by
There are vipers in Arajon, from the Valley to the Bronze.
Grace Harrington, the Dowager Archon of Arajon, is approaching her first anniversary on the throne she claimed following the death of her husband, slain at her own hands.
But her position is so precarious that even the unwelcome presence of the former assassin Nathaniel Morgenstern, watching over her at her father’s behest, cannot protect her from her enemies. The city’s press has turned against her, the Bronze is rallying behind Odessa White, and her last hope of support from the Druids has gone up in smoke.
The lies are adding up. A coup is coming for Grace, and she is running out of people in the city to trust…
Genres:
Pairings: M-M, M-M-F
Heat Level: 3
Romantic Content: 3
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Bisexual
Protagonist 1 Age: 36-45
Protagonist 2 Age: 36-45
Protagonist 3 Age: 18-25
Word Count: 65,000
Setting: Fantasy world
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Continuous / Same Characters
Though Arkadia Lane was plunged into silence when Doran killed the engine of his Devon, the pounding of Nathaniel’s heart in his ears was so loud he feared for a moment his neighbours would hear.
They did not move or speak for several heartbeats. Their breaths were almost synchronised. Nathaniel’s hands, still firm around Doran’s waist, tightened when Doran turned his head over his shoulder to meet Nathaniel’s gaze under the dim light of the apothecary’s windows.
“I guess this is –”
Nathaniel kissed him.
Doran grunted softly, then tilted his head to the side to deepen their embrace.
READ MOREIt was an awkward position, Nathaniel straddling Doran from behind on an imbalanced Devon, Doran’s neck twisted at an uncomfortable angle. Their noses bumped, their teeth collided. Doran’s hand gripped Nathaniel’s thigh where it rested alongside his, causing Nathaniel to inhale sharply and break for air. He tilted his head down and grazed his lips across the nape of Doran’s neck.
“At the risk of sounding presumptuous…” he murmured, his chest warm and his heart shuddering, “it’s a bit late for you to return to the palace, isn’t it?”
Doran breathed deeply. “Is that your way of inviting me to stay?” he asked, his voice husky.
Nathaniel said, “Would you like to?”
A year ago when Nathaniel had asked Doran almost the exact same thing without even knowing his name, Doran had declined.
This time, Doran fully twisted around in the seat, leaned forwards, and pressed his mouth to Nathaniel’s. Nathaniel issued a low sound and angled his head, deepening the kiss. His hand brushed Doran’s arm, shoulder, waist, and finally settled upon his waist. He pulled Doran closer, sending shudders through them both when their hips aligned.
“If you had any idea what you do to me,” Doran groaned against his mouth.
Nathaniel was similarly affected. “I have some idea.”
Doran inhaled sharply.
“Much as I –” Nathaniel murmured, interrupting his own words to recapture Doran’s lips, “– wish to continue, perhaps we should move this indoors.”
Doran breathed hard and pulled back, his expression flushed and his lips swollen. He glanced at the shop and frowned, now noticing that the shop front’s lights were still on and the door sign had not been flipped to ‘closed’.
“Don’t tell me Gerald stays up and waits for you to return.”
“Not usually,” Nathaniel said, although knowing his luck, this would be one of the nights where the boy was pacing behind the counter like a shark. “Give me a few moments to send him off.”
While Doran secured his Devon, Nathaniel composed himself and made his way to the front door. He brushed his fingers across his lips, touched the mezuzah nailed to the frame, and entered his shop.
COLLAPSEKazza on On Top Down Under Reviews wrote:Published: Self-published on 19 December 2024
Pages: 239
Genre: Fantasy, LGBTQ+
Rating: 4/5Disclaimer: An eARC for this title was kindly gifted to me by the author, but I was not asked to provide a review in return.
Note: Although this review is spoiler free for Throne of Lies, it assumes knowledge of the first two books in the series.
It’s been almost a whole year since Grace Harrington killed her new husband, the former Lord Archon, and inherited his position in Arajon. Despite the positive turn in her relationship with her father Doran, other things are harder than ever. At Doran’s insistence, Grace is being personally guarded by Nathaniel Morgenstern, the former assassin who murdered her mother; members of the nobility are talking openly about deposing her; and the druids of the Valley refuse to acknowledge her reign, making her claim to the throne all the more precarious. Time is running out for Grace to find the support she needs, and when these tensions come to a head, Grace is left to rely on the one person she has no reason to trust.
When I read the blurb for this book and saw that the focus was going to be on Grace, I was immediately intrigued, because Grace has been a central but secondary figure in the series up to this point. Her relationship with Doran, and the impact of his past struggles with alcoholism on that relationship, were hugely relevant to the events of the first book in particular, but has continued to hang over all their interactions. The opportunity to see her family, and the world and her place in it through Grace’s eyes couldn’t have come at a better time in the series overall. Once I was in her head, though, I found that I didn’t like Grace very much. For the most part, I found her hypocritical, idealistic, stubborn and short-sighted, and none of that should have been a surprise given what we’ve seen of Doran and heard of Rhian – Grace really is her parents’ daughter. However, she’s also an 18-year-old girl living with an incredible amount of trauma and trying to wield a power that many people around her don’t feel should be hers. So although I didn’t like her a lot of the time, I did understand her and that’s the more important thing. A character doesn’t have to be likeable to be interesting or understandable. The events of this book, particularly the ending, are going to (I hope) have a huge impact on Grace in book 4 and I can’t wait to see how she deals with the fallout.
