Broken Veil

Harbinger, Book 5

By: Jeff Wheeler

Narrated by: Kate Rudd

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Wall Street Journal bestselling author Jeff Wheeler’s epic Harbinger series comes to a breathtaking conclusion as two women are swept into a battle that could destroy two worlds.

Rescued from a world of poverty, Cettie Pratt has avoided a bleak destiny—until now. Deceived and manipulated, she has been groomed for the ultimate betrayal: to destroy her best friend and stop peace from uniting two war-torn worlds. Her path leads her to a mysterious underworld where appearances can be deceiving.

Sera Fitzempress knows the value she has to her enemies. As heir to the empire, she must keep her foes at bay and prevent them from unleashing a being of unspeakable evil upon the world while fighting a brutal war. But her enemies are more cunning than Sera expects, and the key to their plans is none other than her best friend.

Neither woman knows what to believe. Neither one knows if she can trust the other. Both Cettie and Sera have made decisions that have irrevocably changed them. But the decisions they have yet to make will determine the fate of their world…

©2019 by Jeff Wheeler. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Wrapped Up Nicely

So this book definitely ends the Harbinger series and wraps up everything nicely. Too nicely. Maybe this is because I am new to the author's books, but Owen came out of nowhere and was a deus-ex machina kind of device for the fear lioth and for Cettie. Same goes for Maduros and the woman. Because we don't get much / anything about them in the series the way they are presented here is just too convenient for my liking. The main bad guy came out of the blue as well it seemed. all this time I thought it was Lady Corrine but it wasn't. I think the author did this trying to make plot twists but they were just unnecessary and took me out of the story. Cettie got her happy ending and everything about the disease is, again, conveniently solved through a vision. There is no dying scene with the General who played such a role in previous books. His death happens off camera. Overall, it just felt too rushed at the end.

Clean tale without the usual unnecessary steamy bedroom scenes

This is a nice clean tale as the finale of this saga. Lots of questions finally got answered. Many of the concepts remind me of things I have learned from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Very nice. I listened to this on my Kindle. Well done.😁

leaves you feeling good.

This series of books are very enjoyable and addictive for me at least. The two main characters go through lots of hardships, anguish, betrayal and rejection but there is always enough hope, love and joy to balance the story. There is enough action and political subterfuge to keep the story engaging. But the 'baddies' are deliciously evil and cunning which puts the two young ladies on a path where they will be tested to their limits as they grow in strength and courage. This story keeps you engaged but leaves you feeling good and complete.. at least that is how I felt. Some may find it too sweet but i feel the book tells a lovely story.
Finally I have to say that the performance of Kate Rudd is excellent. She captures the imagination of the listener with her many voices of the various characters. She is clear and dramatic while her accents and tones evoke images of each of the characters.

Stay at home mother

As a stay at home mother, that HATES cleaning 😒. I Find myself enjoying it whenever I listen to jeff Wheelers books. He keeps the stories interesting, to the point where its 2am im laying in bed and i CANT STOP LISTENING. I have laughed, smiled, scowled, and cried at times in all his series. What I LOVE must is that in is that there is a tie in between all his stories. It makes me SO HAPPY to hear about other characters and places in a different series, it helps me to picture it all and how things connect with each other. Kate Rudd always does an AMAZING JOB telling the stories, how she does so many voice is incredible, i hang on her everyword. Thank you so much too both of you, for all the hours I spent enjoying these books. ❤

not exciting

This book was like other books he wrote. Needed something new in it. wasn't interedting or exciting like others.

felt rushed

I have loves every single book he has wrote. Thos one was just as good, just felt too tied up, a little rushed and not as detailed as the rest.

Finished but Rushed

First let me say I like this series. it's not the best or most robust fantasy series I've ever read but it is a good easy listening unique storyline. However this book I feel like did not do the prior books justice. The writer seemed to grow tired with the storyline and just wanted to wrap everything up in a nice as basket as possible and finish it. It seems like every page was another bland ending to a very interesting story arc. Even the way it opened seemed to be a cop out for having difficulty fully explaining the magic system of this book. I was able to finish it although with more difficulty than the other books and walk away from this series feeling no loose ends. However, perhaps I've been spoiled with the elegant storylines of Sanderson, Rothfuss, Abercrombie, Lynch etc but I was left wanting more from the book not just epiphany moments to finish it.

Great conclusion

As always, Jeff writes captivating books that suck you in and make you want more. I am heartbroken that this series is done as I’ve grown to love all of the characters and their developments.

Amazing series!

I couldn’t stop listening and went through all five books way to fast. I will miss Seti and Sera.

Great read

Was a very fun read, although anyone this far on the series likely can't stop reading at this point anyway. There is some amount of subtle religious propoganda baked in, but mostly of a good kind and in a reasonable manner.

Religious Fundamentalism

A good series but I was disturbed that there was no warning about the premise of the books, the helpless unmarried women, the shame of pregnancy, the subjudication of womentheir laxk.of rignts. The entire book series is entirely about the halpless woman who can only be 'saved' or rescuedby a man. deeply disturbing to have had this foisted on readers without a warning.
the narration is excellent.

It got better I guess

The story does get a lot better compared to the first book but still a lot of issues.

Male authours often make things needlessly uncomfortable when writing about female characters and this series was no exception. e.g. "she crossed her arms over her breasts" - totally unnecessary detail...

Relationships between characters are barely given any time "on screen" for the reader/listener to get invested in them which makes the motivations for characters behaviours feel a bit forced. Similarly we are often given context for a behaviour after the fact which again leaves the action/motivation feeling pretty artificial.

Lots of big gaps in the timeline make it hart to empathise with characters as they develop, especially when they undergo hardship.

Ran out of steam

Too many things had to be resolved in this book and it felt a bit rushed. Also some things that happened felt too fanciful and contrived, all of which is a shame as the first four books were great.

Enjoyable

But feel the story lacked depth behind the villains, felt pretty predictable and things just didn’t seem to link so well together, How a evil mother could suddenly feel guilt despite an entire life time of evil manipulation is pretty I unbelievable same as the other one who suddenly decided to go againt a life time of training and ended up dead soon after it’s just frustraiting and disappointing

This entire series is a hit - thrilling

You know when you love a book at the start and by the time you get to book five, you're like over it. This book did not suffer from that - a really well written and read conclusion to what was a un-put-down-able series for me. Thanks Jeff and Kate.

Insonsistent and thinly veiled religious twaddle

Deus Ex Machina is present and corporeal in the last of the series, enjoys suffering unnecessarily.

best in the series!

I've enjoyed all the harbinger series so far, but this is the best yet. It was gripping right from the very beginning and more so as it went on! No words were wasted on long drawn out, irrelevant conversations etc. It was all go. Jeff Wheeler is a magical wordsmith, dragging you into the action, making you share Sera's and Ceti's emotions as they face challenge after challenge. The only downside was that, due to some technical hitch, I was unable to download the audible narration to any of my devices and had to listen on Audible. It was an excellent read/listen, and full marks to the narrator, who left you in no doubt as to who was speaking and drew you into the emotions. At the end, there was a hint that the series might continue. I do hope so

Loved it

I loved the whole series. First time reading this authors books and it was good. I'm sure I'll listen to his other books. Narration was pretty good in my opinion.

Excellent

The best of the trilogy I won’t read any further harbinger as I feel it ended with this one

I’m gonna miss the characters

A nice ending to the series which almost seemed like it was gonna rip my heart out at the end. This series really shows the deep lows of people in power and those who are pure of heart to stop it. Gonna miss the characters. Beautiful book/series with loads of twists and turns. Would recommend to anyone.