy yet, please do so as soon as you can. Like, yesterday! It goes without saying that I’ve already started “Darkdawn” and I love that one even more, if that’s even possible!

CONQUER

YOUR FEAR

CONQUER

THE WORLD

Ruthless Assassin Mia Corvere is now serving as Blade of Our Lady of Blessed Murder, even though she has not exactly earned her place at the Mountain of the Red Church and this is something that many in the Red Church will not easily accept, first and foremost the Red Church Ministry. She is however at service and still on her parallel purpose and life goal of murdering Consul Scaeva and Cardinal Duomo to revenge her familia. So when word comes out that they will both make a public appearance at the finale of a grand gladiator game at Godsgrave, Mia knows she has to be there that day. As a gladiator. The winner of the games.

To make it to the arena, Mia thinks of the most impossible plan ever. She needs to sell herself to a gladiator’s legion that will be in the Godsgrave arena that day. Her plan doesn’t work exactly as she expected but she does become part of a gladiatorial collegium that is aiming to get to the magnificent event. She trains among them as a gladiator, she makes new friends and finds a camaraderie she never expected to value. Despite all odds, she has the help of an old friend-enemy she didn’t expect to lay eyes upon. Together they do their best to get Mia to the sands of the Godsgrave arena, while Mia starts to pick the strands and pieces that make up the puzzle of what the Red Church’s motivation may be.

In this second installment of the series, we find a Mia that still doesn’t know much about her nature and is still trying to find out more. So when she meets another Darkin and she feels that hunger inside her she doesn’t lose time, but tries to see if he has something to teach her, something to share with her. Alas, gentlefriends, that Darkin wants nothing to do with the Dark. He is a true believer of the all mighty Aa. More confused than before Mia doesn’t know what to make out of him, but she tries to make the best out of this whole situation she’s put herself in. Even when a shadow darker than dark, a creature that looks like death itself, saves her life and tells her that her revenge is blinding her, she still has no idea what that might mean. What it means to be the Black Mother’s chosen one. Nobody ever explained it to her.

Secrets come to surface as the body count rises and the blood spills from every corner. What was Mia trained to to as an acolyte of the Red Church, what she has been doing for all that faithful serving time, what she trained as a gladiator and what she is determined to do will not stop until she finishes what she started. Only then will she be free to say that she has succeed.

Be aware, readers, this is not a young adult series, in case you haven’t noticed in the first installment. This one has so much blood, an adult could not easily take. Though the fighting scenes are marvelous and Mia Corvere is by far the most bad-ass female main character you have encountered till now.

If all that has made you want to read the series, go and grab yourself the whole trilogy at once, as you won’t be able to stop at the first one only. It took a lot will and effort not to devour all three of them at once! The fact that when I read Nevernight, the other two books were 600 kilometers away played a significant role I’d say…