After falling in love with the first book, I dove into His Mortal Demise with high expectations—and it delivered. Vanessa Le masterfully deepens the world and characters, bringing even more emotional tension, slow-burn romance, and high-stakes danger. The chemistry crackles, the plot twists hit hard, and the writing remains sharp and immersive.

This sequel doesn’t just continue the story—it elevates it. Every chapter left me craving more, and the character development made it impossible to put down. If you loved the first, you’ll be obsessed with the second.

Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Roaring Brook Press and NetGalley, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

TW: death, blood

After the ending of The last bloodcarver, I was over the moon when I got the chance to read His mortal demise and I loved, LOVED this duology so much I can't even explain!
Told by two POVs, Nhika and Kochin, alternating past and present, the reader finally gets to know what happened to these wonderful characters and what brought them into another complex and impossible situation. From one side, we have Kochin, destroyed by Nhika's death and determined to bring her back, to whatever cost. And from the other, Nhika, who woke in the Congmi's manor, months later, without any news from Kochin. What exactly happened to them and to the world, now at war?

With a lovely and smart magical system, based on medicine, it was such a pleasure reading Kochin's POV and getting to know more about his thoughts, fears and desires, how he thought about his own powers, Nhika, his guilt and shame, his need of his own family and to make things right.
Like in the first book, we get to see again the Congmi family, with Mimi, Andao and Trin and I loved their pure and important relationship with Nhika, how they are protective of her. I loved reading this book, it's a story about love and morals, about death and life, about what are you ready to sacrifice to protect who you love and if that means losing yourself, too. Vanessa Le wrote a brilliant duology, set in a world at war, filled with amazing and well rounded characters, found family, family, love and death and a marvellous magic system, medicine inspired, that I loved so much.
One of my favourite duology and this sequel is even more complex and brilliant that you could expect! So good!

Thank you very much for allowing me to read this book. However, I had to unfollow it after a few chapters. The plot made me uncomfortable and I had to stop reading it. I have not posted a review online for this reason. It might be a good reading for some people but it wasn't for me.

His Mortal Demise is the conclusion to Vanessa Le’s The Last Bloodcarver. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one because of how the first book ended.

There are different themes throughout the duology, but the heart of the story has always been about belonging. Despite being dual points of view, the focus is on Kochin and the lengths he is willing to go to resurrect the heartsoother he loves. It is more than just love that propels him forward. It is the fact that Nhika was the one individual who not only believed he was enough but made him feel it. There is longing and regret throughout Kochin’s chapters, and these were the feelings I connected with best. It is slower-paced than the first book with a melancholic tone that resonated with me.

His Mortal Demise is the love story I wish had been present in the first book. Feelings are fleshed out while Kochin’s fate is unraveled. Unfortunately, my feelings about how quickly love unfolded in The Last Bloodcarver was always in the back of mind and marred how much I wanted Kochin and Nhika to have a happy ending. However, I'm still glad I got to read this one. It exceeded my initial expectations.

His Mortal Demise by Vanessa Le is the sequel to The Last Bloodcarver, which was one of my favorite books from last year. The end of the duology definitely lived up to my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing, characters, and world-building of this book and will definitely be recommending it.

Nhika, our FMC, waking up into a shattered world had me hooked from the first moment, and Kochin, our MMC, spending months risking everything with his heartsooth magic kept me rooting for him the whole time. The dual timelines jump between his desperate quest and her fight to piece together what happened, and those twists had my heart racing. Watching their paths collide felt epic and emotional, with just the right blend of pain, hope, and reunion to make it all pay off.

I didn’t find this sequel particularly remarkable. I think I read it since the first one left off on such a cliffhanger that I felt obliged to find out what happened next. I think it did tie up loose ends and it did give closure. But… I don’t know if this duo-logy was meant for me; I don’t do blood and bloody things. But if you’re into medical stuff and healing… this is for you!

After the cliffhanger of the last book, I was eagerly awaiting the sequel. This story is told from two points of view, and on different timelines. It was interesting to catch up on where familiar characters have landed, and finally learning what happened after the last chapter of The Last Bloodcarver. I love the detail that is put into the descriptions in these stories! The story is set in the middle of a war, making it an important time for people with the gift. The navigation of the politics, and events that unfolded kept my attention to the end.

Beautiful companion to the first book. I loved the first book so much and I was so incredibly happy to hear more about Kochin in this book. My favorite thing about this duology is Vanessa Le's stunning ability to have two characters with such incredibly similar experiences be so deeply different in a way that makes complete sense for each character. This is so deeply true of diaspora experience and it's so comforting to have the ability to read a story like this in fiction, where the characters are also explicitly diasporic. Overall, incredible read as expected. I can't wait for more from Vanessa Le!!

Solid end to Nhika's story! Definitely worth reading for fans who loved the Last Bloodcarver but were gutted by the ending.

The sequel and ending for "The Last Bloodcarver", Vanessa Le brings us back to the SFF city of Theumas to continue the story of Nhika and Kochi after the heartstopping finale of the first book.

I'm incredibly happy to have read this duology and the ending did not disappoint!

Returning to the SFF world of Theumas was a delight, especially with the big changes that transpired during the timeskip. Unlike the first book, here we have a dual narration and because of the ending of TLB, the stakes were high no only for plot reasons, but for the author herself. The dual narration is between two timelines for the majority of the book, so I was very impressed on how Vanessa Le was able to jump through the hoops of having the present events while keeping the mystery of how we arrived there with the past events. Since this is a debut duology for her, I applaud her!

