The Ward of House Rega

Renascence Alliance, Book 7

By: Alma Nilsson

Narrated by: Jill Smith

Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

Ward, Prisoner, or Beloved Stepdaughter?

Ellie watched her mother’s execution shortly after she arrived in the Alliance Empire. Now, she is the Ward to her deceased mother’s lover and murderer. This last year has gone by in a flurry of confusion and sadness. But things are changing in the Empire, humans are finding loopholes and essentially making the Empire work for them. Ellie, taken up with this Lost People Renaissance, is no exception. She wants to marry an Outcast, a man whose only crime is that his father is human. Inspired by Jade’s recent invoking of an ancient law, Ellie and her lover devise a plan to marry. However, it is not easy fooling the most powerful man in the galaxy and the Admiral of the Fleet, especially when she is constantly being watched in House Rega.

Admiral Jei was devastated by Jane’s choice to die during her trial. Following her death, he dutifully brought her eldest human daughter, Ellie, into his home and hired the best professionals on Alliance Planet Two to heal her and prepare her for life as a maximum class woman, befitting her rank in the Empire. However, despite his best efforts at prayer and understanding, he cannot live without Jane. He has now thrown all his finances, prestige, and power into bringing her back, unlimited UCs, access to banned medical equipment, and finally a deal with the god of peace. He is risking everything, but Jei does not care anymore what he must sacrifice.

Although it is possible to jump into the Renascence Alliance Series at any time, it’s recommended you listen to Married to the Alien Admiral of the Fleet, Renascence Alliance Book 4 or Restaurateur in the Alliance Empire, Renascence Alliance Series Book 6, before listening to The Ward of House Rega, Renascence Alliance Series Book 7 for maximum understanding and enjoyment.  

©2020 Alma Nilsson (P)2020 Alma Nilsson

Great Worldbuilding and Super Romantic!

I wouldn’t recommend you read this book as a stand-alone, as opposed to all previous books in the Renascence Alliance Series. Too many storylines and characters come together here, and you won’t be able to place everything and fully appreciate it. (and that would be such a shame, this is a wonderful series!)

In previous books, we mainly follow 1 main character and hear other people’s point of view in between from time to time.
This book is different. It can roughly be divided into 3 parts.
The biggest part of the book is about Ellie (the ward of House Rega). We also continue the love story of Cole and Jessie (started in book 5), and we follow Admiral Jei, as he tries to bring back his beloved Jane (continuation of book 4).

Let’s begin with Ellie’s part. My favorite part of the book, I enjoyed it very much!
It represents everything I love about this series. Great worldbuilding and super romantic!
I have to admit I would have enjoyed this book even more if it was only from Ellie’s point of view.
Even though everything fitted (and timeline-wise had to be) right where it was, it still slightly lessened my enjoyment that Ellie’s story was interrupted so much.
I absolutely loved Tamsen (what a wonderful side character!), and would have loved to hear more about her too!

Onto Cole and Jessie’s part.. I was delighted to read more about their love story.
Book 5 had a bit of an open ending so it was very satisfying finding out how their story continues.

Now the hardest part for me, Jei’s storyline.
(SPOILER ALERT, don’t read this if you haven’t finished Book 4!)
I’m a big fan of this series, but there is one gripe I have with it, namely Jane.
The ending to Book 4 broke my heart (and made me sad, angry and confused), and not because she dies, but because I lost my emotional connection to her. All sympathy build up during the entire book just vanished at the end.
Because of this, everything concerning Jane/ the Goddess of Humanity doesn’t sit well with me, and alas it made me enjoy Jei’s part of this book less.
I wish so much the end of book 4 was written in a slightly different way, so I would still be able to sympathize with her.

Overall the book felt a bit rushed at times, but maybe that’s because of all the interlinked/ interrupted story lines. (and because I wanted to hear more about Ellie, Valentine and Tamsen)

The narration was very well done.
I enjoyed Jill’s performance a bit more in the previous book, but I think that’s because Book 6 was (mostly) all from the perspective of 1 main character (Jade).
Considering that in this book almost everyone from the previous books make an appearance, Jill did an excellent job. (it can’t have been easy)

I got this Audio Book for free (thanks!). I'm voluntarily leaving this review.
Opinions and ratings are my own and not influenced by how I got the Audio Book.

Great story but also

Great story, but also the victim book of tying up loose ends as well as set the scene before the grand finale. Jill Smith did a fantastic job narrated this book with all the different voices and emotions as there were a lot. Unlike other Alma Nilsson books, I would not recommend this one if you have not listened to some of the other audiobooks as there are a lot of the old characters featured here and they come without introduction.

To begin with, I loved the story of Valentine and Eloisa. The details of her on the lake and having to "husband steal" him with his/her ship was a fantastic detail that of course would exist in a society where women have been the dominant gender. Valentine was also a great character, having a human father and Alliance mother, he was bilingual meaning he knew why "slave" didn't mean "slave" as well as a lot of other things. He also gave us a lot of insight into what the Empire looks like looking in. I appreciated the detail that he and his mother had this kind of love/hate relationship with the Empire and that all of Remia Two despite their wealth was still kind of in a post-colonial mode relationship with the Empire, as Ms. Nilsson cleverly showed through the art in Valentine's bedroom. I also enjoyed the wedding scene, the knife throwing, and that Admiral Jei came to that with a huge knife... I wouldn't expect anything less of him. HAHA.

Now on to Jane and Jei. I don't know what to think. Are the gods real? Has Jane been in limbo? Was she ever really dead? I think there is a lot more to this that will be revealed in the last book. I am not convinced that she was dead. All the doctors are telepathic and I wonder if she was kept in a trance where she believed she was a goddess? I don't know. This gives me a lot to think about... As Valentine said, of course, there is the technology to bring people back to life.

Mara. I think Mara might be my favorite character. I loved the dialogue between her and Jane. I hope better things happen for Mara in the next book.

As for Dru, Cole, Jesse, Babbs, and Mir... I don't know what to think. Is Mir terrible for just ditching Babbs like that? I think so. Is Jesse really free to marry Cole and going to Hogo? And what's up with building that temple?

As I said this book was a good book but definitely the victim of being in the series, it answered a lot of questions and built things up for the next book, and possibly even another series? Anyway, I would recommend this book if you are invested in the series but I imagine a good 30-40% would be difficult to follow if you don't know these people. I am really looking forward to the final book. It has been a great series, unique, and asks a lot of questions about if women had been the dominant gender on Earth and where do humans really come from? Are we actually engineered or products from another species across the galaxy?

And I must finally weigh in and say, I think Kara is totally going to take Dru in the final book for control of the Empire. I honestly don't know what Dru is thinking? She is way too emotional and sentimental. Kara has none of that... But then there is this strange thing with Jane. Why has she returned? So many questions answered and questions now posed.