I was completely unaware that this is the third, and final, book in a series when I requested it, but that didn’t impede my enjoyment at all.

There’s enough context sprinkled throughout the encounters in the book that I never felt super lost as far as it came to the plot.

My biggest hangup with this book was the frequent flashbacks to different times and different points of view. I lost track several times of whose head we were in. And several of the flashbacks felt unnecessary.

But I loved the worldbuilding! This alternate history world with an American empire, an extinct British island; magic and demons and vampires everywhere! And Atlantis and Lemuria both as real and powerful places. All of this felt so solid and well established.

I am so excited to go back and get reintroduced to this world in the first two books.

Thank you NetGalley and Meerkat Press.

I picked up this book without knowing it was a series so I was very confused with the arcs each character was on. Overall I wasn’t in love.

Stars: 3.5 out of 5

I hadn't realized that this was book 3 of a series, so some of the events were a bit confusing, since I haven't read the previous 2 installments. I'm interested enough to do go back and do it though.

I think the most interesting part about this series is the world. I mean it's roughly the present times, but the political, sociological, and magical landscape is very different from our world. It's a world where a wish granted by a demon or a fae can reshape the world to the liking of the person (or political entity) making the wish. So the Mongolian Empire might capture a demon and wish to dominate the world... and the world will have to accommodate for that. If England summons a fae and wants world dominion instead, well, the world will have to change to accommodate that as well. And where the two opposing wishes collide, chaos ensues. Image a world where you can go to sleep in New York, USA, and wake up in New Amsterdam, English Empire. This is good worldbuilding stuff, and I am all in for that!

Now imagine that after a horrible war, the realms of the fae and demons have been severed from Earth. No more wishes. No more world domination overnight. But then news breaks that one demon remains trapped on Earth, so whoever gets it will have the last wish left on this plane of existence. Blood will flow, people will die, cities will be destroyed, as all knowns powers race to get their hands on the prize.

I also liked the protagonist. She is a complex character with a lot of backstory that is hinted on but not entirely explained since this is book 3 in a series. Sully is interesting enough for me to pick up and read the first two books eventually, just so that I understand better what happened to the world before the big showdown in Hong Kong. I wasn't in love with some of the author's narrative choices though. For example, the constant jumping around the timeline was confusing and frustrating at times.

I understand that the author wanted to fill in some gaps in Sully's life after her miraculous recovery without giving too much away at the beginning of the book, but to me, that kills the tension. Here we are, in Hong Kong, the epicenter of an epic battle and Sully's life is at stake... then we jump back 5 years and see her talking to some random character in New Amsterdam.

And probably a lot of the confusion is because I haven't read the previous books, so I don't know who those characters in flashback are. I'm sure regular readers enjoyed when some of them got their comeuppances, but to me, it fell flat. 

My other problem was that there were simply too many players in this game and it took real effort to keep track of all of them and what they wanted, apart from the doll containing the demon. On the other hand, I'm interested enough to go back and read the first two installments. So all in all, great story and very interesting world. I will definitely revisit this to hopefully understand the story better.

PS: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sully, maverick officer of the Empire, destroyer of a civilization, responsible for the death of the Fae, a legend who has lost her memory. All ingredients for a very different book to what I expected. The main reason I requested this was my love of all things to do with Hong Kong, and even though this is a reimagined, vampire riddled city the story still oozes with the essence and dynamic of this complex place.
The story moves between the present and pivotal moments in the past to flesh out the character who is Iona Sullivan and how she earnt her reputation as a person not to be messed with.
The world Sully inhabits is one where demons exsists and can grant wishes, these wishes were used to fight wars and each wish remade the timeline. The escalation of wishes led to the banishement of demons to hell - all but one and this is the demon that Sully is sent to retrieve. However other parties are interested in this last wish on earth and they will stop at nothing to possess it...
I enjoyed this novel and would read other works by the author - in fact it looks like there are previous books of Sully so that will keep me busy. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this ARC.

This is the end of a good and unique series. This series is alt-history/urban fantasy. It is pretty hardcore urban fantasy, with one of the better magic systems I’ve read in a while, so I would recommend this series more towards big fantasy and paranormal fans. If you are not really a fan of those genres, or just dipping your toe in since it is Halloween time, this might not be the series for you.

It is very important to mention that these books HAVE TO BE READ IN ORDER. Sorry, I know caps are annoying but I can’t imagine someone jumping into this series, by reading this final book first, and having any idea at all what is going on. It only took four years to finish this three book series, but there is so much going on, all these different connections and threads, that it took me a while to remember half of what I needed to while reading this installment. If I was a bit confused having read all the books, I think it would be impossible if someone read these out of order. I’m actually thinking of re-reading this whole series, maybe next year, so I can read them all in a row since I know I missed things by not completely remembering.

