Heir to Dreams and Darkness

Court of Broken Bonds, Book 3

By: Ben Alderson

Narrated by: Ewan Goddard

Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Lightning raced over my skin as we touched. It cascaded through the room, sparking every candle to life. I would not let death and ruin take him from me. I was not ready for this to end.

The demon Lilyth has returned. With an army of shadows at her back, she claims all magic as her own, threatening to drain all light and life from the world.

To stand against her, Max must unite rival gods and kingdoms that have warred for centuries. It seems impossible, but Max is not alone. Danger has forged his friends into a new family and bound him to an ice-breathing dragon.

Most powerful of all is his passion for Simion. Possessed by the burning magic of the phoenixes, Simion is more heated, more unpredictable. And his desire blazes brighter than ever.

But Max’s bonds of love make him vulnerable. Lilyth will take anything—or anyone—from him, to get what she craves. If he hopes to defeat her, Max must be ready for any sacrifice.

Can Max and Simion’s passion survive the war ahead? Or will the destruction of the world they know tear them apart?

Full of spicy romance, heartbreak, and epic action, this series is perfect for fans of Fourth Wing, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and The Serpent and the Wings of Night.

©2024 Ben Alderson (P)2024 Second Sky, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

great story, but this book suffers weaker writing/dialogue

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this series. The narrator isn’t my favorite, but he did a great job with this performance.

I will say the dialogue and writing is noticeably weaker in this book starting about 1/3 of the way through. The dialogue is just really stilted and not characteristic of the characters’ established personalities. Also the burden of the secret Max is forced to keep in this section is not handled with the expected level of character depth and maturity you would expect between a group of people so closely connected. Reactions to Max keeping some unknown secret are childish and out of character. It’s annoying and a bit of a bother to get through, but at that point I was too invested in the plot to stop.

At times the writing almost sounds like a different person drafted it. Not sure if ghost writing is involved but it felt that way at times

Anyways good series overall just not the strongest writing in this book. Thoughts (spoilers) on end below
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I don’t like the ending. I mean it’s great that they survived, but Max never really got much in return. His husband and daughter and happy marriage of course are owed to him, but it’s like he is the one that suffered beyond suffering, paying so many steep prices so many times there is hardly anything left of him - yet he reaped such insignificantly disproportionate rewards for his losses. He deserved a better ending.

The memory loss of course makes sense, but the thing is the price the dryads demanded was only past memories. He would have full faculties to make new ones. Memory loss like that doesn’t cause insanity. People with total amnesia are still themselves even if they have huge gaps they can’t remember.

The gleamers are said to be able to heal “any ailment of the body and mind”. Well, this issue is an ailment of the mind. Even if the memory gaps were harmful, there’s no way they couldn’t have somehow magically stabilized that. Also Simeon could have implanted all of his own memories to fill in blanks, which could only help.

Also, the dryads have even stronger healing magic than the human mages. Surely they could have helped?

I think it’s fine that Simeon took over the leadership role. But Max should still have been king, and Simeon would have been King Regent, the one who actually runs things. Simeon is only eligible for the throne because of his connection to Max anyways.

Also their daughter - why didn’t they use one of Beatrice’s eggs? They would have a child that is biologically both of theirs. It’s nice that Simeon’s fire magic was passed on, but Max’s Dryad blood is far more unique and powerful and deserves to be passed on too.

Anyways tldr - the ending felt like Max suffered all and Simeon got to reap all the rewards. But it’s fine because he makes time for Max (/s). Like that’s the literal minimum.

I know not all endings are supposed to be happy. But given the emotional angst and trauma, it would have made the sacrifices and losses more worthwhile if Max had gotten back more after it was all over. He basically lost his independence despite being perhaps the most powerful human magic user alive. Just doesn’t fit together.

Anyways, thank you for coming to my TED talk. Still recommend the story, just had a few gripes about the conclusion.