Review: Dust of the Darkness, where my expectations are all met!

Hello wonderful people! How are you? I hope that you and your family are safe, and I hope you are finding a ton of good way to stay sane and happy!
Today I am here with a review for the second book of a series I am enjoying quite a lot, so I won’t waste any more time and go right at it!

I received a copy of this book but the opinions on this review are mine and completely objective.

Title: Dust of Darkness
Series: The Riven Realm #2
Author: Deck Matthew
Page count: 147

You can buy it here: Amazon

Fleeing the ruins of his broken life, Caleb Rusk arrives in the sleepy village of Timberford. But when a series of brutal and vicious attacks stir the community into a terrified frenzy, Caleb and his friends must join with his bond-brother, Carvesh Tarne, a Cinderborn healer and a reclusive trapper to defend the village from the swarm of shadowbeasts that threatens to destroy them.
In the city of Taralius, a high ranking abbot is butchered in the heart of his cathedral. With evidence pointing to the involvement of the notorious assassins known as the White Glove, Second Corporal Avendor Tarcoth finds himself faced with the spectres of a past he thought he’d left behind. Meanwhile, the blind old sage, Tiberius Alaran, tracks down a lead that could help explain why Hearthborn are suddenly burning out in the city—all while trying to protect secrets of his own
But unbeknownst to either Avendor or Tiberius, a new player is sent to join the game—and her’s is a kiss of death.

 

I started this series last month, and I loved the first book (as you can see from my review) so I was eager to go on with it and I had some great expectations from it, too. Let me tell you that I wasn’t disappointed, yay!

In this second book, we are in the middle of the actions and we see some battles, intrigues, some more murders and we have some mysteries to solve. To be completely honest, I preferred the first book, because we see more of the characters, and more of the world and of the magic system, while in this one we are thrown in the middle of the story, we see a lot of action and we are left with a ton of questions and so few answers!
But mind me, I am not complaining about the lack of answers, because I am so curious to see what we would get in the next one! We have some things set in motion and I am dying to see what would come out of them, so no complaints here.

It’s just that, since it is a really short book, we have a lot of things going on, we see a lot of fights and intrigues, but we are just in the middle of it. And that’s totally normal for a second book. But I loved the in-depth that we got in the first one, with all these new characters and a new world.
But, even if in this one, we see a little less of it, we see a lot of things going on, and some new characters. Some of them have a mysterious past and some of them would be quite surprising in the future (or at least, I hope so!), and I am just so curious about all of them! I need to know more and I need it now!

And there is just so much going on! We have two main sub-plots, that would converge, sooner or later, with some new things here and there, and I was quite fascinated by both of them. And what’s astounding is that in so few pages we see so much happens and it all fits perfectly. Nothing seems rushed or not well developed. You just sit there, turning page after page because you are so enthralled by the story that you can’t put down the book, and I don’t think you can ask for more, here!

And, last but not least, we have the characters. If it’s true that in the first book they were more at the center of the narration, while here the center is the action, we get to know more about them, and they all are well characterized. We learn to know them better, even with all the things that are going on in there, so I can happily say that all my expectations were met and that now I am even more curious about the last book!

and half!

I loved this book and I can’t recommend it enough! Have you read it? Or do you have it on your TBR? And have you read the other series by the same author? Let me know!

Happy reading!
S.