Review--Fortress of Ambrose by J. Elle

 

Seductive magic. Deadly betrayal.

Don’t miss the explosive finale of the dark, romantic fantasy of the New York Times-bestselling House of Marionne series, which #1 bestselling author Alex Aster praises as "a sweeping fantasy brimming with magic, secrets, and romance."

The stunning first printing of Fortress of Ambrose will feature a gorgeous designed case and exclusive metallic endpapers!

With the future of the Order clouded in uncertainty, and the evil within its ranks coming to the surface, Quell Marionne has nowhere left to turn.   

Everyone Quell cares about is gone and she still can’t escape the powerful legacy that wants to destroy her. But when she uncovers an earth-shattering revelation, she must choose: be the hero the magic world needs or save Jordan.

Meanwhile, a darkness festers inside Dragunheart Jordan Wexton. His path to survival means becoming the monster he was bred to hate, if he can overcome the power rotting within himself. 

In a world where the line between proper and forbidden magic blurs, Quell and Jordan, along with two unlikely allies – bitter assassin Yagrin Wexton and magicless Heir Nore Ambrose, must navigate a treacherous path where freedom hangs by a thread. Can love tip the scales toward freedom? Or will rivalries and deadly betrayals shatter their hearts and destroy the world they once knew?

Fortress of Ambrose is the final book in the House of Marionne trilogy by J. Elle and I must say it was quite much. I don't know if reading it during a week where I was still stressing about many things and worrying about other various things just made it harder to get into, but this book was a bit of a bear to manage. I am not sure if it was all outside circumstances as the story was interesting, but at times the pacing did start to drag me down as well.

The book opens to a bit of chaos. Jordan has taken in all the magic that was stored in the Sphere and now things are just a mess in the world because of it. Quell is trying to find Jordan who went off on his own to deal with the magic and learn how to work with it and not have it destroy him from the inside out, which it is bound to do if he doesn't find a solution quickly.

Then we have Nore and Yagrin dealing with their own emotional turmoil and Nore's new status as House Headmistress. I guess having multiple points of view again which continued to have a full cast of characters mixed throughout just continued to confuse me. Yes, I was vaguely remembering some of them from having read the second book but things were just messy and hard to follow at times. I did find Nore and Yagrin's drama to be more "entertaining." Not that it was a laugh riot or anything, but the drama and continued secrets between them made things a little more interesting and dangerous. As the two continue to search for pieces of the Scroll in order to keep Nore's brother from killing her and taking all the power of their House for himself.

Again, with a book that pushes nearly 500 pages or technically over if you read the House history pages in the afterword, things are thick and detailed and sometimes a little hard to follow. Again, maybe it was my circumstances that was making this book a bit of a bear to get through. In typical YA fashion, each of our quartet of lovers were keeping secrets from their partner and trying to do things to protect or save the other without said other knowing or getting involved. You know, those tropes that tend to pop up in the save the world YA romances! It's all in good fun of course. It's not that I loathe the trop scenario, it can be eyeroll worthy of course, but it does enhance the tension and drama.

There were two romances to follow with Yagrin and Nore and Jordan and Quell. I tended to favor Yagrin and Nore a bit more, not sure why really, but I guess because they maybe had more past secrets they had to overcome with one another that made things more tense between them.

Because the pacing was a little on the slow side and my own mind was in a bit of turmoil this week, my recollection of all things that happened was getting dimmer. Maybe it's age, lol. Or maybe this just wasn't the right time to read this particular series. It was still enjoyable and I liked Elle's take on magic and how it worked in this world, but yeah, this book just didn't resonate much with me. But I am really thinking it was my timing and outside circumstances that made me feel disconnected with this story. Still looking forward to Elle's new series but yeah, this one just wasn't much of a win for me this time around.

Overall Rating 2/5 stars