The Amethyst Kingdom by A.K. MulfordMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
She hated the very sight of him.
The Amethyst Kingdom is book five in The Five Crowns of Okrith series and brings us the conclusion. As it's the last book, I do not suggest jumping in here, you'd be extremely lost. If you're a reader of the series, then you're probably anticipating the last kingdom crowning their ruler and the violet witch that has been plaguing Okrith through the whole series, getting her comeuppance. As has been the style of this fantasy series with humans, Fae, and witches, each book centers on characters working out a romantic relationship and here we have Lady Carys and Lord Ersan, two Fated mates who were separated when Carys saw his keeping a secret from her as lying and have spent the last couple years apart.
Last we spoke. She hated the way he said it. He made it sound like they were old friends who'd simply lost touch and not Fated mates who were split apart in a brutal breakup by his lies.
This pretty much starts up right where book four left off, The Eastern Court trials to pick who will wear the crown for the Eastern Kingdom are about to start. The trials work to bring Carys and Ersan together, Carys has been in the East working to stabilize their kingdom and is all but their queen already but must go through their tradition. Ersan shows up to compete in the trials, claiming he just wants the crown, even though he is a Lord in the Southern Court. As this was all told from Carys' point-of-view it was extremely hard to get to know Ersan, he's definitely more to the side in the first half. All the reader really knows is that at the bequest of her father, he never told Carys about her halfling (half human, half Fae) sister and refuses to fully explain why he, in Carys' eyes, lied to her. The first half has two of the trials performed and the lingering danger of Monroe, the violet witch, but it felt a little slow going as I knew this was the book to wrap up the whole series and the build up of Monroe finally making an appearance and pretty much zero movement on the romance front, felt glacier moving.
That's who they'd always been to each other---swinging between light and dark, love and hate.
The middle had Monroe getting captured, creating a very anti-climatic feeling but finally movement on the romance front with Carys and Ersan being paired up on the trials and going out on the road together. While they finally spend some time together, Ersan's character still didn't get flushed or felt out to me, as it was a constant Carys being mad that he won't tell her why he lied and him just gritting his teeth and not talking; this was the epitome of if they'd Just Talked/Big Misunderstanding. The reasoning gets more flushed out towards the end as both talk about their past selves when younger and how spoiled and self-centered they were and Carys mental health issues, struggling with depression, get worked into the reasoning but it honestly got dragged out far too long for me.
It was time to kill that witch once and for all.
The later second half ramps up the action when past characters all come back to the Eastern Court and Monroe makes her final move to have violet witches take the crown. It was great to see past characters, there were some battle scenes to deliver action and emotion and while initially Monroe's appearance felt anti-climatc, there was a final scene to deliver the emotions you'd want after reading five books leading up to this battle.
His eyes dipped to her mouth. “Some might call it Fate.”
This would probably be the one where I thought the romance was the weakest, I never felt Ersan showed up enough here, but it had multiple open door scenes in the second half if you're looking for more physical over emotional (I typically need to feel their emotional connection so I can feel the heat in their physical). The first half was pretty slow going with the trials feeling like something they didn't necessarily need to be focusing on when the big villain of the whole series, Monroe, was directly in the picture and in fact, the trials get pretty much forgotten in the end in favor of the final Monroe showdown battle. A must read if you've followed along on this journey for the battle of the Okrith kingdoms but just prepare for slower going until the final showdown.
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