Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Remus still has a decision to make. He must choose either Sebastian or Victor as his true mate. It’s anything but an easy decision as he’s bonded to both of them and a piece of him lies with each man. The decision also goes much further than his own love life and Remus realizes he’s being put to the ultimate test.
Remus is also dealing with the betrayal of his best friend, Arthur. But not all is at it seems there either as Arthur’s fate with his family of hunters is called into question. It’s a race to the hunter’s moon as all worlds converge into one and Remus must not only make his choice, but may have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save them all.
The Kingdom of the Night series has been a long journey to get to the end of book three. With over 1200 pages, Remus’ world has completely changed over the course of the series. The changes come from every area, including what he knew about himself, his family, and then of course the moon. With that, Equilibrium is not meant to be read as a standalone and is entirely dependent on having read both books that have come before it.
Remus has been on an epic journey. What seemed at first as somewhat of a rather trivial task of deciding between brothers, Sebastian and Victor, as his lifelong mate becomes something Remus could never have predicted. There are so many nuances and facets to this book and this entire trilogy that, as far as the larger story, it’s certainly difficult to extract key elements and have them all make sense out of context. This book definitely dips deeper into the overall story of the moon’s role in all of this as well as how Remus specifically fits into the legends that may not all be legend after all.
While the first two books were primarily Remus’ story and how Sebastian and Victor fit into his life, this book takes a dramatic shift as it not only opens with Arthur, but stays with him for a good portion of the book. Arthur was introduced way back in the first book and he was a much more interesting character than was expected. We learn more of his life with his family of hunters and know his sole reason in being born was to “go to ground” so he could come back as an undead hunter. But that’s not what Arthur wants and he suffers greatly at the hands of Prentice, the one he loves the most. The book then builds on so many areas including torture, Patriarchs, vessels, and possession.
Remus, for a good portion of the book, became background to Arthur and all of the folklore that was described in this story. While Arthur’s story was intriguing, I didn’t feel it was well balanced to Remus’ story that has been the focal point of this series. There was so much information presented as this one book tried to carry three full storylines. If it had been pared down, it would have greatly enhanced the flow for me. Also, while the typos are certainly less than the first book, they are still present, which also doesn’t offer the most polished story. The moon becomes its own character here and takes on a life form. She is revered throughout the entire series as a holy goddess, but when she starts spouting lines such as, “jump the shark,” her character did exactly that for me.
There were moments that I was riveted by the engaging storyline and there were moments that I was wading through legend, dark forces, and an overload of cosmic events. While Arthur’s story made for intriguing reading, Remus, Sebastian, and Victor had been the focus of this series and there wasn’t enough on page time with them and I ultimately felt a bit misled. Remus’ arc seems to be complete at this point as the next book in the series again features Arthur. There was a lot to like in this series, but Remus’ ending was remarkably predictable and not completely satisfying.
