This book was released on December 28, 2023, which is months later than I read the first two and the prequel, but I was excited to read it all the same!

Read: December 24 – December 24, 2023
*Self-published author

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult
Book contains: murder, dark elements, implied sexual content

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

[I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.]

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So Good! Great Deity Interpretation!

A gate to the Echo dimension has been opened, and the world is descending into chaos as Echo creatures are escaping into the world, and Echo mages are experiencing burnout from the merest uses of their magic. Azalea and Torin, on top of their determination to fix what the Archmage and Korbyn Dumont have done, must keep their illegal soul bond a secret. Their only option? Travel beyond the mortal plane to the Echo dimension itself, to seek the aid of the gods. Meanwhile, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Shadow Dimension, has come to collect on her deal with Azalea, and offers a new choice as well.

Captive is an excellent final installment to the trilogy. There’s been a massive break between reading the first two books (and the prequel) and reading this one, so I’ve forgotten a lot of what happened previously, but this book gives just enough context that it reminds the reader of past events without feeling like needless exposition. For example, I’d completely forgotten about Ambrose, but a brief reminder was all I needed for him to come back to me.

I received an ARC copy of this book and was glad that I had the ability to use Read Aloud. It let me thoroughly enjoy the book in a way that regular eBook reading doesn’t do for me. I find reading on a screen difficult—and I like listening along to stories anyway.

This book, like the others, is told in limited third person and follows Azalea and Torin as they work together, but it also follows each of them as they split to complete their own missions apart from one another. The focus doesn’t stray far from either of them, though there are a few scenes in which neither of them are present, just to give a bit more context to the story.

The main characters, Azalea and Torin, are an excellent couple to lead this adventure. What I like most about them is that even though they’ve come together as a couple, they can still stand on their own and be independent. They’re stronger together, but whole nonetheless (which some other books sometimes forget). Issac, Van, Uncle Fabian, and other characters return, though they mostly stay in the background, Kat and Fabian join Torin for a mission, and Azalea is joined in her own mission by Jade, Faraday, and a new companion.

Azalea and Torin’s relationship remains strong. They have a few arguments, usually when one makes a decision that affects the other (without consulting them first), but this book is full of hard choices, and both are quite understanding of one another, as they both know what it’s like to be in that position. They’re quite adept at reconciliation.

Sandiford’s style is enjoyable; it’s simplistic but elegant, with all the energy and intrigue that a Young Adult book needs. There weren’t any complex and interwoven deeper themes that less experienced readers may miss out on, and the syntax was generic to everyday conversation, with little to no uncommon words. One point of reading difficulty may come from the references to different mythology, and the wildly difficult-to-pronounce names of the gods. Since I used the Read Aloud function, I found some typos that weren’t caught by the copyeditor and proofreader; there were about four, which is really good for a first edition.

It never felt like the pacing was off. As the story called for a slower, more emotional moment, it was there, but overall, the time crunch that the characters were under kept it at the required fast pace without being too fast. Tension grips the reader out of nowhere, and there’s no guarantee that everyone will survive to the ending of the series, so be prepared to be on the edge of your seat.

I highly recommend this whole series! It’s unique to any other book I’ve read, though still a combination of things I love! This is sadly the last book in this series, but the author has announced that she is already working on another book, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for her future work. (Also, even though I read these books for free, I plan to purchase the entire set once I have the spare funds.)

Related Reviews:

*The Shadow Atlas Book 1: Initiate by Jenny Sandiford*
*The Shadow Atlas Book 2: Apprentice by Jenny Sandiford*
*The Shadow Atlas Book 3: Captive by Jenny Sandiford*
*The Shadow Atlas Prequel: House of Ravens by Jenny Sandiford*
*The 13th Zodiac Saga Book 1: Keepers of the Zodiac by Natalie Brianne*
The Mortal Instruments Book 1: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
*The Robin Trilogy Book 1: Robin’s Flight by Breanne Leftwich*