Name: Mother of Death & Dawn
Series: The War of Lost Hearts #3
Author: Carissa Broadbent
Publisher: Self-Published
Format: Paperback (available on KU)
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal
Noted Tropes: Wielders, Fey, Sacrifice to Save the World, High Stakes, Seperation
Steam or Spice: Spice
Rating:
Synopsis: Goodreads
Tell me, little butterfly, what would you do for love?
In the wake of a crushing defeat, Tisaanah and Maxatarius have been ripped apart. Tisaanah is desperate to rescue Max from his imprisonment, even as her people’s fight for freedom grows more treacherous. But within the walls of Ilyzath, Max’s mind is a shadow of what it once was… leaving his past a mystery and his future at the mercy of Ara’s new, ruthless queen.
Meanwhile, in the Fey lands, Aefe has been dragged back into this world by a king who vows to destroy civilizations in her name. But even as her past returns to claim her, her former self is a stranger.
Tisaanah, Max, and Aefe are thrust into the center of a cataclysm between the human and Fey worlds. The unique magic they share is key to either winning the war, or ending it.
But that power demands sacrifice. Tisaanah may be forced to choose between love and duty. Max cannot forge his future without confronting his past. And Aefe must decide between reclaiming who she was, or embracing who she has become.
The choices they make will either reshape this world forever…or end it..
Review:
Mother of Death & Dawn is the final book in The War of Lost Hearts trilogy, so there may be spoilers for the previous books below.
This was a strong final book! I wasn’t ready for the series to end, and lucky for me this book was 710 pages long! Which meant I had a lot of story to get through between me and the ending. Broadbent took us on a full on expedition throughout these pages! So much happened within these pages, but at no point did it feel like anything was being crammed into this book. At one point I remember taking a sigh of relief thinking things were looking up for these characters… then I realised there was 333 pages left. So I prepared myself for what the author had planned next…
We had our three POVs again, Tisaanah, Max and Aefe and whilst I found that I preferred Tisaanah and Max’s POVs in this one, I still enjoyed Affe’s. After the reveal at the end of Children of Fallen Gods that Aefe and Reyshae are one and the same, I wasn’t sure how we’d move forward with Aefe, and yet part of me found that, once again, I was questioning where her chapters fit in the timeline of Mother of Death & Dawn given the reveal that her chapters before were in the past, I expected them to be in the future. I’m not sure if it was done on purpose, the fact that the Fae’s chapters were a little less clear in when they were happening, but I enjoyed the effect that it had.
We pick up after some time has passed following the events of Children of Fallen Gods, and that means Tisaanah and Max are separated. As I have said before, this is not one of my favourite tropes, but Carissa Broadbent managed to make completely work. I enjoyed both Tisaanah and Max’s chapters. But don’t get me wrong, I still was much happier once they were reunited! We got to see a lot more of Sammerin during Mother of Death & Dawn and I love that as he and Ishqa were two of the characters I really wanted to see more of! I very much got my wish.
I had my heart broken on a number of occassions whilst reading Mother of Death & Dawn – not get the tissues, requirement, but shattered and broken. Throughout this trilogy Broadbent had written and made us love (even love to hate for a few) a big cast of character and reading this final journey was hard in some places! But I would urge that to not stop you from picking up the final book. The ending ticked all the boxes for me, and I enjoyed the inclusion of an Epilogue to help us say goodbye…
I am sad that this series is over… I will miss Tisaanah and Max and of course the secondary cast (the likes of Sammerin and Aefe (technically not a secondary character I suppose…) and Ishqa). I loved this series. I am so glad that I discovered this series this year. They are chunky books, but they were will worth the read. It was Jaimee on TikTok (if I could figure out how to link her I would!) that turned me onto this series, and I now want to push this series on all my friends in the same way I did Fourth Wing… We’ll see if i’m successful.
“Perhaps our attachments are inconvenient… but what are we doing any of this for, if not for them?”
Reading With Tyler 
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