Format: Kindle, 297 pages
Release Date: March 14, 2023
Publisher: Helen Harper
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Mairi Wallace has faced terrible dangers since she discovered her
magical abilities. But she's never experienced anything as hazardous as
this. An unfamiliar peril has arisen and suddenly the Mages are no
longer the biggest threat to Scotland's future. A new King, with the
Afflicted hordes at his beck and call, is claiming her country for his
own.
From the towering battlements at Edinburgh Castle to the
sweeping streets of Glasgow, Mairi and her friends are going to have to
draw on every scrap of power they have. And if she doesn't embrace the
unthinkable and work with the Mages to save her people, Scotland's
future might prove to be very bleak indeed.
Red Hawk, by author Helen Harper, is the third and final installment in the authors A Charade of Magic trilogy. Mairi Wallace has faced terrible dangers since she discovered her magical abilities. She also became the face of the rebellion against the Mages who rule Scotland and she even made it through the Ascendancy Challenge in Edinburgh before a new threat rose up and tossed Scotland on its head. Mages are no longer the biggest threat to Scotland's future.
A new King, Cadal Righ, with the Afflicted hordes at his beck and call, is claiming her country for his own. 120 years ago, Righ battled the Mages of Scotland for supremacy and lost. A month later, the afflicted rose up and women were blamed for the afflicted. Since then, Mages have killed any woman who shows any inclination for magic. They basically use the women to boost their magical powers. Mages also drain new born babies of their natural magic. For years, the lie that women created the disease has kept women in their place. Until Mairi came along.
While Cadal is slowly slaughtering Mages to enhance his own powers, Mairi and women who have access to magic, including a young woman named Isla, who can see when people are afflicted, are basically ignored. Isla can also combine two spells together which gives Mairi and idea that others may be able to do the same thing. Can Mairi use this fact to defeat Cadal? As Cadal moves closer and closer to her home in Glasgow, Mairi and her friends need to hope that Mages will join with her in order to stop Cadal from cobbling up all the magic in the land, and letting his army of Afflicted spread across the country.
This is a good ending to a great series. It didn’t have quite the flair of earlier books, but it’s hard to add diversion, warmth or uplift to the dystopian direction this series took. The strong characters, their loyalty and resourcefulness of the heroine, kept even this apocalyptic conclusion humming along. Pun intended. It’s happily not drawn out for the insurmountable task Helen set her main characters.
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