Kelsea and her guard head out from the “battle” site, and Kelsea “deep down” knows that there’s no more danger from Thorne. Because this book doesn’t “ like revelations and resolutions to come too soon or be simplified .” Nope, this book is like real life, where you can always clearly tell when the danger has passed thanks to your magical feelings.

Coryn had had the good sense to loose Thorne’s horses […] They’d found several of the horses already, grazing in the foothills

asdfkjhasdfkjhasdkjfhasdf WHY DO YOU HATE YOUR HORSES, BOOK?

The see the caravan of slave cages (they decided to send everyone back in the things, because they’re not really fit to walk and what else can you do) off in the distance, since said caravan left while Kelsea was still recovering from her magic bout.

When they drew even with the caravan, still a thin shadow several miles to the north, Mace allowed the troop to slow down and keep pace.

Do…you just…not know what ‘drew even with’ means?

Suddenly, they see someone riding up to them, going fast. It’s a Caden dude, and he has a small child with him. Mace explains that most Caden assassins aren’t really big on fatherhood, so if they father a bastard they just pay child support and hare off again. But a few are affectionate and keep in contact with their kids, but in secret because having a family is a big danger when it comes to blackmail and the like. (How does this fit in with that noble guy? I mean, last I checked, nobles were pretty big on lineage.)

This guy is named Merritt, and he’s roughly about as close as the Caden come to having a leader.

Aaaaaaand he’s just here to say “thanks for saving my son, I owe you a favor.” Well that was dull. The Caden had been mostly a footnote in this book so far, for all they’re talked up, and then we get this totally new character to pop out of the blue and bow to Kelsea? It’s pointless. It doesn’t address an existing concern, there’s no real tension or payoff for it, it’s not wrapping up an ongoing thread. Feels more like checking an item off a list.

The rest of the chapter is pretty dull. They go back to New London, and somehow the book manages to pad it out with ever extraneous thought that it comes across, even though none of them are relevant or exciting. Mace tries to resign at one point, and Kelsea threatens to kill him

“But make no mistake: if you ever refuse to obey a direct order of mine again, I will kill you. Anger almost made me do it once, and could easily make me do it again.

Wow, excellent quality in a ruler, yes? This doesn’t even feel genuine. Kelsea doesn’t get this kind of angry. She gets righteously angry, a few times, when pushed to it by things that would make anyone angry, and even then she doesn’t kill anyone or even get particularly violent. This just feels like it’s trying too hard to give her some ‘flawed’ personality, but it amounts to nothing. Mace keeps his job, no one gets hurt, everyone’s friends still, journey goes on. *yawn*

“I’ve been thinking for a long time about the shipment, about all those Tear in Mortmesne.”

You have? her mind asked, bewildered. When? And it came to Kelsea: while she’d slept.

Weak cop-out.

“Many of the allotted are dead now, Lady. Worked to death or killed for their organs.”

“I know that. But organs can’t be the primary use for Mort slaves; Arliss says the transplant surgery hasn’t been perfected.

…where the everlovin fuck did that come from?

…like…just…what? Did part of an earlier draft sneak in here? Organ harvesting?

…what?

Mace then tells her that her foster parents committed suicide, because apparently…they were a threat to her? Could be used to gather information about her to be used against her?

“They raised you, Lady. They had the sort of information no one else could discover: your likes and dislikes, what moves you, your weaknesses, who you really are. […]Moreover, Lady, what if someone had captured your foster parents, offered them to you for ransom, threatened them with harm? What would you have been willing to give?”

This book is trying way too hard to be so fucking GRIMDARK that it’s just ridiculous. This makes no sense. I just…I can’t even process how little sense this makes. I’m surprised someone didn’t get a hernia making this incredible reach for extra GRIMDARKness.

Then Mace describes when he dropped her off with Barty and Carlin as a baby.

“Barty said, ‘Let me hold her.’ So the Lady Glynn handed you to him, and then—I’ll never forget, Lady—she said, ‘From now on, it will be you … the love must come from you.’

“Barty looked as baffled as I was, until she explained. ‘This is our great work, Barty. Children need love, but they also need stiffening, and you’ll be no help with that. Give her whatever she wants, and she’ll turn into her mother. She has to hate one of us, at least a little, so that she can walk out the door and not look back.’”

That…makes…no sense. None. Zero. Carlin, you are a bad, bad foster parent.

Ugh. The lack of sense-making in this book is just exhausting.

The last chapter skips to two days later, where Tyler and Kelsea are sitting around copying books, because they know what printing presses are but apparently building one is just too hard.

Eh, this is the country that thought slapping some wheels on cages required the best carpenter in the country. I think a bit more than their medical knowledge was lost in the crossing.

Mace had procured four clerks, but Kelsea and Father Tyler both wrote faster,

Yes, tell me again how these two are better at writing than the people who get paid to write all day.

Tyler tells Kelsea that pope (or their version) is dying, and the guy who is set to replace him is someone named Anders, and Tyler doesn’t trust this Anders guy one bit. Mace comes in to interrupt her, because there’s a crowd gathered outside. Why? No reason. Literally no reason.

“Your mother never dared to go out into the city proper; she would use this balcony for announcements. The crowd began gathering yesterday when they found out you were back in the Keep. My man on the gate says most of them spent the night out there.”

“I don’t have anything to announce.”

“Come up with something, Lady. I don’t think they’re going away.”

Good god, it’s like this book is as bored with itself as I am. There is no effort put into this, no thought, no nothing. What happens next? Eh, throw in a cheering crowd, I guess, why not.

Kelsea announces she’s changing her dynasty name to Glynn in honor of her foster parents, and that’s the end of the book.

So, let’s talk about the plot for a moment. Kelsea leaves hiding to go be queen, finds out that there’s slavery, says “no.” One guy doesn’t like that, tries to send slaves in secret, Kelsea and 15 guards stop it.

And that’s literally it . There’s a lot more words, but as far as having a “complex” plot goes, no, it was a very straightforward plot. Everything else that happened? Largely self-contained and very easy, or pointless backstory, or overblown details and descriptions. None of the side bullshit affected the actual plot, and most of the things in this book didn’t last longer than a scene or two. Cancelling the slave shipments didn’t have an effect outside of Thorne’s plot, taking the throne wasn’t hard, none of the other nobles changed how Kelsea governed (or even were particularly involved), hell even in the name of setting up government, Mace handled most of that and anything he did went off without a hitch. There was a lot of stuff in here, but it was all disgustingly simple and easy. There was no complexity. There was a grabbag of details, and that was it. Complex, my ass. And the lack of a real, involved plot is most of the reason why this book was boring. The only times it wasn’t boring, it was hell-raisingly offensive instead, which isn’t exactly an improvement.

Lordy thank goodness we’re done.