Raven Unveiled by Grace Draven
Series : The Fallen Empire #3
A woman with the gift to speak to the dead—and the assassin
pursuing her—may be the only chance a crumbling empire has of
holding back true evil, in this electrifying fantasy romance from
the USA Today bestselling author of Radiance.
Siora has been on the run for longer than she cares to remember,
from her past and her gift. Born with the ability to see and speak
to ghosts, she has heard their desperate pleas as an otherworldly
predator stalks the dead amid the fertile killing fields of the
collapsing Krael Empire. The creature’s power and reach are growing
with every soul it consumes, but Siora is preoccupied with her own
troubles: namely an assassin who has sworn an oath of vengeance
against her.
Gharek of Cabast was once the right-hand man of the reviled empress
but is now a wanted fugitive. Although his reasons for hunting Siora
are viscerally personal, what Gharek can’t anticipate is that when
he finally does find her, she will hold the key to saving his world,
or what’s left of it. To make good on old debts and protect the
vulnerable dead from a malevolent force, Gharek and Siora will both
need to make an ally out of an enemy—and trust that will be enough
to save each other.
Raven Unveiled by Grace Draven was one of my favorites from this
month!❣️ I'd been waiting for this one for two years! It's pretty much
impossible for me to not like Grace Draven's writing! She's the best
when it comes to world-building and writing seemingly ordinary but
relatable characters(quite rare in fantasy books imo)! This one is
book 3 in the Fallen Empire trilogy and though it follows a different
set of characters, I'd highly recommend reading the previous ones
before going into this!
Set in the crumbling and fragmented Krael empire, we get the story of
Siora - a penniless woman who can communicate with the dead and Gharek
- the cat's paw to the despicable empress(who's dead btw), now hunted
by countless enemies. While he's hunted by many, he also hunts Siora
as he desires revenge. Unfortunately, when he does catch up with her,
he's almost pulled away by an evil entity that is growing in strength
and is later captured by a general who wants him dead. Lol😂 It's not
an easy day for Gharek but he deserves it.
He's an anti-hero at the finest and you'd find it almost impossible to
root for him. All the kindness that he has left is only given to his
daughter, Estred - born without arms and reviled by the world. To
protect her, he's done countless horrifying deeds when he was working
under the ex-empress(I hated her in the previous books). But does this
reason justify his actions? His victims might not agree 🙃 But when he
does recall his past, it's hard not to feel a glimmer of sympathy.
“There’s more,” she said, raising a hesitant hand to touch his head and then his cheek. He didn’t pull away this time, caught in a trap of bewitchment more powerful than that of any Midrigar monstrosity.
“More beyond the blackness and the terror. A candle flame almost guttered but still there.”
At first, he hated Siora, who was his daughter's nursemaid, not just
for betraying him but also because her leaving disappointed Estred.
But, Siora is steadfast in her beliefs(which I really admired). Though
she's sad about hurting Estred she doesn't regret her actions and
slowly Gharek does begin to see a different side of things. Perhaps
just protecting Estred isn't enough, he might need to be a better man
for her too.
Her gaze mapped every detail of his face as if to commit it to memory, and he wondered what she saw there that he could not in any mirror’s reflection. That flame she insisted still burned in the darkness?
Siora hasn't had an easy life either. Born with the ability to
interact with ghosts, she's been wandering as a beggar after losing
her family. She'd rediscovered a home with Estred, but had to leave it
behind. Now, she has to work closely with Gharek under General
Zaredis' bidding while also protecting the people she loves from a
growing evil that devours ghosts and the living too. She might not
want to associate her magic with necromancy but Gharek does help her
see the way to use it without compromising her beliefs.
I also loved the romance along with the character development. Not
only do they help each other become a different version of themselves,
they also give each other the love that they need and deserve. I loved
how they felt comfortable enough to open up with each other slowly and
appreciate the person that they're transforming into. My only
complaint would probably be the lack of steam lol(not as steamy as
other Grace Draven books)!😆
“I don’t intend to fix you. That’s a burden too heavy for another to bear. Your love for Estred should inspire you to be a better man, not a worse one. In the end, only you can save you.”
