Raven Unveiled

With Raven Unveiled, Grace Draven brings readers an epic fantasy romance that has adventure, danger, romance, and suspense. In this third book in the Fallen Empire series, she features Siora and Gharek.

Siora was born with the ability to see and speak to ghosts. A predator is growing in power as it consumes the souls of the dead, and the ghosts need her help. She’s also on the run from an assassin. Gharek of Cabast was once the empress’s assassin. However, he is now a wanted fugitive. He’s pursuing Siora for personal reasons. Will Siora be able to defeat the ghost devouring entity? What will happen when Gharek and Siora meet?

Siora is barely tolerated by others even when they seek her out. She is kind, strong, and willing to help others even when it endangers her own life. She’s a character that readers will want to succeed in life. Gharek is fearsome, fascinating, cold, and calculating; except when it comes to his daughter. He places her safety, well-being, and protection above everything else. Both characters are dynamic and grow as the story progresses. Each transforms as events unfold. However, I didn’t fully buy into Gharek’s transformation. It seemed to happen too quickly. His actions were hard to accept. The minor characters are developed adequately for their roles. While less dynamic, they provide the support or conflict needed to keep readers interested in them. The author did a great job of weaving characters’ backstories into the tale without doing a data dump.

The story is well written with a deeply involved plot and vibrant characters. It’s well plotted and descriptive, but the pace slowed at times. The conflicts moved the story forward with some unexpected twists. The world-building is okay and the enemies-to-lovers romance trope almost worked. However, I wanted a little more of an ending. An epilogue would have helped. This action-packed novel features hatred, vengeance, forgiveness, power, redemption, respect, ghosts, evil entities, and more.

Overall, this fantasy is gripping, heart-breaking, and thought-provoking. The high stakes and smooth writing made it a page turner. While it’s the first novel I have read by this author, I believe it would have been even better if I had read the first two books in the series first. I believe they would have provided more details on the world’s view on magic and the state of its politics. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author.

Berkley Publishing Group – Ace and Grace Draven provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for November 8, 2022.