Heather’s Bookshelf: Celts and the Fiery Goth: The Deathless Chronicle Book III
Author: PC Darkcliff
Released: 12/29/21
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mythological
“Rawena was his only hope for freedom and sanity. She came almost every night, and he loved gazing at her moonlit face as she spoke to him. They always whispered, out of fear of being heard by the soldiers, which was strangely intimate, almost as if they were furtive lovers. Although she never brought him food, she was like a cheerful flame of hope in the black cavern his mind had become.”
“Celts and the Fiery Goth” is the sequel to Celts and Mad Goddess (review can be found here) and Celts and the Gladiator (review can be found here). This review is just of “Celts and the Fiery Goth” as an individual novel. However, this story begins where the second of The Deathless Chronicles left off and while the author does a brief review of the previous tales, I would recommend reading them in the written order.
Set 500 years after the initial book and when Rawena first came in contact with Pandemia, Celts and the Fiery Goth picks up at the end of the second Deathless Chronicle. Rawena is spending her time soothing the poor people in a lepper colony in Constantinople. But Pandemia is still focused on releasing her plague on the people of the world. She enlists the help of Vitiges, an ex-ruler turned prisoner who had befriended Rawena.
Meanwhile, Arvasia, Rawena’s sister, has been pursuing her sister with the intent of preventing the plague. She and Garux have split up and her old beau has sunk into a shadow of his once-great former self.
When Vitiges can’t follow through with his plan, Pandemia recruits another who spreads Rawena’s blood onto a ship set for Constantinople. Will someone be able to stop the plague from spreading or will Pandemia’s plan finally come to fruition?
Trigger Warning: violence, adult language, disease
Overall, I enjoyed following the characters from the original story. The first half of the book is very Rawena-centric, which I thought was nice considering her situation and predicament. It also starts with getting right to Pandemia and her curse. It is fast-paced and effective in re-introducing previous characters and themes. The second half of the book is more focused on Arvasia, Garux, and the relationships between all of the main characters. The author did a good job of reminding the reader of their investment in the characters and the complications between all of them without being obvious in his review. The main villain focuses on Pandemia with her influences over others, which I really liked. This story just seemed to click for me in this series. It felt the most natural and organic story out of the trilogy to me. It did have some issues, like the pacing of the tale was a little up and down throughout and I didn’t care enough about the ancillary characters not introduced in the first books. But the ending wraps up the series nicely, though seemingly abruptly.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
OVERALL REVIEW:
A third book in a series stays true to the originals while wrapping up the thread between them
Want to learn more about the author?
Check out my interview with PC Darkcliff about Book 2 in the Deathless Chronicle Series
Interested in checking out the book for yourself?
Find it for purchase here or on Kindle Unlimited
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