Hello everyone!
I was incredibly lucky to be chosen for an ARC of this book, and, honestly? I really, really hope more people pick it up.
It's not just the fact that the writer writes SO GOOD (which, she does, believe me), but it's the story she tells.
The stories she's already told.
I have to go back and read the previous two books in the series, as, of course, I literally stumbled into it at the end LOL, or middle, really, but that'll come in time.
Tonight, we'll be talking about number three in the series.
And yes, you can actually read it without needing to have read the first two, which is a rarity these days. Normally, authors will say you can, but by the time you get to it, you realize nope, you have no clue. This one isn't like that.
So sharpen those swords, and let's get on with Knight's Fire.
Juliette Caruso is an author I'd never heard about before randomly stumbling over ARC applications on Instagram, and I'm so glad I did. Her writing is beautiful, and the topics she chooses are top notch.
Knight's Fire follows Niel and Ayla; Ayla is married to a brutish husband who abuses her, Niel's fighting his father's war against his own older brother, when he runs into the castle Ayla and her husband own.
He's on the run, you see, having failed to take a strategic position for his warmongering father, and now he needs to hole up for the winter months. He figures this castle is as good as any, tricks the lord into riding out, and takes it for his own, locking the man into the wilderness.
He has plans to ransom Ayla back to him, but once he learns of her abuse? Oh all bets are OFF, and it's so beautiful. Because he has every right to just chuck her out into the snow, but Niel hates abuse of any kind, you'll see why later, and so he instead casts himself as her protector.
Then Ayla tries to poison him because for some reason she thinks that'll solve everything and doesn't think two steps ahead, but thankfully he survives.
You'd think that would be the end of it, but her husband sends men through a secret tunnel to try and take her (see that? Instead of taking back his castle, he just wants the wife he uses for a punching bag), which causes further problems, though Niel seals the leak eventually, and sends off the servants of the castle.
The girl who let the knights in? Yeah, she makes it too, because Ayla's a soft touch, but anyway.
Things get a bit better afterwards when they reach a kind of truce, right before the flu hits the keep, and Ayla nurses Niel through it. It takes him a day or so to figure out she's nowhere to be seen, then it turns out SHE has it TOO, and that's the first sign you get of how much Niel cares for her.
Of course the proof is later shown when he doesn't execute a knight following her pleas, but she does make him answer why he wants THAT specific knight dead. Turns out, he squired for the knight's house.
The man he squired for? Abused Niel, badly. And the Queen, Niel's aunt, refused to punish him because at that time, Niel's father (who was told of this) was already talking about war, and she didn't want to lose a powerful house's support.
So, instead of protecting a young boy, she protected a house that didn't need protecting, and Niel wants her off that throne, badly. Well, mostly he wants that house in ruins, but, the rest can happen, too.
However, Corin, Niel's older brother, leads the siege against the keep, and when the weather turns less foul it's evident that things will probably be going south for Niel's men. After turning down one of his father's messengers to escape in the night, leaving his men to fend for themselves, Niel parleys with Corin, saying he'll go with them, surrender, if he can duel Ayla's husband because, well, reasons.
So he duels. Kills the bastard. Then turns himself in.
Ayla, on the other hand, uses his unicorn cloak, which renders the wearer invisible, to follow the army to the capital. What she doesn't know is that, mid-march, Corin rides south, and while everyone thinks he's just, I don't know, doing lordly things, he's actually on the hunt for answers as to why his brother hates a particular house of the kingdom so much.
Thankfully though, Ayla's on point to kill Niel's abuser when he comes to try again while Niel's in shackles, by which point Corin also returns to free him. He wonders why Niel never told him - to which Niel's like LOL, YOU? The Queen's right hand man? Why would he trust him, of all people?
But tides are turning for the Queen in question, because Corin now knows she won't protect the people she's sworn to protect if she thinks that the wrong-doers might be beneficial to her in some way, and his own family was never protected, so he's about to raise hell. Possibly become rebel himself, but we won't know until the next book.
Anyway, Niel and Ayla flee south, and eventually find a home in a small town, settling when Ayla becomes pregnant. It's difficult for the two of them to make much money, however, and they argue about it frequently (especially since Ayla doesn't want Niel in the gladiator rings), until Niel randomly finds a job.
A well-off man sees him fight, and offers him a place as teacher at his sword school. This finally gives them something stable, and a community to build their lives in, which is a beautiful ending to a wonderfully heartbreaking story.
Again: many, many thanks to Ms Caruso for gifting me a copy of this book. I can honestly say that I'm definitely buying it in physical form because I DEVOURED it.
This is my first foray into the 'Knights of Enar' universe, and I'm all about it now. I'll read the first two leading up to Niel and Ayla's story just as soon as I can.
Because this book is a masterpiece.
Ayla and Niel are both broken by the very system that should have protected them, yet for reasons and purposes outside their control they each suffered at the very hands of those who ought to have been their shelter. And what I love most about this book of all is that it isn't instant. It's not immediate. They both WORK for it, and have to overcome things before they can get to their happily ever after.
Add to it that this is all happening against the backdrop of an active war, a siege, and currents flowing beneath the surface you only get to scratch at if you pick this book as a standalone, and you've got yourself a winner.
I'm hooked by Niel and Ayla, who seem so REAL because they don't just fall into tropes immediately, but you get to see them work for it, suffer for it, and finally, laugh over it. I'm also hooked by the supporting cast who obviously have their own stories to tell, how they even got to war in the first place, and what's still about to happen (looking at you, Hark). Equally, Ms Caruso writes of the landscape as if its a beast all of its own, the cold of the northern regions, the forbidden Hulder forest, the heat of the realm of oranges.
It's beautiful and breathtaking and the best bit? Is that there's more to read.
And, of course, the happily ever after and the village that Neil and Ayla build for themselves away from Enar, although I'm hopeful we get to check in with them in future books as well.
Overall, 10 out of 10 for me, and I can't wait to read the rest of the stories set in this world!
This is my first foray into the 'Knights of Enar' universe, and I'm all about it now. I'll read the first two leading up to Niel and Ayla's story just as soon as I can.
Because this book is a masterpiece.
Ayla and Niel are both broken by the very system that should have protected them, yet for reasons and purposes outside their control they each suffered at the very hands of those who ought to have been their shelter. And what I love most about this book of all is that it isn't instant. It's not immediate. They both WORK for it, and have to overcome things before they can get to their happily ever after.
Add to it that this is all happening against the backdrop of an active war, a siege, and currents flowing beneath the surface you only get to scratch at if you pick this book as a standalone, and you've got yourself a winner.
I'm hooked by Niel and Ayla, who seem so REAL because they don't just fall into tropes immediately, but you get to see them work for it, suffer for it, and finally, laugh over it. I'm also hooked by the supporting cast who obviously have their own stories to tell, how they even got to war in the first place, and what's still about to happen (looking at you, Hark). Equally, Ms Caruso writes of the landscape as if its a beast all of its own, the cold of the northern regions, the forbidden Hulder forest, the heat of the realm of oranges.
It's beautiful and breathtaking and the best bit? Is that there's more to read.
And, of course, the happily ever after and the village that Neil and Ayla build for themselves away from Enar, although I'm hopeful we get to check in with them in future books as well.
Overall, 10 out of 10 for me, and I can't wait to read the rest of the stories set in this world!
xx
*image not mine
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