I love these books, really! I like the intricacy of the world and the magic, the darkness of it, and most of all the characters. In this book, Daemon Sadi was my favorite. I liked how Jaenelle's territories are introduced to the newcomers. And when things get tense, I really liked how dark Daemon got. The ending could have been a bit more extensive for me. Instead of a lot of worrying if everything is going to be ok, I would have liked an account of the final 'battle' from Jaenelle's point of view, and perhaps a bit more detail about where it's going from there. But perhaps that is saved for one of the next books... Overall well worth five stars! ( )

I got sucked so hard into this series that I ended up reading books two and three in an afternoon. I think that says something on its own. I gave up a whole day to this, rather than the hour or two I like to devote to reading.

It's funny, too, because the style of the series really annoys the heck out of me. I love the darkness of it -- and I don't mean that it's set in hell with demons and witches and whatever. The author really does deal with some incredibly dark issues, and that tends to fascinate me. Add into that the fact that the author is alarmingly good at making me laugh out loud at silly things.

I think the thing that gets me about things is how completely off-the-scale everything ends up being. I mean, the author sets her own scale and immediately broke it. And then broke it again. And then broke the broken break. And the time-spans involved! The author doesn't have anything against having someone be alive 50,000 years ago, or something happening 1,700 years ago, or whatever. It's unreal. I honestly wish she had taken a zero off of everything, just to make it a little more palatable.

Magic seems absolutely limitless; it really doesn't feel like there's any rules at all to Jaenelle's magic, like she's capable of absolutely anything.

The characters lack depth: the villains have nothing to redeem themselves, and there are hundreds if not thousands of people that fall into the category of totally, purely evil. The good guys are purely good, sometimes bumbling, often opinionated and full of knowing looks. I really think the only two characters that were fully developed were Jaenelle and Daemon, though by the end of book three I could add in Karla and Surreal.

And, and. Naming conventions. Really. Gah. Ugh. It's a truly amazing horde of hokey names: Saetan, Daemon, Lucivar, Cassandra, SaDiablo, Hayll, Hepsabah, Hekatah... the list goes on... and the rings of obedience? The hokey was nearly overpowering.

Yet, despite all that, I did enjoy this quite a bit. Your mileage may vary. ( )

Anne Bishop never fails to write a story that grabs me right way and does not let me go until the very last page. The Black Jewels Trilogy is definitely my favorite of all her books. All of the books set in this world have intriguing story lines and characters who fascinate me. Even the characters I loathe are still well written. Any book by Anne Bishop is a must read and this series is no exception. ( )

reread 2/1/2017 ( )

Emotional third book in this series. Queen, her Circle and her realm are under attack. Her enemies are going to push too hard and face Witch.
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