By Alison Sinclair.
Previous book here.
The book starts out with bringing Ishmael and Balthasar back, as the action shifts to where they are on the Borders between Darkborn territory and Shadowborn. Ish goes to the home of his friends, where he's quickly pursued with an arrest warrant...and then the place gets attacked by Shadowborn. And not just their magical creatures, either. Balthasar gets kidnapped and ensorcelled and finds out exactly what happened to his brother and who fathered those twins from the first book (that in all honesty, I keep forgetting about). Telmaine's on the run with Darkborn mages, and the Lighborn folks in the Borders are trying to figure out what to do.
Basically, this book has a lot of revelations about the Shadowborn: what their magic can do, who they are and what their origins are, and how they tie into the curse that forced humanity into darrk or light. Balthasar in particular has a very interesting time of things, getting to experience what no other Darkborn has been able to do and finally getting to do one thing in particular... but I won't say what. Ishmael also gets more involved with the "good" Shadowborn more than he expected, and Tam, well... that doesn't go so well for him.
I enjoyed the plot developments in this book*, though I will say that the book didn't end the way I was expecting it to.** But still good. If another book comes out, I'll read it.
Four stars.
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* Specifically Balthasar finally getting to meet Floria in person and ah... well, working out some details of their relationship there if he still has the ability to be around Lighborn. And he and Telmaine finally establishing at the end of the book that they still do love each other even if they love others too in another way. Well, good for them.
I did wonder about the possibility of ensorcelling more than just Balhasar to be immune to the change in light. Could they make more Darkborn safe by day? Or Lightborn safe by night? (Though frankly, it works better for a Darkborn being able to access the Light than vice versa. Poor folks would have no idea how to function in the dark, while the Darkborn have their echolocation thing going on. Might be a development for later?)
** I actually thought they'd end the Curse by the end of book 3, and was surprised that that did not happen despite the plot developments. And that it was left rather open-ended with the potential for another book taking place at least a few weeks later. I couldn't find if another is intended or not in the series after this, so I wonder. I suppose it might help to move things along by a few years, see if Balthsar and Floria can produce a kid and what it would come out as, how the twins are doing, etc.
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