The Blood Traitor by. Lynette Noni | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Blood Traitor (The Prison Healer, #3)

Author: Lynette Noni

Format: ebooks (own)

Pages: 464

Publication Date: 6/14/22

Categories: Fantasy, Romance, Series, Found Family

She’d failed them. All of them. And now she was paying the price. 

Kiva thought she knew what she wanted—revenge. But feelings change, people change… everything has changed.

After what happened at the palace, Kiva is desperate to know if her friends and family are safe, and whether those she wronged can ever forgive her. But with the kingdoms closer to the brink of war than they’ve ever been, and Kiva far away from the conflict, more is at stake than her own broken heart.

A fresh start will mean a perilous quest, forcing mortal enemies and uneasy allies together in a race against the clock to save not just Evalon, but all of Wenderall. With her loyalties now set, Kiva can no longer just survive—she must fight for what she believes in. For who she believes in. But with danger coming from every side, and the lives of everyone she loves at risk, does she have what it takes to stand, or will she fall?

Content Warning: drug use, physical abuse, violence

I finally read the last book of The Prison Healer series and this is what I thought:

+ So much great characters! I love Cresta and Ashlyn, they were my favorite characters in this book. Caldon was amazing as always, but Cresta had fire, humor, sass, and strength. Ashlyn had leadership and bravery. Really great female characters.

+ Kiva goes through so much in this book, it is an emotional, traumatic ride for her but she faces her demons – no matter how hard it is for her.

+ The story moves quickly, there is a lot going on but it’s written well – it takes off running after book two, Kiva’s back in Zalindov but in really bad shape. Once she’s out she has a long journey to get back to Vallenia. There is a great found family trope story line here where two enemy families

+ The romance was one where Kiva had to do a lot to make it up to Jaren. Jaren was hurt and angry and he had a lot of issues to deal with. It was super frustrating at times but it pays off in the end for the two of them. There are a lot of romances going on actually, almost like everyone was pairing off.

+ This story is about messy families, messy relationships and I like that it shows the imperfections in relationships and how to navigate and mend them.

~ Jaren was tough to crack but I mean he went through some stuff. I just wish he and Kiva could talk their problems either. Kiva was stuck in her head a lot, she is the worse at communicating with anyone – thank god she had Caldon and Cresta. Where would she be without them? At times I was just so frustrated with her because she just didn’t know how to be honest after everything that happened in book two. This was her time to tell her truth but I also understand how she had to do it in her own time. I just wanted Kiva and Jaren to talk and it takes awhile for that to really happen.

~ There is a bunch of traveling in this one because there is a quest but the story bounces from location to location a lot. It was okay for me but at one point she was with King Navok and then he isn’t in the story again until the very end.

~ Kiva’ storyline was one big pity party. Cresta had to literally kicked her butt about a lot of things, shake some sense into her because Kiva could not get out of these overwhelming thoughts. And I was Cresta and tired of it! lol…Cresta had more patience than I did. I loved Cresta’s message about strength and pain and moving on…so powerful. But I also understand some people need patience and that was Kiva – she needed patience and Caldon was there to give that to her. Cresta was there to tell her straight on what she needed to do though.

Why you should read it:

• It’s a great fantasy series and a good ending – Kiva characters comes a long way
• The found family and side characters are great
• Great story telling, some twists

Why you might not want to read it:

• Kiva is going through so much trauma but we are in her head so much I was hoping it would let up a bit – it started to turn into a pity party and I was getting annoyed with her actions.
• Jaren and Kiva’s drama was really dragged out almost to the end of the story – I wanted them to work it out earlier.

My Thoughts:

This isn’t a light read, there is a lot of trauma to be dealt with in this whole series. This book alone there is abuse, drug abuse, broken families, broken people but I loved the inspiration and motivation that came through characters like Cresta, Caldon and Ashlynn – Cresta being my favorite because she was funny and yet said what she wanted to say. Caldon always brought the lightness to a hard situation and thank goodness for that. Ashlynn was always so steady, I admired her for it. I’m glad Kiva and Jaren worked things out but for me, I think it took too long. This was Kiva’s story about overcoming so many challenges and trauma in her life, but everyone in this book was going through something – it’s what helped them bond and become a found family, which was heartwarming. For the series as a whole, I enjoyed it a lot. For the third book, I did enjoy it but wished we weren’t so much in Kiva’s head.

📚 ~ Yolanda