Thank you Tor books for my copy of this title!
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Will definitely be posting reviews when I have finished but I already recommend this to everyone who loves fantasy!

Fantastic series- filled with humor, and excellent storytelling-the way the author elaborated on the worldbuilding and history in this book. The ending made this book everything to me; I loved the first two books a little more-however, this book was still a fantastic read.

I recommended to anyone who enjoys high fantasy, dragons, and magic.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. I thank Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Books, for the opportunity to read this fantastic and action-packed story.

I won't lie, going into this I was so damn confused as to what was happening. And to be honest, I'm still a little confused. It took me 5 goes at reading this before I finally got through it because there is so damn much happening at all times that I kept getting lost. I tried the physical book with colour coded tabs to mark changes in POV, I tried mapping out where everyone was at any given time (this worked for me with the GoT novels) and finally I decided to just read the words on the page and hope that I could get through to some point where almost everyone came back together again. It didnt happen but finally, 2 1/2 years after picking it up, I am finished.

This is not to say it was a horrible novel either. I quite enjoyed the bits that my constantly sleep addled brain could grip onto. But I think before continuing with the final 2 books, I need to set out a week of holidays without anyone to distract me and just take notes the whole way through

I think it's a good thing I don't have much of an attention span for long, drawn out chapters, because this book knows how to keep me on my toes and FOCUSED. There is a lot of jumping around between characters and the timeline jumps are kind of fucked up, if I'm being honest. It really works for me though? I didn't really have trouble following the story, but I can see why people might have a hard time with this type of storytelling. I think if you're already reading book three in this series, I don't think this will be difficult for you to read either. The book DOES end on a cliffhanger, more so than the last books. You'll want to have the next book ready to go once you've finished reading the epilogue here.

The author, once again, does provide a very helpful recap of the previous book. I love that. This story is told from Thurvishar and Kihrin's point-of-view. There is still the present-day where Thurvishar and Kihrin are chatting, then there's Thurvishar recounting...pretty much everyone else's stories leading up to present-day but in a way that jumps around a lot, and then there's Kihrin recounting his timeline of events in-between Thurvishar's. But Kihrin's story is sequential at least. With Thurvishar and Kihrin telling the story, we get Feodor Chin (voice for Thurvishar) and Vikas Adam (voice for Kihrin) back for the audiobook.

Content notes include violence, deaths, gore, misogyny, mentions of rape, rape (secondary characters), mentions of slavery, mentions of emotional abuse/grooming, characters drugged and having sex under the influence, and unprotected sex.

From a romance reader standpoint, this book is FASCINATING. We finally get some backstory into Kihrin and Janel (and their past lives). Then of course there's how Teraeth is involved with them in all of this. This is when we know that the story between all three of them isn't just a love story from THIS lifetime, but one that has been CENTURIES in the making and I just want them all to be happy, okay? They deserve to be happy for once.

This book focuses a lot on family and bloodlines, and while I FEEL like I have a solid grasp on who is who, and how they're related to other characters, please don't quiz me on any of it. There are maps and timelines at the end of the physical and e-book versions for reference. They are actually really helpful, but my one critique is that these weren't included as guides with the audiobook because I feel like that would be super helpful for people to reference as they're listening.

One of the key focuses of this book is surprisingly Therin D'Mon, Kihrin's dad (and NOT his grandfather like we thought for most of the first book). I feel like the main question this book challenges you to think about is whether or not you like Therin or still hate his guts. His side of the story takes place about a month after the events at the end of book one. Therin is a very grey character for me. He is (was?) the head of house D'Mon and stood idly by while knowing his son Darzin was abusing HIS son (Therin's grandson) Galen. Darzin loved to torture people for fun. He was just a sadistic and evil bastard and Therin did nothing. Yes, life in the capital of Quur is all about power and trying to stay one step ahead of everyone trying to take you down, including your own family, but now removed from the capital we get to see a different side of Therin in this book and I don't know how I feel about that. We know Therin was never a good person. His own father was awful (it runs in the family apparently) and Therin had killed his own father. I think the story said it was for good reason though? I'm not entirely sure. So, do with that what you will.

Now in this book, we see a Therin who has basically lost his entire family to his previous...lover and slave and it's a VERY tangled mess. The power dynamics here are MESSY. Because the Stone of Shackles came into play here (which is a cornerstone that is the cause for all the body jumping confusion in this series when the wearer of said necklace is killed then the wearer's soul jumps into the body of their killer, which is what happened to Miya who turns out to be Queen Khaeriel IN Miya's body because the servant was trying to assassinate the Queen).

ANYWAYS. Khaeriel has decided to take control of Therin's mind and now the roles are reversed because now she's got him brainwashed. The whole situation is a huge mess and I am still left confused whether I hate Therin or feel bad for him. I don't want him to die for Kihrin's sake, but also we have to remember Therin was a shit father and grandfather. But I will admit I enjoy his scenes with Teraeth's father, Doc (also known as Terindel from years past). Remember from the first book that Therin, Doc, General Qoran Milligrest, and the previous Emperor of Quur (Sandus) were all best friends once when they were younger.

The most interesting part of this story is seeing Kihrin, Janel, Teraeth, and Thurvishar going on an adventure together and who everyone was in their past lives. This story is about the group wanting to warn the vané about Relos Var's plans, and let's just say the vané didn't take too kindly to the group showing up on their doorstep. There's a lot of politics in this one in regards to the succession of the vané throne. I'm not sure I could explain it even if I wanted to.
So, we'll just go with it.

Teraeth and his father are in the clearest line of succession. And hilariously people seem to be incredibly onboard with Teraeth marrying Kihrin because of that messy succession stuff. This book reminds us often that Teraeth and Kihrin are NOT released so their relationship isn't incest, and I didn't think about it before but now has me second guessing WHY their relationship could be considered such. I think it has to do with all the body jumping messiness.

The book is still very action-packed and there's a lot more deaths in this book than maybe even the previous books? And all of this will have extreme ramifications going forward in the series.

We finally figure out what Xaltorath's backstory is, and that was a FASCINATING revelation. I was very wrong in my prediction of who Xaltorath could be, because never in a million years would I have predicted any of this. "Xaltorath" meaning "Queen of Demons" should've given it all away but I don't often put things together so I missed the hint.

And that's what I love about these books. Their unpredictability. I've read a lot of high fantasy books for years and years before I got into reading romance, and sometimes they can fall back into a predictable rhythm, and that's totally okay. But I feel like there's none of that predictability here. There's so many characters coming from all directions and you never know who's going to die (or if they'll come back), that it keeps you on your toes and interested in what's coming next. You never know who the book is going to make you like either. And I think the fun thing about this series is that even when there's so many characters and various POV chapters, I don't particularly feel confused between all the chapters and time jumps. Many characters are back who I did not expect to be back from the first book. And that's when I learned that not all dead characters will stay dead in this series. It'll be interesting to see where they go in this series, and if they'll make it through to the end.

There's a lot more Xivan in this book, which is news to me. I didn't think much of her in the last book, but only because she wasn't IN much of the last book. She is an undead being (a vampire who eats souls to...survive? look young?) and is on the hunt for the god Suless who killed most of her Yoran people who had been at the castle at the time. Suless has taken her husband, Duke Azhen Kaen or Yor, and her son Exidhar as captives. And look, the Duke and their son are not good people by any means. But I do feel for Xivan's plight over her husband and son, who she clearly loves very much. Her search to take down Suless absolutely consumes her. Her saving grace in all this is Talea.

We see a lot of Talea. Talea was once a slave to Darzin D'Mon and later bought (and set free almost immediately) by Thurvishar D'Lorus. She was also sister to Morea, the slave girl Kihrin was infatuated with in book one and murdered by a mimic called Talon. Talea has fallen for Xivan, but realizes that Xivan still very much loves her husband. But that doesn't stop Talea from being very much in love with Xivan, even if Xivan refuses to believe it.

There's a LOT of blossoming relationships in this book, and not to spoil too much about certain characters making a reappearance in the series, but we should talk about Thurvishar and Senera because it's been obvious since the end of book two. I NEED THE ENTIRE BACKSTORY - how they met, when they realized they had feelings for each other, EVERYTHING. They are both intelligent and they are the storytellers documenting these books we're reading. So, it's interesting to see them write about the other in their books. But one thing ESPECIALLY is that in the last book we saw how much Thurvishar panicked over the thought of Senera being killed in the battle of Atrine, and then the way he addresses this book to her in the prologue??? MY HEART. Obviously, Thurvishar is on Kihrin's side, and Senera is on Relos Var's side. But Thurvishar is working his hardest to convince Senera that maybe Relos Var has not told her everything regarding his plans, and she needs to ditch the man and come over to Kihrin's side.

I think something fun in this book is that we're back to Thurvishar documenting the story and has his little comments in the footnotes. And something that gets mentioned from Senera (and hilariously pointed out again by Kihrin in this one) is that Thurvishar likes adding POV chapters based on what he THINKS a character is doing or thinking at a specific time, which Senera doesn't do in her documentation. So, that's a bit of a loophole in the storytelling the author manages to wiggle in. I just think it's really funny it's Thurvishar doing it.

A common theme, if you can call it that, is that all these characters had awful parental figures. Xaltorath with Janel, Thaena with Teraeth, Therin with Kihrin, and Relos Var with Janel, Senera, and Qown. I guess Therin gets off easy with how his relationship with Kihrin is compared to everyone else because Kihrin has the benefit of being raised by the musician Surdyeh in the Lower Circle instead of in the D'Mon household. Every other person I've listed here were using their child for their own means, and viewed them as expandable and it's really sad. Qown's complicated relationship with Relos Var is possibly the most heartbreaking. Relos Var saved Qown from his own terrible family life, and Qown had viewed Var as a father figure and would hang on to his every word. If the man was willing to gaesh someone who adores him without a second thought, what can't he be capable of? We find out in the last book that Var doesn't care for anyone or anything else except his own means and goals. I guess we could've figured that out when we found out how Vol Karoth was created, BUT apparently nothing has changed in the thousands of years since.

A new character we meet (or maybe he was mentioned before in previous books but I don't recall) is Grizzst. He is nearly as old as Relos Var, which is to say THOUSANDS of years old. He's a fascinating character because while present-day he appears to be an alcoholic and a good for nothing scoundrel, he is actually one of the smartest people EVER to exist. He basically helped create Quur, and for better or worse, helped Relos Var and the immortals return back to...normal(?) after the ritual that Var fucked up to create Vol Karoth.

One thing to note with the audiobook is that this audiobook jumps back to being narrated by narrators who did not narrate the second book. So, the biggest shock is how Qown's name is pronounced. I'm not sure where the miscommunication fell between the books because the second book pronounces his name as k-OWN like the word own, and then this book is like "count without the t" at the end. It's very baffling. I want to say Galen's name is different from the first book too, but many audiobook hours have passed since we last heard about Galen, so I could be wrong about that.

I actually really liked this book and I would even dare to say this is my favorite of the series so far. If books one and two felt like introductions to the series, this is the book where things really get going. I liked the casualness of the present-day where it's just Kihrin sharing his story with Thurvishar, and it's just a nice little chat of them telling this story despite all the events that DID happen. So you could say the epilogue caught me by surprise. The events that happened there are events that occurs OUTSIDE Thurvishar's documentation and it was super shocking? He left out those events for a reason. I'm only glad that even though there's a cliffhanger, I had put this series on hold long enough that all the books are already out and I can jump immediately into reading the next book. Because you WILL want to have the next book on hand before you finish this one.

***Thanks to the publisher for approving me for this e-ARC to read and review***

This book was AMAZING! The characters are interesting and the world building was highly entertaining! I look forward to reading more from this author! I would highly recommend this book to everyone!

This is a series that just gets better and better! The world is becoming more and more well defined with intricacies that I really enjoy. The narrative structure remains the same here, but with the addition of more point of view characters, enabling the author to open up the world. The plot is fascinating and gripping, with great pacing and lots of twists and turns. Finally, the characters are top tier! I love Khirin, Janel, Teraeth and Thurvishar and the additional characters in this installment have brought more depth to the story. Overall, this is definitely one of my favourite fantasy series of all time and I would urge anyone to give them a try.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Macmillian-Tor/Forge for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Apologies for the delay!!

Good grief, the author has published two more books in the time it took me to write this review. That being said, I love this story! So, The Memory of Souls is the third book in the Chorus of Dragons quintet series and like The Ruin of Kings and The Name of All Things, it doesn't miss. It picks right up where The Name of All Things left off and it hits the ground running. Lyons is a skillful storyteller and masterfully weaves her complex characters with intricate plotlines without missing a beat.

Like the previous books, The Memory of Souls is told from several viewpoints and while I often find myself annoyed when authors do this (mainly because important points are often missed from multiple narratives or there are too many characters for me, the reader to keep up with), but as I said, Lyons is a genius at her craft. This story also hints at a poly relationship, but if you haven't read the story, I'm not going to give it away.

The twists and turns in this novel that feature Kihrin, Kanel, Thurvishar, and Teraeth will make you want to finish this series in one night (and I wouldn't dare tell you not to)! I would highly recommend this book and the series as a whole to anyone who loves multiple POVs, high-fantasy, twisting plots, and complex characters.

A well-earned 4 out of 5 stars.

First of all, I would like to thank Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing a complementary copy of this novel via NetGalley. The Memory of Souls is the third novel in Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons series. Like with previous novels, this book is told from multiple perspectives through a retelling of events, with multiple narrators often arguing over the accuracy of the accounts. Also, like with the previous novel, a summary of events of the previous novel is provided at the beginning of the story. I continue to find this very useful given how much happens in each book, particularly towards the end. A Memory of Souls reveals some unexpected truths about our main characters. Kihrin continues to be my favorite character and we see more of him than in the previous book--which I was very happy about. We also see alot more of Kihrin's parents, which I was curious about given several allusions to them in previous books. The ending, like in the previous novels is filled with major events that will surely shape the story moving forward. Once again, I am looking forward to finding out what happens to these characters and what kind of trouble they get into.

Aaaaaah thank you Tor for sending this set to me I loved this installment so much. This series just keeps getting better and better and better! It’s way too complex for me to specify my opinions but I love the entire cast!

I’m still loving the series! Lyons packs each book with fast-paced action, humor and tons of fantasy.

Some of the best lines refer to their past lives; “He assassinated me” and “I’ve already been orphaned once” and “He murdered you.” They had me snort laughing multiple times. Instead of the past lives frustrating or confusing me, they started cracking me up. I cannot tell you how well this is done. I can tell who is whom and who they used to be and I haven’t even taken notes! Once again, it all makes sense and more importantly, IT WORKS.

There is banter and sass and sarcasm and I’m here for it all. Bring on book 4! I’ve loved the series enough that I bought books 2-4 on @bookoutlet cause those covers are amazing 😍

Thank you to Tor for the gifted copy!

I was a little disappointed with The Name of All Things, because we didn't get to see the rest of the cast from the first book and what they were up to.

That gets fixed in The Memory of Souls. There are a lot of POV characters, but surprisingly easy to follow. The world gets explored a lot more, and we get to meet a lot of new characters. Favourites includes Doc, and his wife, a certain wizard.

The stakes have ramped up, and the plot becomes more complex. We follow the vane politics and how to convince them to perform the Ritual of Night. We also get to explore the nature of souls, which leads to interesting conversation albeit confusing at times, one that I hope to see more explored the final two remaining entires in the series. The ending was a rollercoaster with twists, I really did not see coming.

Xivan, and Talea are a treat to follow. Khirin, Thurvy, Teraeth, Janel are fantastic. I particularly enjoyed following Khirin and Thurvy when they went on their detour. I did however have issues with the 'love triangle,' while it was entertaining, it felt drawn out.

The way the book is structured -- very short chapters, and all of them ending on a hook keeps making you turn the pages. Something that I had realised with the previous books, but one that is more obvious with this book. I still took the bait, no regrets. The writing is still effective.

The main issue I had was just the abundant of names, given that they are relevant to the plot, but it did get overwhelming keeping track of everyone's names in their past lives as well as everyone's relationship to each other.

I'm really looking forward to The House of Always, and plan on reading it as soon as it comes out.

The Chorus of Dragons series is a high fantasy series, and I have to say, I am loving this series! I read the Ruin of Kings back at the start of 2019 and I while I had every intention of continuing on, I missed out on book 2’s release. When I saw this series was already on book four, I knew I wanted to do a binge read to catch up. When I dove into book 2 I will admit that I was initially confused because Jenn Lyons has a tendency to just drop you into the story and it can take a minute to gain your bearings because the world is so big and complex, but as I was reading, I fell right back in love with this story and these characters. By the time I got to The House of Always, I was well and truly in love. Jenn Lyons is a master at crafting high fantasy. This is a series that is meant to be explored and savored. If you read it too fast, you may be confused or overwhelmed by the sheer amount going on in the plot and the multiple timelines that are present, but if you take your time, I think you will really appreciate these books. I know I do!

This third book in the ongoing fantasy series by Lyons, A Chorus of Dragons, I found difficult to read. The number of characters was confusing and the story line was continually interrupted as each chapter switched to another character's views and experiences about interlocking events. The battles were also excessively bombastic and didn't lend themselves to the overall story arc until the very end. The first two books in the series evolved more gracefully and the story was both smoother and more intriguing. Those complaints being said eventually the story did come together for me and left me wanting to continue the series and see where the author takes it. Overall a choppy book for me to read as I found myself laboring over reading it but eventually it did succeed in enticing me to come back for more.

This was an exciting and fast paced story with an incredibly and elaborately almost confusing (in the best possible way) plot!

I read the first 2 as books and loved them
I was s happy to get to read this one early. However I learned a painful lesson. These books are not e book friendly. You need to be able to go the the map, dictionary and family tree easy. And this was not. Maybe that is on the publisher but the annoyance of this made me annoyed with the sorry. Great world building lovely throuple, great book.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great plot! I love the pacing. It is very well written! I really enjoyed this a lot.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

Unfortunately my copy of this book expired before I was able to read it, so I'm unable to give feedback on it at this time.

