THE DESCENT (THE TAKER TRILOGY #3)
By: Alma Katsu
Publication Date: January 7, 2014
Summary
The final installment in the “mesmerizing” (Booklist, starred review) and addictive trilogy—find out who truly holds the key to Lanny’s heart and whether she’ll ever be reunited with her beloved in this gripping supernatural tale of magic, lust, and longing.
Lanore McIlvrae has been on the run from Adair for hundreds of years, dismayed by his mysterious powers and afraid of his temper. She betrayed Adair’s trust and imprisoned him behind a stone wall to save Jonathan, the love of her life. When Adair was freed 200 years later, she was sure that he would find her and make her existence a living hell. But things turned out far different than she’d imagined.
Four years later, Lanore has tracked Adair to his mystical island home, where he has been living in self-imposed exile, to ask for a favor. She wants Adair to send her to the hereafter so she may beg the Queen of the Underworld to release Jonathan, whom she has been keeping as her consort. Will Lanore honor her promise to Adair to return? Or is her intention to reunite with Jonathan at any cost?
Of all the forces of the universe, the most mysterious, confounding, and humbling is the power of love. The epic story of love and loss, magic and destiny that began with The Taker and sparked a chase around the world in The Reckoning comes to a surprising conclusion with The Descent.
About Alma
Ms. Katsu lives outside of Washington, DC with her husband, musician Bruce Katsu. In addition to her novels, Ms. Katsu has been a signature reviewer for Publishers Weekly and an occasional contributor to The Huffington Post. She is a graduate of the Master's writing program at the Johns Hopkins University and received her bachelor's degree from Brandeis University, where she studied with John Irving. She also attended the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.
Prior to publication of her first novel, Ms. Katsu had a long career as a senior intelligence analyst for several US agencies and is currently a senior analyst for a think tank.
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Erin's Thoughts
The Descent by Alma Katsu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I started this one immediately after finishing The Reckoning and I am glad I did. Katsu does a great job of summarizing the previous books and bringing the reader back into Lanore’s life but I am always super impatient with series books and because there are so many characters and so much going on, reading both books in a row helped me keep it all straight. This is very much a character driven story and although Lanore and Adair and the main characters, we still get introduced to a number of new characters as well as revisit some old ones.
After leaving Adair in book two, Lanore made the decision to go back to Luke. Unfortunately it is only 4 years later and Luke, being the mortal he is, has died after suffering from a brain tumor. Lanore honored her promise to him and stayed with him to the end but she always had thoughts of Adair and Jonathan in the back of her mind. She also started to have nightmares about the fate Jonathan was facing in the Underworld which prompts Lanore to find Adair and ask him to help her go help him.
When Lanore finds Adair on a remote island, she notices immediately he has changed. He clearly has taken her letter as well as what Jonathan told him to heart and is trying to be better than he was so that he can make Lanore see he is worthy of her love. Little does he know that Lanore has slowly come to the conclusion that she has loved him all along. With their past, she is just afraid to admit it to him yet.
Ultimately Adair makes the decision to help Lanore go to the Underworld despite the danger he feels she will be in and the potential danger it would mean to him if the Queen of the Underworld finds him. On top of this potential concern, Adair thinks the two women living in his house may be connected to some witches he wronged in his past. While this is only something he has just recently determined, he worries that he will have to figure them out before something bad happens.
Once Lanore goes, Katsu revisits some key parts of their separate histories through flashbacks. I thought it was done well and answered some remaining questions I had. I thought the section between Lanore and Sophia provided some closure for Lanore that she wasn’t able to get due to the way she and Jonathan had to leave town. Additionally, the section with Luke was a good way to wrap up their relationship. Luke clearly knew he wasn’t the most important person in her life ever but I thought having had their conversation, he ended up realizing he was one of the important people.
In addition to Lanore’s flashbacks, Adair has some as well. I enjoyed getting a peek at his early life and how he came to have the books/recipes in his hands. As if we didn’t already know it, those flashbacks just showed to what extent Adair was willing to go to in order to have control and power. He thought the magic was the way to get it. While waiting for Lanore to give him a signal that she is ready to come back to Earth, Adair sits and watches over her body. He struggles with doing what he wants to do and what he knows he should do and it is clear he is trying to be a better man so that he can be worthy of her love.
Eventually Lanore finds Jonathan in the Underworld but finds out things are what she and Adair worried about – she was truly bait and is being used to get Adair there. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really expecting Adair to be who he was…that’s right, I’m not telling. It was an interesting twist and explained some of his personality. Knowing what I know now, the changes in him were even more impactful and I was glad to see them.
This series was wrapped up well. The only thing I thought that was left unanswered was what happened to the rest of the immortals left on Earth at the end of the story. Clearly things have changed for Lanore and Adair and I would assume they would for the others but wasn’t entirely sure what would happen to them. Keep in mind, all of these characters aren’t redeemable and I thought Katsu did a wonderful job of showing that. Overall I thought this was a great series. There is love, deceit, danger, and of course a bunch of immortals. Katsu did a wonderful job of building out these character’s lives and showing that immortality isn’t always the best thing. If you like stories that weave a bit of history along with magic into their books you might enjoy this one.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.
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