There is a ton going on in this series but the basic is a world filled with witches, demons, vampires, and more. It is an alt-history of what the world would be like if there had been no American independence from the British Empire and that magic was everywhere. Sully, a witch, is a top agent who solves paranormal crimes and anything else the British Empire needs when it doesn’t want to get its hands dirty.

This was the book that finally tied up all the loose ends that had happened in the series. We find out what will finally become of Sully, Marie, their friends and Sully’s enemies, this book was the closure I think that fans of this series were waiting for. I want to be very careful not to give anything away, but I will say that I found the ending satisfying and was happy with it.

One issue I had in the first book was I thought that Sully started out almost in that predatory lesbian trope going after younger women. Luckily, that didn’t really last as Sully soon wound up in drama with her on-again, off-again vampire girlfriend Marie, and that relationship changed and grew in all three books. In this final book, to tie up some loose ends, there were some time jumps -flashback type things, in some chapters. I’m not crazy about that choice, but it filled in the blanks for certain storylines for us readers. One of the scenes was a flashback between Sully and Marie, and I hated it. Yes, Sully is an asshole, but she is a loveable asshole and this scene didn’t fit in my opinion. It felt like to me that Penman forgot that he was writing a main female character which was a real shame since it did affect my enjoyment which lowered my finale rating.

TLDR: This is the finale book, and a satisfying ending, to the Witch of Empire series. It ties up all the loose ends and questions we as readers might have had. I cannot stress enough how important it is to read this series in order as it has so many connecting plotlines. This series is not perfect, and has a few issues, but it is a very unique alt-history /urban fantasy world with a great magic system. This is pretty intense urban fantasy so I would recommend this series to more hardcore urban fantasy and paranormal fans.

First off. When I requested this book I didn't realise that it was the final instalment of a trilogy. It's the reason my review is a little late. Yes, I went back and read the first two. Reason being, this isn't a stand a lone novel. You really need to read them all.

The key character is awesome. She is just up my street. Her name by the way is Sully. Even if you don't enjoy the book I will challenge anyone to say they dislike her. She is totally relate able.

Through out the books Sully's character grows and the world changes. So instead, in this book we see her dealing with a very changed world. I seriously can't tell you too much because it would spoil not only this book but the previous two as well.

Ok, so go pick up The Year of the Knife and The wounded one's then read this. Trust me you won't be disappointed.

Enjoy!

Despite me not having read the first two books (only figured that out after I was approved for a request copy), this was an incredibly enjoyable read that might actually just make me go back and read the first two books. The story building and world-building was quite a delight and the character as well. You can tell (even as someone who, again, did not read the first two books) that Penman is a master at his craft and has taken much care when crafting this story. There were a few moments where I was slightly confused but that was by past events but otherwise, this was a very enjoyable read and I had a lot of fun reading it.
Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC

I couldn't finish this book. The timelines were so wonky, and halfway through the book, I found myself still filled with confusion. There were too many characters with backstories we didn't understand.

3rd book in a series. I have to read the 1st two books because I am kind of confused. Felt very out of place while reading.

I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review; thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

This story was definitely not my usual flavor of dark urban fantasy- it takes place in a post apocalyptic world still struggling to deal with the collapse of a major world power, and recovery from some supernatural genocide, The world and characters seem to have a similar outlook on empathy and value life about as well as the members of Marvel’s Suicide Squad - everyone is a villain and violence is a necessary certainty. Overall the story was simple and gleefully dark and the characters were very damaged beings doing bad things just to get by. As an introduction to a series this is fine, and it also wraps things up well enough as a stand-alone story. I really felt like the story was missing a prequel though, given the huge gaps in context that are only filled in by bits and pieces as the story unfolds.

The staccato style of word play in imagery and the technicolor fury of the language used reminded me a bit of David Wong’s books, but tonally this book seemed a lot more like James Bennett’s Ben Garston series. I had a VERY hard time dealing with the time jump occurring with EVERY alternating chapter.

This is one of those books that have an interesting world and premise but where I end up strongly disliking the protagonist- Sully is a thoroughly damaged monster, and we see very little of her actually using her much vaunted PI skills. Without going into more spoilers all I will say is that I was very disappointed that there was too much “tell” and not enough “show” and there was more action and less mystery solving or cleverness involved. I also don’t understand/like the way the “girlfriend” relationship is set up, and her other attachments to supporting characters isn’t necessarily set up realistically in terms of reasonable loyalty or affection.

My main problem with the plot is that there were giant holes in the explanation of things, and not all of them could be gained through inference. To me, this story almost read like the second act of a trilogy. There are in world terms and context that were super confusing or missing or out of place - even on a second read. I almost DNF’d the book in exasperation when at 60% through a critical detail about was provided that would have been very helpful in processing earlier parts of the book (unrelated to the big revelations at the end. A map would also be a great help in puzzling out this world. Or a bestiary.

I might pick up a second book if this ends up being a series, but I mostly have questions and would like to see more about events which occurred prior to the start of this book.