A Kingdom Under Siege by Jeffrey L. Kohanek

Quote of the Book

“The will?” Cleffa yelled from behind Quinn, “The will to do what?”

Without stopping, Quin spoke over her shoulder. ”Whatever it takes.”

Quinn left the words behind her as a lingering testament for all who heard them. Quinn was determined to gain the faith of the girls in her squad. While she could not say exactly why it was so important, she wanted them to know she was nothing like Juvi. She would not break.

Blurb

An enemy threatens the kingdoms of Issalia, bent on conquest with the desire to vanquish Chaos magic forever.

The Empire has returned. Assassinations, subterfuge, and betrayal have fueled a rapid rise to power – a rise backed by fire-powered weapons. This enemy army swells with superior numbers and threatens the western kingdoms of Issalia.

With King Brock gone, the domination of Issalia is merely a matter of time.

The wardens, agents from a clandestine organization known as ICON, work in secret to stop this radical enemy. Trained as spies, warriors, rangers, inventors, and magic-users, the wardens have successfully reduced the enemy threat, but by doing so, they leave the Empire no choice.

War is certain. The attack is coming soon.

The kingdoms must stand against the Imperial Army’s advanced weapons and superior numbers. The wardens and Chaos magic offer slim hope, but a leader is required to achieve victory – a legend whom many believe is dead.

Join the battle. The fate of Issalia hangs in the balance.

Personal notes

Thank you to the author Jeffrey L Kohanek, for generously providing a copy through TBRinder matchmaking reviewer/author service.

Song of the Book

Sick Puppies – You’re Going Down

Review

The final book in the Wardens of Issalia series, jumps right back into the action following An Imperial Gambit, where unfortunately, not everyone will make it to the end. But don’t worry, the author isn’t cruel enough to take our favorites out of the running (depending on who your favorites were that is).

This installment is just as action-packed and fun as the previous books were. We have sieges, ship battles and even giant killer bunnies (which btw made me laugh because my husband has been telling me for years that my bunnies are going to turn on me) also expect more neat uses for the Runes, and some cool discoveries in some of the character’s magical abilities.

While I did like the more focused smaller feel to the last book the best, this series has grown from school recruitment to in-field missions and threats of war over the last four books. That scale of story required that this book needed to widen the focus back out and let us get caught up with the different groups and find out how they’re contributing to what has become full out war between the Empire, and Issalia and her supporters.

The cast has grown too large to cover everyone so I will just mention my two favorites – Quinn and Iko.

While I loved Everson’s genius inventions and seeing what he would come up with next, it was his sister Quinn’s part of the story that I’ve come to enjoy the most. I like her braveness, her willingness to do anything even if it was scary, and especially that she still felt like a girl while being all kick-ass. And because she was out in the field, her parts of the story were full of action, intrigue, and danger, so it’s really no wonder that I looked forward to her sections!

Iko – I’ve had a soft spot for throughout the whole series. He fought for the wrong side and up until we had some back story from him in the last couple of books, I sometimes even wondered why he kept on when he obviously had doubts about what he was doing and huge regrets over the loss of friendships and people that were incurred because of his loyalty to his mother and the Empire. The doubts, regrets and loyalty were the biggest thing I liked about his character and it was hard not to root for him to come out ahead at times, especially after we got more of his story and some understanding to his choices.

This series has grown a lot over the last four books, from the scale of the story to the quality of the writing and ends with strong finish to a series that was a lot of fun all the way through.

This review was written by Jen (Bunnyreads)