While I’m on the subject: the ending of this book took me out. One character comes into play in a major way that I really didn’t see coming, even though it was set up perfectly throughout the book. There was a moment when I gasped out loud and then from there it was a runaway train of events that completely change the power structure we’ve become used to.
A couple of things I was expecting more of that we didn’t get: First, Gerald. I love Gerald. He’s been a highlight of the series for me up to this point, and he didn’t really appear in this one, which is fine. He wasn’t necessary for the plot, I just missed having him around. I think he only appears in two scenes, but one of those was particularly powerful and felt very earned for the characters involved, so although Gerald was low on quantity in his book, he was high on quality, and that’s really the better ratio. Second, there wasn’t as much Nathaniel POV as I was expecting but after the ending, I suspect book 4 will see a lot more of it. I’m fascinated by the relationship between Nathaniel and Grace, which can never be easy given their history, and I’m interested to see how it develops after the events of book 3.
Throne of Lies has been a long time coming for people who were already familiar with the series, but it’s well worth the wait. It pushes the relationships between all the characters to new heights and completely changes the game. Luckily, the wait for book 4, Valley of Secrets, will be brief.
CW: Riots, workplace accidents and death, drug and alcohol addiction
Sue on Joyfully Jay wrote:Rating: 4 Stars
Publisher: Self Published
Genre: Queer Spec-Fic/Fantasy
Tags: Series, Ensemble Cast, Some Violence
Length: 245 Kindle Pages
Reviewer: Kazza
Review:
**This is a review for book 3 in a series, so this review contains some spoilers.
In this latest book within the Death’s Embrace series there is plenty going on. Including an evolving ensemble of characters. Grace is now thrust into a powerful position after her husband’s death in the big finish of series book #2. Her husband was the (lineage descendent) Archon of Arajon when Grace married into that family. Since his death, and she killed him, she’s become the Dowager Archon. It’s never been easy sailing in this world for the characters of this series. Grace’s father, Doran, was the leader of the rebel Black Lung Gang, fighting for positive change for workers, having a target on his back. He took over after his wife died when Grace was a young girl. The BLG has since gone quiet, although people remain that were once a part of it. Now, life in Iole City is even farther way from calm, there is so much tension everywhere. Only a couple of people know Grace killed her husband, Bryson Carlyon. Since he was the Crown, and she wears it now, his death and her future on the throne hangs in the balance. Will someone find out she killed him and weaponize it?
At a visit to Lord Devonshire, of Devon Manufacturers, Devonshire makes his play to get Grace to give his company the contract for the Hydro Electric Scheme, a project that hasn’t even officially been announced. Yet Devonshire already knows about it. Who on her council is leaking information? To be honest, that’s the least of Grace’s problems.
It’s not that Grace hasn’t achieved things in her year as the Archon. She has. It’s one of the reasons Devonshire wants to work with her. He knows she has a vision and can turn a profit. However, where there’s power and money there are snakes. Grace has two big ones – Odessa White, married to Bryson’s sister, who wants the power herself. And Lady Leonora Darkwater has come slithering back into Iole City, trying to gain money, some momentum, wanting Nathaniel’s recipe for (the very powerful drug) Embrace.
Leonora can literally mindfuck people into giving her what she wants. Embrace is dangerous, worth money, and Nathaniel has an immunity to the poison of the drug. He was an assassin, but it’s not easy saying no. It’s different now. He has Doran, his love interest, and Gerald, his original apprentice, and Shoshana, his new apprentice, to protect and think about, and Grace is under his watchful eye as well. So it isn’t just about him anymore.
An emissary is sent in the Valley to talk to the Draoidhean about the Sacred Pact. Maybe they’ll allow them to use what is a sacred river, the Sionanne, for the Scheme. They haven’t endorsed Grace so it’s rocky ground she’s treading on. She is young and as mentioned above, there are those who want to oust her. Her council could make decisions unfavourable to Grace as well. Doran makes sure that Nathaniel is by Grace’s side when she is out, even though Grace doesn’t like him, because there are potential threats. Things get rowdy and then violent at a protest outside the Devon factory after her initial visit so it’s good that Nathaniel is there. Between the guards indiscriminately shooting into the crowd, and the death of a factory worker, Grace is incensed by the factory’s inability to have prevented something happening to the worker, and the guards thug-like behaviour. She tells the captain of the guards, Iovanius, to sack half of them. Something Iovanius is loathe to do.
