Season Of Glory by Lisa T. Bergren (Review by Ashley Nikole)

Book 3 in 'The Remnants' (not to be confused with The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson) comes out March 8th! 

PLOT:

I finished reading book 2 - Season Of Fire, last Summer, and have been eagerly awaiting the series' conclusion until now! I devoured this book in a day- cause the suspense of wanting to know what happens to everything, was just eating me. So...in I went! 

The plot was slower than the first two books I'd say. It built steadily, with little mini-attacks and battles here and there, picking up speed around chapter 24. 

It didn't feel as grounded as I think I would have liked- but to each his own! 

SEXUAL CONTENT:

There are references to consummating a marriage- bedding one's wife or husband, etc, etc. Brief kisses between Dri & Ronan, one or two more passionate ones. There's a fairly passionate kissing scene with Dri & Keallach, where they end up laying on top of each other in the street, kissing in the rain- Keallach compelled Dri's body in cooperating. Yes, she cooperated a smidge- but most of it was his controlling her into it. They get interrupted before anything else happens. 

As in book 2, there's an underlying sensual pull between Dri & Keallach, even though they don't spend very much time together alone in this book. 

VIOLENCE:

War type gore. Decapitations. Hand-to-hand combat. People get stabbed, shot, sliced, blown up, cut down. Someone cauterizes a wound with a sword, searing the flesh together to keep the person from bleeding out. A character is beheaded with a sword during battle, in front of Dri. There's the sound of bones breaking, possibly the head hitting the floor and spraying her with blood. 

CONCLUSION:

I had pretty high hopes for this book. Unfortunately most of them weren't met with trumpet's blaring or glory music playing.
It won't be like that for every reader- a lot of it is due to my own personal taste in how plot's flow, and how character's are made and played out.
The plot- to me- felt like it stalled a fair bit, subsequently accomplished too much (but at the same time, not enough) in the last ten pages of the book. I think I was just hoping for a different sort of climax to occur at the 3/4 mark. Oh well. My heart will go on.
I did, however, enjoy the supernatural component to the story...how Dri as an empath worked, how the healer did, how the Remnants prayed over the sick and injured, etc. That was pretty neat. Besides several ideology moments that turned my crank the wrong way, I enjoyed most of the discerning, prayer, healing type content.
There were certain moments in the plot where I had some pretty good 'aha!' moments and I liked where it was going. There were a few scenes where the interactions between characters were touching...but honestly, if I'm going to fully enjoy a book, there have to be more than a few parts here and there that I enjoyed. I need more emotional & romantic connection between the two characters that are in love (Ronan & Dri), not just between characters that are totally forbidden to be together (Keallach & Dri)- and have the most romantic- er- sexual scene nearly being a rape...without any positive romantic/sexual content. That felt a little odd to me.

As I mentioned, there were several elements that did not make this series my favourite. Which is strange- because I really have enjoyed most of Bergen's work...as you know, the River Of Time series is my favourite series to date.
This particular series however, was not my jam. And that's okay. That doesn't mean her writing is bad or anything like that- it's just that this series was not written for me to enjoy. It was written for another person, who will be absolutely crazy about it. And that is awesome!
Bergren writes like a boss, is an incredibly gifted author- but that doesn't mean that every single book she writes, will make me go dancing down the road doing a jig. And that's perfectly normal. I'm still a die-hard Lisa Bergren fan, and I will continue to buy, read and support her career as as author- because I have faith in her and LOVE her reading, even if a book here or there is just not my jam. Ya know?

This time through, I'll give Season Of Glory 3 stars and recommend it for ages 16+ (except maybe that scene with Keallach and Dri- it depends on the reader. If parents are looking for the exact page number- at least in my ARC, it was page 304-307)

If you've been a big fan of the first two books, Season Of Glory hits stores March 8th! Yeehaw! Lemme know how you like it when you get your hands on the conclusion to this series!

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Post Script...

Character Chit-Chat & Confusion:

This book didn't float my boat- for a few reasons. 

#1- I'm not a huge fan of dystopian fiction

#2 - This didn't feel like it was dystopian even...it more felt like it was fantasy, or just slightly askance historical fiction with some elements of fantasy

#3- The relationship between Ronan and Dri was not compelling to me. There was one scene in book 1 that alerted me to their attraction to each other, but if I didn't know better, I would definitely have thought their relationship was strictly brother/sister style. I mean, I would've been okay if it had, but if they're going to be a romantic couple- even a forbidden romantic couple, I just wanted a bit more...substance to their relationship. 

#4- The plot didn't feel overly grounded, to me, personally. To another reader, it could be totally different. It seemed rather...compartmentalized, not like each event flowed well and built into the next. 

#5- There were many elements in this series that just felt...off to me. I don't know why. Not to say that is how it will be for everyone, but to me, if there's this underlying weirdness that I can't quite put my finger on...I don't enjoy the experience as fully as I might. 

Also, I feel like as a reader, I wanted to see more complex characters. Keallach was a fairly in-depth character, as was Niero & most of Keallach's counsel. But honestly, I was wanting to root for Ronan, for more reasons than that he was Dri's sworn protector. Ya know?
And honestly, I couldn't tell whether Keallach was coming or going. It was just plain weird- probably contributing to that weirdness I couldn't quite put my finger on? Yeah, it's probably all Keallach's doing. I mean, I knew there was going to be a certain amount of waffling, but in the end, I didn't even end up liking him- and I thought, at the beginning of the series that Kapriel was going to be focused on more heavily. Even though he's the older twin, he was more of a sub-character.