Review of Sylvia Mercedes's Queen of Poison

Betrayal surrounds her.

Doom beckons her.

Yet she will hunt one last time.

Captured, heartbroken, shackled in torturous iron mittens that keep her shade deeply suppressed, Ayleth knows Fendrel keeps her alive for one purpose: She is his only remaining weapon against the resurrected Dread Odile. Once her task is complete, she will be executed. It’s as simple as that.

But Ayleth isn’t about to give in that easily.

Meanwhile, Gerard is held prisoner in his own castle by his uncle's orders--Fendrel must keep his nephew alive in order to force the ancient prophecy into completion.  However, Gerard sees a different path before him, and he is resolved to follow it to the end.

As the forces of the Witch Queen wreak havoc across the land, can Ayleth and Gerard come to terms with the truth of their pasts . . . and face their destinies with courage?

Don’t miss the penultimate adventure in the breathtaking Venatrix Chronicles!

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My review: 

All I can really say about this book is: How dare you. Over and over again. How dare the synopsis conveniently forget to mention my boy Terryn. How dare this book pain Fendrel so villainously. How dare Terryn and Ayleth not see each other EVEN ONCE. Do not continue this review if you have not read any of the previous books in this series.

Everyone's relationships are strained in this book except for anything to do with Terryn, because Terryn is literal perfection in this entire book. He's over here systematically fixing everything as fast as he possibly can, but he's only one man and there are a lot of characters screwing everything up, and I'm not just talking about the actual bad guys. 

Speaking of bad guys, we get the origin story of the title Queen of Poison, which is really cool. And confusing to poor Ayleth who is already dealing with much confusion concerning her relationship with her former mistress (forgive and move on, I say). 

Gerard is also dealing with a lot of anger issues because the second generation is just so mad at the first generation right now because apparently no one can understand why anyone did what they did to save the world and deliver them all from evil for as long as possible. But anyway...

Since there is no real Ayleth and Terryn interactions to discuss here (Grr), I will give my statement in Fendrel's defense. He is not a bad guy. He is a man who did a lot of gray things for a good reason and bears the burden heavily. So when it all comes crumpling down and looks like his sacrifices might be for naught, he's understandably testy. Add to that the fact that the person he loves most in the world was killed in front of him, and I think we can all understand why he loses his mind a bit and turns on the others that he loves. In his poor, broken mind, why should he have them when he can't have his closest loved one, too? He's in a free-fall of grief, and unfortunately, a powerful man going through that free-fall.

Note to more sensitive readers: This book had some bad language, violence, horror elements, just plain intensity, and far too little romance.