Review--The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten

 

The Nightshade Crown is in the hands of a ruthless god. Lore will stop at nothing to defeat him and save the troubled prince and tortured priest ensnared in his wicked plot, in this final installment of this lush, romantic, New York Times bestselling fantasy series from breakout star Hannah Whitten.

Lore has failed. She couldn’t save King Bastian from the rotten god speaking voices in his mind. She couldn’t save her allies from being scattered across the continent—their own lesser gods whispering to them in their dreams. She couldn’t save her beautiful, corrupt city from the dark power beneath the catacombs. And she couldn’t save herself.

Banished to the Burnt Isles, Lore must use every skill she earned on the streets of Dellaire to survive the prison colony and figure out a way to defeat the power that’s captured everything and everyone she holds dear. When a surprise ally joins her on the Burnt Isles she realizes the way forward may lie on the island itself. Somehow, her friends must help her collect the far-scattered pieces of the broken Fount—the source of all the god’s powers—and bring them back together on the Burnt Isles, returning all magic to its source and destroying, once and for all, the gods corrupting the land.

But as Lore gets closer to her goal, her magic grows stronger… and to a woman who’s always had to fight for survival, that kind of power may be hard to give up.

I finally finished Hannah Whitten's The Nightshade God bringing an end to The Nightshade Crown trilogy. This was by far a more complex fantasy series that I was expecting. I am not sure how to describe it specifically, but something to do with this world building made it harder for me to immerse myself into said world. It was just hard to visualize things and understand what was happening and why.

Things are in chaos, I remembered that much from the last book's ending. Apollius has taken over Bastian's body and is in full control and thus rules Bastian's kingdom. Lore battles with her own goddess inhabiting her body, Nyaxra, while being trapped in prison and trying to find a way to escape to reunite with her two lovers. Meanwhile, Gabe who also has a god trapped in his head is trying to find a way to rescue Lore. 

Both Lore and Gabe are trying to find the missing pieces of the Fount to put them where they belong and restore the Fount to its former glory. Naturally, Apollius is trying to prevent such things in his takeover the world montage. But he is not having as easy of a time as he anticipated for Bastian fights relentlessly to gain back control of his body. Needless to say that the world is in danger and it needs saving.

This one was really hard to get into for some reason, but then again, I recall struggling with the whole series. I am not sure why. I love a good fantasy that builds up its own religion system with gods and magic and the like. But for whatever reason the execution of this particular system, did not mesh with me and the world-building kind of fell apart. I feel like I was always trying to figure out what was what and remember certain terms. I am not sure if a glossary would've helped me or not.

With the three lovers separated, there was not much time for romance. We did get the occasional romantic interlude here and there but it was not on the original plane of existence, so can we say it was a romantic interlude? I guess in the long run it was, as it's where their bodily spirits go when they are resting or meditating. As I said, this whole world and magic system was just hard for me to comprehend and I am usually one of those "just roll with it" readers. But this made rolling extremely hard!

What kept me engaged the most were the characters though. I enjoyed Lore, Gabe, and Bastien, and Alie as well. They were all fighting for the same cause and that did make things enjoyable. While this series was not a favorite of mine by the author, it hasn't turned me against any future reads. I may be more hesitant with her fantasies, but I still enjoyed this one to a certain point. But it did make for a very difficult read for me.

Overall Rating 2/5 stars