Children of Fallen Gods by Carissa Broadbent – Review

Published: March 30, 2021

Publisher: Self Published

Series: The War of Lost Hearts #2

Genre: Fantasy Romance

Pages: 636 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Synopsis:
No war can be fought with clean hands. Not even the ones waged for the right reasons. Not even the ones you win.

Tisaanah bargained away her own freedom to save those she left behind in slavery. Now, bound by her blood pact, she must fight the Orders’ war — and Max is determined to protect her at all costs.

But when a betrayal tears apart Ara, Max and Tisaanah are pushed into an even bloodier conflict. Tisaanah must gamble with Reshaye’s power to claim an impossible victory. And Max, forced into leadership, must confront everything he hoped to forget: his past, and his own mysterious magic.

All the while, darker forces loom — far darker, even, than the Orders’ secrets.

As Tisaanah and Max are ensnared in a web of ancient magic and twisted secrets, one question remains: what are they willing to sacrifice for victory? For power? For love?

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It’s rare that I find a sequel I love almost as much as the first book in a series, especially when that first book happens to be a 5 star read. Children of Fallen Gods is a strong sequel that easily kept me hooked throughout the 600+ pages of war, politics, and internal character struggles. The War of Lost Hearts series may be labeled as a romance but it holds up equally well labeled as a fantasy series.

Children of Fallen Gods picks up with Max and Tisaanah returning to Ara from Threll after destroying the Mikov family and freeing Tisaanah’s best friend, Serel, and many other slaves. Unfortunately, upon returning to Ara, they find the city in chaos – Queen Sesri is dead and Zeryth Aldris, Arch Commandant of the Orders, has named himself king and is holed up in Max’s childhood home. It seems that Tisaanah’s war won’t be over as quickly as she hoped and she finds herself turned on the people of Ara who don’t support Zeryth’s claim to the throne. Max accepts a post as general, if only to minimize bloodshed and to also keep Sammerin’s young apprentice, Moth, safe from his own poor choice to join the military. Tisaanah, her power amplified by Reshaye (the magical artifact/being in her head),  is used to strike terror into the hearts of those that would oppose Zeryth’s rule though she tries to use her illusions more than her terrible power to rot flesh. Even though this war seems terrible, even worse is yet to come, though it seems only Nura may truly know what that is.

This installment also introduces another point of view – that of a woman called Aefe, who is one of the fey. Her chapters detail her life and the path that leads her to leave home with a group of allies to confront the humans that are destroying the fey one city at a time. To make matters worse, the humans seem to be stealing fey to experiment on to try to harness a deeper level of magic. It’s quite gruesome and makes the reader wonder if the humans are the true villains in this story. Aefe’s journey is a tragic one, but I liked her and how her story tied into Max and Tisaanah’s tale. 

I loved this nearly as much as the first book and let me tell you, I’m so glad this is a finished series because Children of Fallen Gods ends on quite a dramatic note for each character. The war Zeryth began to consolidate his power in Ara is nothing compared to the war Nura now wages against the dark demons summoned by the fey king who means to cleanse the world of humanity. I can’t begin to guess where the final installment, Mother of Death and Dawn, will take our characters but I expect nothing less than a tale that will wring every emotion possible from me. I’d also like to take the time to specifically recommend The War of Lost Hearts series in audiobook format because Dan Calley and Esther Wane do a brilliant job of bringing Max, Tisaanah, and the other characters to life.