Mother of Death & Dawn by Carissa Broadbent – Review

Published: February 10, 2022

Publisher: Self Published

Series: The War of Lost Hearts #3

Genre: Fantasy Romance

Pages: 722 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Synopsis:
Tell me, little butterfly, what would you do for love?

In the wake of a crushing defeat, Tisaanah and Maxantarius have been ripped apart. Tisaanah is desperate to rescue Max from his imprisonment, even as her people’s fight for freedom grows more treacherous. But within the walls of Ilyzath, Max’s mind is a shadow of what it once was… leaving his past a mystery and his future at the mercy of Ara’s new, ruthless queen.

Meanwhile, in the Fey lands, Aefe has been dragged back into this world by a king who vows to destroy civilizations in her name. But even as her past returns to claim her, her former self is a stranger.’

Tisaanah, Max, and Aefe are thrust into the center of a cataclysm between the human and Fey worlds. The unique magic they share is key to either winning the war, or ending it.

But that power demands sacrifice. Tisaanah may be forced to choose between love and duty. Max cannot forge his future without confronting his past. And Aefe must decide between reclaiming who she was, or embracing who she has become.

The choices they make will either reshape this world forever…or end it..

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After the explosive events at the end of Children of Fallen Gods, I couldn’t wait to begin Mother of Death and Dawn, the final book in The War of Lost Hearts trilogy. I couldn’t begin to guess how the events of this book would unfold, but I was not prepared for the emotions this would elicit from me. I can now with certainty say this is my favorite fantasy romance series!

Mother of Death and Dawn picks up several months after the end of the previous book and we find that Max is imprisoned in Ilyzath and is only spared the worst of the prison’s mental torments because he has almost no memory of his past. Tisaanah, Sammerin, Ishqa, and Serel are in Threll leading a slave rebellion against the fey and the Threllian lords. Tisaanah, of course, is using her many skills to infiltrate a noble household and then steal an ancient fey artifact called the Wayfinder. Aefe, though given a new body and reunited with Caduan, is continually tormented by the centuries spent as Reshaye. While she is still not the most likable of characters, I could empathize with her fear of being used as a weapon once again and not being appreciated for who she is. 

Though the first portion of the book is spent slowly bringing Tisaanah, Max, and their companions together again they still are not whole. Max doesn’t have his memory which is understandably heartbreaking for Tisaanah to discover, especially since she is the cause. There’s a particularly sad scene where Max is fighting shadows in the capital and he saves Moth, who is delighted to see him but Max has no idea who the boy is. Despite his amnesia, Max still fits right in with his friends and lover and they set off to find natural pools of magic, called lajeres, to claim them before Nura or Caduan.

Aefe’s chapters are not as exciting in comparison, largely because she’s staying in one place and trying to overcome 500 years of trauma. She is full of fear, hatred, and self doubt – a potent combination that leaves her mistrustful of Caduan and his allies. Until the end game, Aefe is trying to tap back into her magic and find her sense of self once more.

All of these characters come together in a final symphony of emotion and battlefield action, cinematic enough to make it on the big screen. This is one of the rare book finales that I felt properly capitalized on all the prior buildup and didn’t feel either too rushed or too conveniently resolved. No third party savior came out of nowhere, the characters didn’t suddenly act out of character, and this book even gave a proper epilogue. This was both sad and uplifting and honestly, I couldn’t have imagined a better ending.