Hello fellow book nerds!
What an adventure this trilogy was. I also loved the journey of Amelie’s writing throughout this series as well.
NOTE: If you did not read Blood Heir or Red Tigress then there will be spoilers. The review for Crimson Reign itself is spoiler free, as always.
You can check out my reviews on the first two books here:
Book 1: Blood Heir by Amelie Wen Zhao – Book and Audio Review
Book 2: Red Tigress by Amelie Wen Zhao – Book Review
Happy Reading!
Crimson Reign
Amélie Wen Zhao
4 out of 5 stars
Summary
Taken from Goodreads
The Red Tigress, Ana Mikhailov, has returned to Cyrilia, but the country she once called home has fallen under a dark rule. Across the land, the Empress Morganya is tightening her grip on Affinites and non-Affinites alike. Ana dealt a blow to the Empress when she and her allies turned back Morganya’s troops in Bregon, but she couldn’t stop Morganya from gaining possession of the last remaining Bregonian siphon: a dangerous new weapon with the power to steal Affinities.
Ana’s forces are scattered, and her tenuous alliance with the Cyrilian rebel group, the Red Cloaks, is becoming more frayed by the day. What’s worse, she’s lost her Affinity to blood and without it, Ana barely knows who she is anymore–or if she has the strength to defeat Morganya.
Morganya’s reign of terror is close to crushing the nation Ana was born to rule. And now Ana will finally face the sinister empress, but will she survive? Will anyone? And will her Empire welcome her back to the throne, or turn her out to survive on her own.
The Affinites and Non-Affinites of Cyrilia will determine Ana’s future, if Morganya doesn’t kill her first.
Feedback
If you’ve made it this far, that means you’ve read the first two books. Which also means there is a lot loose ends to tie up. But Amelie did an amazing job of doing so. This book felt really long due to everything that needed to be concluded but she made sure to do it. There were nothing left that felt unresolved and I’m really glad about that. This book felt like a conclusion, as it should since it was the final in the trilogy. It’s also really amazing to see the development of Amelie’s writing throughout each book. I really enjoyed this whole series, a lot more than I expected to. The only reason why this book wasn’t a five star book was due to everything that needed be concluded. While I did state, that I’m happy it was, the pacing suffered for it. There was just so much happening and it was sometimes hard to stay focused.
I loved all the characters and oh how they grew on me. Each one definitely evolved with the book and I absolutely loved to witness the development. They were fantastically portrayed and I didn’t end up feeling disappointed by any of them.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Crimson Reign by Amelie Wen Zhao was a fantastic ending to this amazing journey. And it was a journey. I really enjoyed the Amelie concluded everything that happened in this entire series. Even though the pacing suffered a little for it, this felt resolved and complete. There aren’t a lot of books where I feel satisfied it ended, but this did so in a good way. While I loved all the characters and wish I could get more of them, I know their story has been told and I am absolutely happy with that.
Audio Review
NOTE: The narration does not affect my rating of the book
If you like audiobooks, please give this series a shot. It truly was well done and I enjoyed every moment of it. But I’m also a sucker for Emily Woo Zeller.
Books in the Skye 