Though I was satisfied with how this ended, I can't help but hope that
we do get more books in this series! One thing that I do love about
this series is that it shows the degeneration of an empire on its last
legs, so there's lots of room for a new book to show the rebuilding
under General Zaredis(I feel like he has a story there!). Fingers
crossed it happens!🤞🏻
Please do give this series a try if you're in the mood for some
splendid fantasy romance with dark undertones! You'll definitely love
them!❣️✨
You can also find this review on my bookstagram here
You can also find my reviews of the other books in the series here
*I was provided with an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest
review*
RAVEN UNVEILED by Grace Draven
Ace Trade Paperback Original | On sale November 8, 2022
Gharek held a small lamp aloft to illuminate the path ahead. He didn't worry that the fragile light might be seen in the distance and alert someone. His mount's hooves crushing sticks and brittle deadfall would accomplish the task long before the light did.
The music of insects and bird calls had been loud just before he crossed the tree line, a cacophony of whistles, rustles, and chirps. Those sounds died away the closer he rode to the ruins of the dead city until the silence itself held its breath and only the gloom shrouding the trees breathed. His amiable mare stopped suddenly then pranced backward, tossing her head and snorting. Gharek tapped his heels against her sides to coax her forward. She'd have none of it, fighting the bit in her mouth as she pivoted on her hooves to trot back the way they'd come.
Gharek reined her to a halt, considering whether it was wise to continue his scouting in another direction or make camp nearby and wait until morning to resume his hunt. He'd lose time with camping but trying to find anyone in this darkness while riding a spooked horse was an exercise in futility. Besides, he could make up the time in daylight. Siora was on foot, he on horseback. He'd cover far more ground in less time than she would, and the chance she'd outrun him if he spotted her was nonexistent.
He guided the mare to retrace her steps, and this time she readily obeyed the command, eager to put distance between them and the city that squatted like a pustule on the landscape. But she'd taken no more than a pair of steps when something wrapped icy fingers around Gharek's spine and wrenched him backward. He flew off the saddle as if lassoed from behind and landed on his back. The ground beneath him vibrated from the beat of his mare's hooves as she bolted past him into the labyrinth of trees.
He lay there for a moment, stunned and winded. The ice shard wedged against his backbone remained, though whatever had ripped him from horseback didn't press him into the dirt. A few more breaths and he lurched to his feet, unsettled by his unusual clumsiness, alarmed by the violence of an invisible force that had so thoroughly unhorsed him. There'd been no trip rope to clothesline him, nor had he been riding fast when he fell. The lamp he held had fallen when he did, lost somewhere in the underbrush when its flickering light had guttered. Darkness hung thick enough to scoop with a spoon.
His muttered curses sounded loud to his ears as he peered into the sepulchral black, hoping he might spot the mare standing nearby or at least find a partially cleared path that led back to open pasture. He took a step only to suffer a hard clamp on his backbone, as if the icicle there had suddenly transformed into a shackle locked around his middle. Invisible tethers seized his arms and legs and he was jerked to one side and then the other as if by a drunken puppeteer with their hands on the strings.
Gharek staggered, struggling to keep his feet, struggling to free himself from the bonds that held him in an unbreakable grip that both dragged and yanked him in the direction of Midrigar's walls. He careened through the dark, along a jagged path that propelled him into tree trunks before spinning him away to tear through the underbrush. He tried planting his feet in the dirt to no avail, his boots carving skid marks as he was pulled along like a cur on a leash. His palms left bloody smears on the bark of those trees he tried to grip for purchase and was wrenched away with little effort.
The iciness slithering down his spine spread in creeper tendrils throughout his body, wrapping around his lungs and heart, his liver, even his tongue so that his curses and snarls slowly ebbed away and his struggles waned. Speaking was an impossibility, breathing a challenge, and he was reduced to nothing more than a grunting, shambling mute driven inexorably toward an ancient city of the damned and a fate he could not know but feared with every part of his soul.
Excerpted from Raven Unveiled by Grace Draven Copyright © 2022 by Grace Draven. Excerpted by permission of Ace. All rights reserved.
Grace Draven is a Louisiana native living in Texas with her husband,
kids and a big, doofus dog. She has loved storytelling since forever
and is a fan of the fictional bad boy. She is the winner of the
Romantic Times Reviewers Choice for Best Fantasy Romance of 2014 and
2016, and a USA Today Bestselling author.
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