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Book: “Faithbreaker” by Hannah Kaner
Publishing Info: HarperVoyager, April 2025
Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: War has come. The fire god Hseth is leading an unstoppable army south, consuming everything in her path. Middren’s only hope of survival is to unify allies and old foes against a common enemy.
Elo navigates an uneasy alliance with Arren; his friend, his enemy, and his king. Now they each must decide how much they’re willing to sacrifice to turn the tides of war.
Meanwhile, Inara joins her mother on their ship, the Silverswift, to seek aid. Still grappling with her powers, Inara must reconcile who she is and where she belongs, while Skediceth has to question if their bond will be enough to keep them safe.
Kissen has no allegiance to the old ways of Middren. But, as she tries to find her family, she is forced to question what, and whose, future she is fighting for.
Previously Reviewed: “Godkiller” and “Sunbringer”
Review: I’ll be honest, I’ve put off writing this review for a bit. On reflection, this trilogy has been a challenging experience. Mostly because the first book hit it out of the park for me, and now each subsequent book has been a step further and further away from that high. While this book does stick the landing of the overall plot itself, it wasn’t enough to temper my disappointment with various other aspects of the story.
But let’s start with the good. Like the two books before it, this one capitalizes on the intricate world-building that has been created over the course of the trilogy. There’s been excellent exploration of themes regarding religion, devotion, and the extremes to which individuals can be driven to under the influence of strong ideologies. This one continued in these veins. And, like I said, while it takes a while to get everything and everyone in place, the final confrontation and climax of the trilogy hits well.
The pacing is also fairly slow throughout. But this is true for the first two books as well, so readers should essentially expect a similar reading experience to those stories. Personally, I think the slower pacing works for the sort of story being drawn here. Never does this series claim to be an action-packed romp. But instead, it’s very character-based, and, as such, spends a lot of time in various characters’ heads exploring their personal arcs.
Now, unfortunately, we get to my complaints. First off, from the start I’ve mentioned that delicate balance that has been struck between the shared POVs. In the first book, all three POV characters were strong enough to make this approach work well. And, as they all spent the majority of their time together, these different POVs didn’t take us away from the two other characters, allowing the reader to still spend time with them all. In the second book, one of my complaints had to do with the lessening impact of these various POVs. Inara remained mostly the same, but Elo’s story took a massive dip, with much of his subplot feeling tacked on. And, in a strange turn, the excellence of Kissen’s chapters only served to further undermine the story, as it began to feel as if any chapters focused on the other two dragged even more than they should have in comparison.
Well, here, where I had so many hopes now that our main trio were finally reunited, this problem has only been expanded upon. Not only do they get immediately broken up into various groups again and sent off in different directions, but the story added in TWO more POVs. And, honestly, I couldn’t have cared less about Arren or Hestra! Not only did these chapters feel as if they were taking up precious page space from the characters I actually cared about, but in Arren’s case, the entire project behind him was DOA.
I get that the author thought that this added POV for him was necessary to attempt to make him a sympathetic character, but frankly, it was too little too late. I couldn’t simply sweep under the rug all of the actions I’d seen from this character in the first two books. Perhaps if these chapters were attempting to simply lighten opinions on him some, it would have worked. But to attempt to re-create him as a romantic interest for Elo? NO THANK YOU! I was so upset by this switch. Not only did it feel like the excellent dynamic that was created between Elo and Kissen was swept under the rug for no apparent reason (and frankly, this is the kind of stuff that just makes me furious because it makes me feel as if the author set me up for disappointment from the start), but Elo’s entire story has played out in him coming to realize what he deserves and what he doesn’t. What he absolutely doesn’t deserve is to end up with a character like Arren, who treated him so poorly and, frankly, betrayed him to a point that even if forgiveness could happen, romantic love certainly shouldn’t.
And it was more of the same for Kissen. Yes, her natural charisma as a character carried this new relationship further than my total disinterest in Elo’s relationship. But still. This felt like a late-game switch that simply wasn’t necessary and wasn’t set up to succeed. We had two entire books with plenty of other lore and action that needed to be resolved in the rather short page count of this last book. To attempt to wrap all of that up while also adding in two new relationships that only really appear in this last book? Something’s got to give, and it was with these romances.
It’s hard to be objective with this book. Once I saw where things were going with these new romances, I was so frustrated with the trilogy as a whole that I had a hard time focusing in on the rest of what the story was trying to accomplish. There was a solid ending, and one that pulled at the heartstrings in some meaningful ways. But what I loved best about this series were the three main characters. And as the trilogy wore on, it felt like more and more, that’s where the story struggled. Readers who are perhaps less invested in the main trio as a core group may enjoy this more than me. And that said, I do enjoy this author’s style of writing, so I’ll definitely check out what comes next (though, I’ll be honest, if it’s another series, I might wait for it to complete before starting up, so I know what I’m getting into. I really hate having the rug pulled out from under me, and it’s one of the few grievances that I have a hard time forgiving in authors.)
Rating 7: For me, personally, this was probably a 6. But as I know that I got caught up in my feelings, I’d say that on a whole, this one was still a solid conclusion to the trilogy, just not as good as the first book.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Faithbreaker” is on this Goodreads list: 2025 Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction.
The Library Ladies 