Cage of Destiny by Jennifer Anne Davis
Fantasy. 298 Pages. 4 Stars
Synopsis:
Destined from birth to be the next empress of Emperion, Allyssa grew up at court weighed down by the expectations of the crown. Kingdom and duty always came first.
Until now.
Having survived the brutal kingdom of Russek, she is given the choice to walk away and live a peaceful, quiet life. But it also means giving up everything she knows and everyone she loves. Before she decides, word reaches her about an assassination attempt. Donning her secret persona–that of a vigilante–she sets out to eliminate her enemy once and for all.
As Allyssa fights the demons of her past to save her future, she realizes she never had a choice. She can either embrace her destiny or be caged by it
My Review:
The conclusion to the trilogy! Well, there are two more books in the series, but they’re not the same story or told from Allyssa’s pov, as I understand it. All in all, it was a satisfying conclusion; and although I wouldn’t rate either the conclusion or the series as a whole among my a favorites, it was an entertaining read.
The plot was paced slower than the previous two books, but I still found myself engaged in the story. I didn’t ever get bored with it, despite the fewer life and death pinches. There was less tension, less political intrigue, and a lot of focus on completing the vengeance mission. It felt like the whole thing was tying up previous ends, so to speak. On a bit of a random note, I’m still not quite sure how stealing tangerines prepared Allyssa for her “final battle.” I mean, I see that she sees how Nathenek’s training better prepared her, but I didn’t see how it helped. The idea didn’t follow through. It was what the author told me, not what I witnessed myself. In that regard, and a few others as we’ll talk about, I wish the novel had more depth.
The best part of the book may be the characters. I liked them. I liked seeing how they interacted with each other. Some of them did feel a little one-dimensional at times, though Allyssa didn’t. They sort of served their purpose and only their purpose. Darmik, probably my favorite, felt rounder, more complex than most of the others. So did Kerdan. I suppose the MCs felt more real than some of the side characters like Nathenek, Rema, or Omar did. Kerdan respects Allyssa. He allows her to make her own decisions and choices, regardless of how he feels. Odar wasn’t a wimp in this one like the last one, but he was pretty pompous. His true colors weren’t pretty. He said he loved Allyssa, but his actions clearly said otherwise. Maybe he loved her in the only way he knew how, looking at how he grew up. But he never made an attempt to change that, to learn or grow. Nathenek and Savenek intrigued me to no end. I wanted to know more of their story. I wanted to see more of how Nathenek worked with Allyssa, and I would like to see how Saveneck works with Allyssa in the future. The end alluded to that, but the synopsis of next book doesn’t make me think I’ll see much of that or of his backstory prior to this trilogy. I liked getting to know Natheneck, well as much as we could, again, he wasn’t as deep as I would have liked, though I’m sure there’s plenty to tell. I loved Darmik’s part in the story and would say his role was my favorite. I loved reading a story with the father-daughter dynamic that this one had. So many stories don’t include the parents or write them off as useless, incompetent, or just wrong. This one was different, and I thought that was special. I loved how protective he was of her, how much he loved her, and how he did grow and change the way he showed her that love.
There was a lot of travel in this one, a little bit of a new town, and Nathenek’s home, but not much else in way of setting. We saw a little more of Russek, but again, not much else. The setting wasn’t too in depth. Even the cultures were not as deep as I would have liked. The author made a point, I think, to show that Allyssa’s (and others’ I’m sure) fear of and disgust with Russek was largely due to ignorance of their culture. However, though she addressed that idea I, as the reader, never felt like I learned what their culture was. This was something I found slightly disappointing. By the end, Allyssa “understands” the Russek’s better, but I don’t. The short scene in a bar is like a revelation for Allyssa later on, but I never figured out exactly what was going on or how that was the key to understanding the Russek people. There wasn’t enough followthrough with the different cultures, either in Russek or other countries. Kerdan talked about making changes, theorized that the army reflected his father’s brutality, but what kind of changes would he make? I wanted Davis to dive deeper here, to expand on the cultures instead of just telling me they were barbaric or not barbaric or feminist or not feminist. There was more potential for the setting, for the world, than was expanded upon, in my opinion.
Speaking of feminism, I thought that kind of soured the ending just a little for me. Well, it kind of soured more than just the ending, but it wasn’t as prevalent as it was in the previous book. I’ve already made my sentiments known in my previous review, but as a quick recap for this one: I felt Allyssa was very blatant in her opinions, and not in a personality kind of way, in a the-author-is-pushing-an-agenda, stiff-jolting-the-reader-out-of-the-story kind of way. Again, it wasn’t as in your face and preachy in this one as the last, but it still made me roll my eyes. Otherwise, I thought the ending was pretty well-balanced. It acknowledged the painful past, the changes that the characters had gone through, and yet still made love, family, hope, and the future important. It left off on a good note, and I enjoyed that.
Content: Some say this book wasn’t as dark as the previous one, and I’m not sure I wholly agree. Yes, the second book dealt more with captivity and prisoners of war, torture, and such, but this one had some subliminally dark themes that were kind of disturbing to me. The last book led into these themes, but this one really exposed the heart of them. So, book 2 was darker outright perhaps, but this one still held a dark tone, too.
The idea that people can’t be forgiven, the theme of revenge and vengeance, and the persistence of murder were all prevalent themes. I don’t believe anyone can be unforgivable or that anything is unforgivable, but this novel holds more than one character in that category, which kind of breaks my heart honestly. I hate the idea that anyone would feel so far gone that they cannot be redeemed. It isn’t true. Now, some people never choose redemption, that’s true, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t redeemable at all. Furthermore, though Allyssa struggles with the trauma of book 2, both by the hands of others and by her own, I felt the book had an unhealthy focus on revenge/vengeance. They wouldn’t let the idea go, they wouldn’t consider anything else (though, admittedly, they had in the past), I still think there would have been ways around blatantly premeditated murder. War is a nasty business; I get that. People die. People are brutally murdered, ruthless, and downright unkind. Not everyone will hold the same values and ideals that I do, but I sort of expected the hero to. The “good guy” should have cared more for life in the end, in my opinion.
Lastly, the violence wasn’t extremely graphic, but it wasn’t mild either. The book does deal with vengeance, murder, and war, so take that into account. There was no more torture in this one, but there is a character clearly affected by it. Some mild swearing, though mostly infrequent. The romance was well done, nothing more serious than a fiery kiss and a caress, though there is allusion to more. I’d probably say late teens and up for this one.
More:
Book 1 in the Reign of Secrets series is Cage of Deceit (4 Stars)
Book 2 is Cage of Darkness (4 Stars)
Book 4 is Oath of Deception
Book 5 is Oath of Destruction
I have read and reviewed the original trilogy on Goodreads. See the links above for more information. These definitely need to be read in order.
On GraceBought
If you missed my thoughts on the first two books in the trilogy, check them out below!