To be honest, Grace is a child. She’s young and sometimes her ire is misplaced. Her feelings not well handled in such a position. She’s implementing quick change, which most people are never good with, and she wasn’t born into this family. The Valley’s representatives won’t even come to the city let alone recognise Grace as the Lady Archon, which the papers, the Iole Chronicle in particular, love to rub in. Jasper Catherick is the Rupert Murdoch of Iole and surrounds. He doesn’t like Grace as Archon and has clickbait headings targeting Grace, pretending to care about the workers and citizens, talking up anything and everything negative and divisive about her.
The sacked guards become private protection for the wealthy people in the Bronze which causes problems for Grace, therefore her father who she is often at loggerheads with. Doran tries so hard to be a decent father under difficult circumstances. He is (and has been) such a people pleaser for so long – Foreman at the mines, leading the Black Lung Gang, both brought trouble and persistent whingers into his life. Grace rebels against him readily. She had already left him to be with her wealthy grandparents at one stage. He would even leave the man he has become romantically close to for Grace. While Grace doesn’t like Nathaniel, she doesn’t know the half of it. There is a BIG secret there. While Iovanius throws support behind Grace, it always feels like the support is about as safe as being on a cliff’s precipice. Someone on a mission to the Valley for her is dead. Odessa White is constantly vitriolic and she isn’t backwards in how she feels about Grace, and Grace and her role as Archon.
This book leads up to a huge climax and some people I like a hell of a lot, well, I’m not sure what’s happened to at least one of them. I’m worried about my people. I am fortunate enough to have series book #4 awaiting me so I can be put out of my misery (or not) fairly shortly.
H L Moore writes this fantasy/spec-fic series really well. It’s incredibly atmospheric, you can visualise very clearly the districts, the factories, the mines that are described. The environment. There is no mistaking this world she has created for contemporary times. It doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t some parallels, because there definitely are. The trial by media, the clickbait headings, we are living in those times right now. The way the people behave around power is a constant. Some will do anything to get it and some will keep fighting to keep it. People can surprise you with their lack of humanity, others with their need to be the best humans they can be, in spite of their human faults. I really enjoyed being back, although that ending had me gasping. 4 Stars!
Rating: 4.75 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: NovelThis is the third book in H.L. Moore’s Death’s Embrace series and there will be some spoilers here for both Heart of Dust and Soul of Ash. These books must be read in order; the world building and plot are simply too complex to jump in randomly.
For Doran O’Seanain, the last year has been a whirlwind. His daughter, Grace, serves as Archon over Iole City and Doran, once a soot stained miner, now sits on her council. Grace wants to change things for the better, but the rich and powerful are working against her and her control of the throne is tenuous at best. The city is at a tipping point, as Grace struggles to establish her authority and help improve the lives of the poor and the working class.
Doran worries about Grace’s safety, despite her military loyalists, and it helps that apothecary and ex-assassin Nathaniel Morgenstern has agreed to serve as her bodyguard. Doran and Nathaniel’s relationship is complex to say the least, but with Nathaniel, Doran has found a measure of happiness again, one he thought forever lost to him.
With tensions in Iole City on the rise, Nathaniel and Doran know the threat against Grace is growing and none of them can afford to grow complacent as they struggle to keep her safe while supporting her vision for the future. But when those tensions erupt into violence and chaos, Doran and Nathaniel risk losing everything and everyone they hold dear.
We’ve been waiting a long time for Throne of Lies, the third in the Death’s Embrace series. I loved the first two books and, thankfully, Throne of Lies did not disappoint. A rich and complex world that blends mythology, history, and fantasy rests at the heart of this series, along with fantastic primary and supporting characters that are as compelling as they are nuanced.
Doran and Nathaniel have been friends, enemies, and are finally on the precipice of becoming lovers. Theirs has not been an easy path and their future together is far from certain, but it was nice to see them finally have a few moments of joy in Throne of Lies. The secondary characters are just as important and both Tsa Lein and Grace have some standout moments, though it’s harder to know Grace on some levels, in part because of her youth.
Throne of Lies is a dark book, especially the last third of it. There is absolutely no happily ever after for any character and this series thrives on its gritty and occasionally heartbreaking moments of angst. There are some slower moments in the book, but they are few and far between and, given how things end, I actually appreciated that breathing space upon reflection. This book does bridge the gap between Soul of Ash and the forthcoming Valley of Secrets and, as a result, it feels slightly disconnected from the first two books in the series. But it doesn’t change either the intensity of the story or the engagement of the characters.
I throughly enjoyed Throne of Lies and I’m so glad this series is back under way. The characters are multi-layered and engaging, while the plot and world building are wonderfully rendered. On the whole, the series has everything I love as a reader – fantastic characters, a decent amount of angst that does not tip over into hopelessness, and a well-realized and engaging storyline. If you were fans of the first two books, you’re going to enjoy Throne of Lies and I highly recommend the entire series!
