Week 14 Review: The Nightshade God

From Goodreads:

The Nightshade Crown is in the hands of a ruthless god. Lore will stop at nothing to defeat him and save the troubled prince and tortured priest ensnared in his wicked plot, in this final installment of this lush, romantic, New York Times bestselling fantasy series from breakout star Hannah Whitten.

Lore has failed. She couldn't save King Bastian from the rotten god speaking voices in his mind. She couldn't save her allies from being scattered across the continent—their own lesser gods whispering to them in their dreams. She couldn't save her beautiful, corrupt city from the dark power beneath the catacombs. And she couldn't save herself.

Banished to the Burnt Isles, Lore must use every skill she earned on the streets of Dellaire to survive the prison colony and figure out a way to defeat the power that's captured everything and everyone she holds dear. When a surprise ally joins her on the Burnt Isles she realizes the way forward may lie on the island itself. Somehow, her friends must help her collect the far-scattered pieces of the broken Fount—the source of all the god's powers—and bring them back together on the Burnt Isles, returning all magic to its source and destroying, once and for all, the gods corrupting the land.

But as Lore gets closer to her goal, her magic grows stronger… and to a woman who's always had to fight for survival, that kind of power may be hard to give up.

My Review:
I loved reading this book! I was really looking forward to this book, to seeing how the story was going to end, and it nailed it! The ending of book 2 had me itching to see how they were going to deal with the situation that they were in, how they were going to deal with Apollius and the other gods. 

I'm pretty sure this is the only book in the series that alternated fairly evenly between perspectives, there might have been a one off, or a couple here and there, but we followed 4 of these characters who each have a different god and/or power in their head, and they're pretty scattered. Loved watching as they came together! Of course the trio, Lore, Bastian and Gabe, who I adore and I was cheering their threesome, but also Alie, which was really interesting, with all the different circumstances that they're all in.

A big part of this book was religious and what it is like when the reality doesn't line up with the ideals. The author's acknowledgements mentions Christianity, and how people use it, and how it's the opposite in this book-that the god that was the center of the religion was just assumed to be good because of the religion created around him, when it turns out that he's very, very flawed.

I cried during that epilogue. This kind of ending, there's a cost to it, and that hurt. I don't know how to put this without spoiling, but this is the 2nd time I've cried over a similar structure, though that was prequels of the main story, not the end, but the same feeling. But I'm satisfied with how it turned out, even though it hurt! 

Loved reading this book and I can't wait to read more by Hannah Whitten! 

Author: Hannah Whitten
Series: The Nightshade Crown #3
Read: April 4th, 2025
Source: NetGalley
Reason Why: Love her writing and this series, and it's a End of Series 2025 Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2025 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Orbit
Expected Publication: July 15th 2025

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars