Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange of my honest review.

3/5 stars

This book starts with our main character Kensey Vardallian being the narrator of his misadventures to his captor The Black Empress of Pileaus. His story starts with the murder of his grandfather in front of him and an important journal of a Vardallian ancestor being stolen from him by the same villain who killed his grandfather. Kensey decides to get his vengeance when he met some odd characters who ended up being pirates from the famous ship The Black Yonnix who where also looking for the journal. From there the story and the adventures of Kensey begin.

For me, the book started really slow and it got intersting just after chapter 10. I was looking for a book with more adventures on the ocean and the developement of our main character's personality but at the end, we met for a short time with the impressive captain of The Black Yonnix, then, the story Kensey tells is just about how he gets back his journal with the help of two pirates; one being Blue a Manii which is a fox with magical powers who talks and plays some magical music that could be helpful in many dangerous situations , the second being Ulysses the first mate of the Black Yonnix who tells stories like no one, these two characters made the story so much entertaining in addition to other interesting characters that appeared shortly. We don't know what happened to kensey after or about all his adventures with the pirates and how he ended up being captured by The Empress. The ending was lacking and, I didn't like Kensey at the end or while he was telling his story.

I loved the world created by the author and his writing was pretty interesting. I don't know if he is going to finish telling us all the story of Kensey, his tatoo and The Black Yonnix in his own future books or if we will find out about it in The Unmade Man by D.T. Gooden which we have the first two chapters at the end of this book.

I'm interested in the stories and the adventures of The Black Yonnix's crew and Nyomi and her husband and so on. I hope that the author will be thinking about a sequel.

The Black Yonnix: A Bitter End is a rollicking fantasy full of pirates, thieves, royalty, derring do and dastardly doings. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to read any of the above! It also has a wealth of world building detail, with unique races, religions and magic systems all well thought out and full fleshed.

Kensey Vardallian is both the main character of the story in the past tense and the narrator in the present as the main body of the book is his relating the tale of how he came to be aboard the infamous pirate ship 'The Black Yonnix' in the present time to his captor the Empress of Pileaus. It sounds confusing but it works. Kensey starts out as wet-behind-the-ears green as any peasant turned hero ever has, but the Kensey relating his tale to the Empress is a bit more wise to the way of the world and the twists and turns his life has taken. I'm curious as to exactly 'how' much time has elapsed here.

This story ends rather abruptly. Leading me to believe that Mr. Colby has more stories in the works that will hopefully be released sooner rather than later. Because I really, REALLY want to know more about what's to become of Kensey, the crew of the Black Yonnix and the world of Pileaus.

The title also includes 'A Story of Pileaus' and this galley contains a 2 chapter preview of 'The Unmade Man' by D.T. Gooden. The main character of this story, Boruin is referenced in The Black Yonnix so it seems to be a potential shared universe situation reminiscent of the 'Wild Cards' or 'Merovingian Nights' series. Which makes me VERY excited for things to come!

I am very appreciative of NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my thoughts and a review. As stated at the beginning, if you like your fantasy fun but with some depth to it. This is the book for you!