EDIT: I bought the hardback when it came out. An absolute stunning continuation of the Chorus of Dragons series! As usual, the complexity of the characters, the plot, and the history of the world blew me away. I'm dying to know what comes next!

Received an ARC from netgalley for an honest review.

I have loved this series from when I received the very first arc. This book is definitely my favourite in the series. The second felt a bit jumbled, I had to get past it and was a shock compared to the first book.

I love the characters. They are black and white and they have their own purpose, their own agenda. I like how they interact with each other and its worth the slow burn.

The world building is intricate and delightful. Its enough to make you reread and find something new everytime. It also enough to keep the pacing alive. Sometimes authors get too caught up in world building and they start flagging.

We get new POV, new cliffhangers, new plots and me certainly wishing for more new books. Every book is better than the last and I think it can't be topped. I cannot wait for the next one.

Initial Thoughts Upon Finishing
These stories are just so epic! It took me a little while to get going with this one as the stories are so complicated, but once I did I was just as hooked as I've been with the previous books.

The Memory of Souls
This review contains spoilers for books one and two.

I love the way that these books are written. The chronicling and storytelling style is really engaging and sets a rapid pace in this book. Kihrin and Thurvishar are hilarious and permanently at amiable odds and ends with each other (yes, that) which brings an extra spicy layer of fun to whole thing.

We continue, as always, from where things left off in book two, taking on new perspectives and slowly putting together pieces of the puzzle. I find myself constantly guessing where exactly this story is going before giving up and simply enjoying the ride.

This book, if you couldn't tell already, is told by Kihrin and Thurvishar in alternating chapters. Occasionally it has the dialogue between them in the present (the present always being the very end of the book) but mostly it just rolls from character to the next. And there are a lot of characters. Make sure your brain is ready and switched on. The main theme of this book? Memories from previous lives.

What I Struggled with
I got off on the wrong foot with this book. Having read book two in audiobook format I learnt the hard way that there is simply TOO MUCH going on to attempt to remember this whilst listening. I need to be able to flip back a page or to the end of the book where you can find a pronunciation guide, family trees and other SUPER helpful reference material. I thought the ebook would be doable, given that (unlike the audiobook) it has these functions. But no, no, sir. Too hard to navigate.

After battling through half of the book on my kindle, trying with increasing desperation to hit the tiny hyperlinks for the footnotes—repeatedly missing and turning the page instead of opening the dialogue box—and trying in vain to seamlessly switch from my current chapter to the glossary, etc. It was the hill I died upon.

Moral of the story was that these damn books need to be read in physical format. I cannot do it any other way. So I read the rest of the book in a gloriously thick paperback edition and the sailing was much smoother from there on in.

Other than that, the main challenge of this story is keeping the storylines straight in your head and remembering who's who. But if you set aside time to read this without distractions, it's super rewarding.

What I Loved
One of the most rewarding things about this series is how satisfying it is to read it and keep up, but it's a rich world full of awesome representation—so if you can get your teeth sunk into it, it's worth it. I love how Lyons has tackled every societal issue spectacularly, making the world complex and diverse, but totally normal at the same time.

I found it gloriously frustrating waiting for certain storylines to pick up. I so want to know what Qown is doing after Var whisked him away at the end of the last book. The rising tension between Janel, Kihrin and Taraeth just gets ridiculous and you end up screaming at all three of them to GET ON AND KISS. Meanwhile Thurvy is exasperated with everyone and totally my favourite. Not that I'm picking favourites.

The characters are complex and well developed, the settings are unique and fun, and the story is sizzling with tension, romance, drama and trouble. I love being in this world and this definitely a series I can see myself re-reading many times over.

Summary
A brilliant book three is all I can say without saying too much. It was great seeing where all the characters went and the new turns the story took on. If you're a big fantasy lover then this series is well worth your time, but be warned, it is not a light read.

The cast has been introduced. The conflict has been revealed. So, the story can continue, right? Many readers of any genre understand both stories and real life are more complex than they first appear to be. Fans of epics, sagas and (space) operas know to expect more from such stories, but they never know which direction the story will move throughout the narrative. "The Memory of Souls," the third book in "A Chorus of Dragons" series, is the latest epic fantasy to provide more plot devices as the story reaches its climax.

"The Memory of Souls" is the climax of "A Chorus of Dragons" series, which will leave fans and readers with the (grimdark) question: does the ends justify the means? While the story doesn’t omit any of the detail, it does leave readers with several more questions about the direction the author seems to be moving it in. No one is expected to survive the end of this series, but we’ll have to read in order to find out who will live.