ARC Review: Freedom's Slave by Heather Demetrios

Freedom's Slave
Author: Heather Demetrios
Series: Dark Caravan Cycle (Book 3)
Publication: Balzer + Bray (February 28, 2017)

Description: Freedom’s Slave is the exhilarating end to Heather Demetrios’s Dark Caravan Cycle—a modern jinni fantasy-adventure trilogy, which Publishers Weekly called “an intricate and smartly written story,” perfect for fans of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone series and Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

After three long years in exile, Nalia is ready to return to her homeland and sit on the throne that is rightfully hers. But the gods might have other plans. Forced to endure untold horrors on the journey to Arjinna, Nalia learns that it will take more than cutting down the tyrant Calar to get her crown.

Meanwhile, Raif’s return to Arjinna as the commander of the revolution against Calar and her army isn’t as smooth as he’d hoped. Though he has more soldiers than ever before, his love for Nalia is losing him the trust of his comrades . . . and the war. But little does the resistance know that insurrection is brewing among Calar’s own ranks—and from the one person she trusts the most.

Is Nalia and Raif’s enduring love enough to transform and rescue their homeland? Will they be willing to save the realm, no matter the cost?

My Thoughts: This concluding book to the Dark Caravans trilogy was packed with action. Scenes shift from Arjinni to the Eye of Iblis and back to various parts of Arjinni. Viewpoint characters are also varied.

Since Calar who overthrew the Ghan Aisouri and claimed the throne closed the gate between Earth and Arjinni, Nalia who is the only remaining Ghan Aisouri, and Raif who is leading the revolution against Calar have to take the hazardous path between the two realms called the Eye of Iblis. They fight many battles along the way and in one of the battles their guide is injured and Nalia goes missing. They need to go to Arjinni and leave Nalia behind.

Nalia is wandering the Eye and experiencing strange things with a white phoenix as her guide, while Raif is back in Arjinni but has lost the fervor that made him the charismatic leader of the revolutionaries. And Calar is facing a rebellion among her ifrit led by her lover Kesmir who has been watching her lose her mind and become more evil.

When Nalia comes out of the Eye after a year and day inside, she faces an escalating war and retribution from the four gods of the jinn. Somehow, she has to lead people from all classes if they are going to survive what the gods will be throwing at them. But most of the classes on Arjinni don't want a new empress no matter how well-meaning Nalia is.

This is a book filled with lots of heart-wrenching moments where those who are loved are lost and the world as they know it is destroyed. Readers of the first two books of this trilogy will certainly want to follow the story to its epic conclusion.

Favorite Quote:

Kesmir was trying to overthrow the jinni he'd once loved more than anything in the worlds not because he wanted to destroy Calar, but because it was the only way to save her. 

I received this one for review from Edelweiss. You can buy your copy here.