4/5

For fans of: found families, heists, YA fantasy, Paris, Russia

Synopsis: Following the success of their adventure to find the Babel Fragment, Sèverin’s team is still reeling from the ultimate price they paid. Broken and barely healing, each member suffers immensely, but not with each other. They have gone their separate ways until Sèverin calls them for a final job that he promises will set them up for life: the discovery of the Sleeping Palace and the Divine Lyrics. For Sèverin, a way to save every single one of his family members and even bring back his brother. For Zophia, the chance to care for and educate her sister. For Enrique, vindication and respect from his own countrymen. For Hypnos, a chance to prove his worth as Patriarch and Sèverin’s friend. And for Laila, a chance to live beyond her dwindling days. Their brokenness, however, is keeping them from being the family they once were and could cost them everything.

Review: I have to say, this chapter took an emotional toll. As the fragmented team is called together from across Europe back to L’Eden for this final job, I ached for each one of them with their own personal burdens topped with the death of one of their own. From Sèverin and Laila’s cold manipulations to Zophia being unsure of herself to Enrique feeling forever inadequate and Hypnos’s loneliness, all of them just hurting for the love and comfort of family and so blind to each other’s needs. I loved the new locations, the backstory and clues of the Lost Muses and their gruesome connection to Fallen House, the expansion of Houses across Europe, and new characters to expand this impressive cast. I was hooked from the beginning and zipped through this way faster than The Gilded Wolves. That cliffhanger of an ending has me impatiently waiting for the final book, The Bronzed Beasts, coming out this September!