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Monday, April 19, 2021

ARC Review: Legend of the Lakes by Clara O'Connor


Title:
 Legend of the Lakes
Author: Clara O'Connor
Series: The Once and Future Queen #3
Genre: New Adult/Fantasy/Alternate History/Romance
Publisher: One More Chapter
Publication Date: June 24, 2021
Edition: 508 pages, Kindle Edition
Source: NetGalley
Purchase/Pre-Order: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository 






Synopsis:
I thought to die that night in the solitude where they would never find me…
   Cassandra stands silent upon a ravaged battlefield, watching as the druids prepare the dead for the pyres, embers drifting up into the still winter darkness. She can barely breathe through the agony of her grief, but she cannot waste another second on tears.
   Because Londinium, the Caesar, the empire… all of it is still out there. The empire whose code she had followed, whose prince she had promised to marry, whose schemes she had been swept up in since birth.
   They tried to use her magic against her. To silence her.
So she will use her magic against them. To silence them. Forever.
Mild Spoilers. 



   So the first five or so chapters had me crying on and off. This book picks up right where the second one leaves off, with the death of Devyn, a character I really liked from the first two books. That in part kept me from investing time in this book at first. I just wasn't sure where things were headed and how things were going to play out. I wasn't really reading it at first.

   Cass is in a really dark place when this book starts, and she struggles with finding herself again and reeling from a terrible loss. She feels alone and abandoned, pregnant with her daughter. She throws all her energy into being healthy for when her daughter comes so she can take her place as the new Lady of the Lake. And with that comes a price she didn't know she was going to have to pay. Tied to a man she doesn't know as she starts to lose herself while tending the ley lines, she loses years of her life and almost loses her daughter's love. She allows that to happen to keep herself from being swallowed by grief, and her resentment for being tired to Gideon when she had just lost a man she loved.

   Gideon pulls her out of that, but her time allowing her magic to let her drift has cost her. She doesn't know her daughter or her brother. The people she once knew are wary of her, and Londinium is still a threat, even more so now than before.

   There are a lot of tense moments in this book. I didn't get fully invested in this book until around chapter 6 or so. Those first five chapters had me on the fence about things, but once I was invested, I read this book in just a couple of days. I wasn't sure how to feel about Gideon, with everything being told through Cass's eyes, I wasn't sure what to think of him in the previous book. This book gives more of a chance to get to know him, even though he may come across a bit cold at times, you quickly see that once he loves someone, he fiercely loves them. 

   The ending of this book, for me, felt a little rushed at moments. The ending, I kind of wished there was an epilogue or something to really wrap things up, I feel like there is a little more story to tell.  I also really wish this series had a map or something.

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