Title: The Trials
Series: The Spell Saga: Book Four
Author: Cari Z
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 141 Pages
Category: Steampunk
Rating: 4 Stars
At a Glance: The Trials delivers Anton and Camille to the very brink in this action packed and suspenseful series. They were not meant to fight another man’s war, and the means by which they escape is delivered in a breathtaking and desperate way.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Anton Seiber, Master Thaumaturge and reluctant architect of the French Empire’s newest weapon of war, is on the verge of collapse. It wouldn’t be so bad if his blood wasn’t required to power the spell revolutionizing the battlefield, or if he were allowed to communicate with his friends and family, or if he could see his lover Lord Camille Lumière, special investigator for the emperor himself, more than once every few months. As it is, he’s barely holding himself together. He’s determined to make it through…until an accident in the laboratory leads to his collapse.
Camille is a loyal servant of the empire, but it will take more than a war to keep him away from Anton. He returns to find his lover on the brink of death, and it takes Camille’s special “gift” to keep him alive. He is ordered to leave Anton behind and return to service—the future of the empire, and everyone “gifted” like him, might depend on it.
There’s only one thing to do: escape to England with Anton. If only they weren’t surrounded by armed guards, dangerous magic, deadly cannons and, oh yes—a war for control of the entire continent.
Review: Anton Seiber, Master Thaumaturge, invented a weapon of war the French Empire not only wanted but was willing to watch Anton destroy himself creating, if it meant the Empire would prevail in a war for supremacy. Powerful men who sacrifice other’s lives on the field of battle for the sake of their cause demand much of Anton, so much that he’d have died by his own weapon. But Camille Lumière was not about to let that happen. Even if he had to commit an act of treason to prevent it.
“We gave them so much, Anton. Almost everything we could give them, and they still wanted more.”
The Trials delivers Anton and Camille to the very brink in this action packed and suspenseful series. This is the place they were destined to reach, the place where they had to choose their own survival, and a future together, over someone else’s grasp for power. They were not meant to fight another man’s war, and the means by which they escape is delivered in a breathtaking and desperate way.
They, of course, could not have made it to their happy ending without help. Their allies and helpers (especially Bert and Hrym) were great additions to the cast, while their adversary was both sinister and grimly relentless with a singular focus on using his most valuable weapon of torture, no matter the cost.
I love when a book gives me reason to contemplate. There’s a question in this series about whether love and compassion exist in the heart or in the soul, whether it’s the soul or the conscience that makes monsters of men, if kindness and generosity are deliberate or if we are predisposed to them by the existence of a soul. There were no definitive answers, but Camille and his brother, Lord Laurent Jourdain, are a study in contrasts who prove that our choices dictate who we are more so than what we are composed of.
You can buy The Trials here:
[zilla_button url=”https://books2read.com/The-Trials” style=”black” size=”large” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon/Kindle Unlimited [/zilla_button]