Tyrant's throne

 Series: Greatcoats #4 

Author: Sebastien de Castell

Original publication date: April 20, 2017

Genre: Fantasy

Book description: 

Would you - could you? - uphold the law at the cost of those you love?

After years of struggle and sacrifice, Falcio val Mond, First Cantor of the Greatcoats, is on the brink of fulfilling his dead King's dream: Aline, the King's daughter, is about to take the throne and restore the rule of law once and for all.

But for the Greatcoats, nothing is ever that simple. In the neighbouring country of Avares, an enigmatic new warlord is uniting the barbarian armies which have long plagued Tristia's borders - and even worse, he is rumoured to have a new ally: Trin, who's twice tried to kill Aline to take the throne for herself. With the armies of Avares at her back, she'll be unstoppable.

Falcio, Kest and Brasti race north to stop her, but in those cold and treacherous climes they discover something altogether different, and far more dangerous: a new player is planning to take the throne of Tristia, and the Greatcoats, for all their skill, may not be able to stop him.

As the nobles of Tristia and even the Greatcoats themselves fight over who should rule, the Warlord of Avares threatens to invade. It is going to fall to Falcio to render the one verdict he cannot bring himself to decide: does he crown the girl he vowed to put on the throne, or uphold the laws he swore to serve?

Thoughts: 

This is the final book in the series a conclusion I was afraid of. The fear was of how I would feel about the ending.

I really loved this series as a whole. My reading experience for all of the books can be described as frustrating. Frustrating in the best way possible. As you are reading once more Kest, Falcio and Brasti are pulled into a series of events that have them truly screwed. They have to face impossible enemies and they have even less support than before.

The friendship among them is still the best part f this book. There are a few moments where I was frustrated on behalf of the Greatcoats that I wanted to throw my tablet across the room. I did not of course. What I did do is take a lot of breaks while reading this book.

The formula is the same, Greatcoats want to make Aline into the Queen, there are issues. An enemy country is threatening to attack. A tragedy happens to shatter the country more than it has ever been since the death of the King. Trin comes back by the way. And the enemy is many times mightier than the few soldiers Trista manages to find after the majority of the Lords break away from the crown. And it's up to Falcio to manage to fight off the incoming army in order to ensure a bit of safety to the common folk. As you can tell the same thing- treason, huge enemies and they fight a battle they can't win. I still love it! The way they fight amongst themselves, the way they get inspired, and the way they accept their death so valiantly. The best features in fictional characters in my opinion.

Highlights (skip if you are totally against spoilers)

*** Opening of slight spoilers

*Vivena did not find a prince charming. The man she fell for proved to be an asshole you can see it in the first few chapters. I despise the guy. And then closer to the end of the book he again proves himself to be very weak-minded and simply a man not worth the while for someone like Vivena. She is one of my Favorite characters.

*Kest never did get over the Sainthood completely he still can't hold a sword I did expect him to overcome that in the last stretch of the story.

*The fact that Falcio did not return as a Greatcoat and the First cantor was a surprise. I was expecting him to say yes I will do it. 

*I loved the way Falcio and the saint of Mercy had a few talks and realize they need to get to know each other but they still have feelings pulling them closer. A great turn about to the happily ever after ending. The other surprise was Brasti and his love interest. Not sure how that is going to work out. 

*Trin did not have the ending I predicted. As the story went along I expected something to happen to her and I was proved wrong a few times. The ending made sense the way it was dictated. In the circumstances, it was very plausible, still not what I expected. 

***Closing of Spoilery section. It was not filled with a lot of clear information but if you read the book I hope you get what I meant.

So as a whole I am placing this as one of my favorite series. I plan on rereading it a bit later, it feels like the type of book that will be gripping even in a reread.

Have you read the series? What do you think about it? Let me know in the comments down below. 

Sidenote: Apologies about the delay in posting I had a huge plan, I mapped out what I wanted to do, each post was already thought in advance what I had not done was actually gather the info for each post, and once I started I realize it would not work the way I had planned. The content for each post was greater than what I wished and I struggled on how to structure it. As time went by, I became anxious because I could not figure out a plan that seemed appropriate and then the lack of decision frustrated me even more. For now, my previous plan has gone out the window and we're going to continue on the spot. 

Thank you for your support and patience. See you later.

Stay healthy, stay safe!