The worldbuilding was expanded here, not to ridiculous extents, but enough to continue the story, make believable events within it, and saciating my curiosity. I had many questions after the ending of TLB and I'm happy with the answers I got. Known characters, aside from Kochi and Nhika, received more development and even some less known or new got some unexpected love and I was loving it! One worldbuilding aspect that was kept kind of in the background during TLB was reintroduced in full force and it surprised me how much it affected the story, since usually when we deal with romantasies, they tend to stay as a setting.

Vanessa Le's writing is great and I'm excited to read her words in whatever new story she'll present us in the future. There are full passages that feel very lyrical without becoming a lot of nonsense to just be pretty, and I commend her for that.

I think this is one great YA duology that I can safely recommend to anyone who loves diverse SFF.

Currently SCREAMING. The dual pov and the move between the past and the present was *chef's kiss* because it shows how this lush world devolved into war and how desperate Kochin was to bring Nhika back. The themes of colonization and war were woven seamlessly into the plot and never truly felt preachy. This was my first duology by Vanessa Le and I definitely will be reading more.

This was an incredible conclusion to the first novel. I don't know why some of the reviews are so harsh. I particularly enjoyed the dual POV. I liked being able to see Kochin's thought process and hsi side of the story in this. The converging plot lines was also really cool. I knew he couldn't be dead but it was still thrilling to see how everything happened and watch Nhika learn for herself too. Either way I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to more from this author.

This was a pretty good read, it took a little longer than I originally expected but I still enjoyed the plot and the flow of the book. The characters were well written and believable.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Young Listeners | Roaring Brook Press for this ARC Copy!

After the cliffhanger that was the last book, I was so excited to get my hands on this book. I was really curious about where the story could possibly go with that last ending. The dual timelines were really well done, and it was easy to discern which timeline we were following. The romance was not my favorite part of the book, but I still found it sweet, and I was still rooting for the characters the whole time. Such a well done conclusion to this series, I just wish there was more in this beautifully crafted world.

I really liked how this duology ended.

This book is dual PoV, following Kochin and Nhika in different times. Nhika follows the present timeline and Kochin is in the past slowly working towards the present. I loved having the dual PoV, they are so distintic and bring new information that further the plot and the world.

We get to know other characters throughout the story way better and what I think is extremely interesting is that every character is really complex. We don't have someone that is evil just for the sake of being evil, everyone is doing what they think is right sometimes regardless of the evil they are leaving behind. No one is completely good. They are all fleshed out like real people, even our main characters are not exempt from evil doing to achieve their goals and the "villains" also think they have goals to help their people.

I really liked following Kochin's story. He starts so focused on the goal he has and how awful he feels about himself. His character growth and where his story takes him is my favorite part of the book. I also like Nhika's but my favorite was Kochin's. Especially because with Kochin, we got to see even more about the magic system that is really interesting. How the author mixed magic with medicine was really unique and reall well thought out. Kochin also brought the tie in to Vietnam's history that was really interesting.

The only thing that still stands up to me is the dialogue; it still feels too juvenile especially in contrast with the gore, violence, and war that are the main storylines. I loved the ending though.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

I got an ARC of this book.

It is so rare that a sequel lives up to the original. There are sometimes where they are pretty close, but the vibe is just off. Nothing can compare to the first one. This is one of the exceptions. This felt like it was exactly as amazing. It was a perfect continuation of the story.

I was so invested. I remember turning on the first audiobook on two times the speed at the ending, because I couldn’t wait to find out what happened. I didn’t even bother starting at a slower speed for this one. I listened at two times the speed the entire book. I needed every detail to be immediately downloaded to my brain. I needed to know what happened. The ending of one destroyed me. Two revived me.

Seeing the story unfold in current time and seeing the backstory rushing to meet current time kept the story fascinating and kept me hooked. I was terrified the whole book what would have happened to Kochin. It is clear that Kochin and Nhika are both alive at the start of the book, it is in the description (I checked). It was just unclear if they would both be alive by the meeting of the time periods. I couldn’t handle if anything happened to them. They were the snarky couple goals with intense trauma and baggage. I needed them to be ok.

The story and the plot was amazing. I am a huge fan. This duology is a perfect snow storm read. You can stay inside for a few days and read both back to back. Not letting the feelings fade. Not letting the tension ebb. It is worth reading these, no matter how far apart you do. They are fantastic.

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley and am leaving my review voluntarily.

It is truly surprising to me that His Mortal Demise has a higher rating on Goodreads than The Last Bloodcarver (#1 in the series). I had to DNF about 10 chapters in because it bored me to death. This is what the chapters were:

Walk here
Say some things
Drive my boat here
Garden
Say some things
Walk here
Leave there
Punch someone
Walk here
Say some things
Garden

And so on. I really tried to continue with the book because the first one was pretty good (read the review here), but I couldn’t force myself to. Every single time I picked up the book, I fell asleep. Literally. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t finish this one.

The last book in the duology it felt more heartsick and forlorn than the first one which felt powerful and full of amazing body horror descriptions, but I definitely know why this one took this turn. Then having the two perspectives based on the situations the characters are both in, gives a panoramic view to the readers with a clock ticking.

It's a vivid world steeped in Vietnamese culture and magic, it's still got the impending sense of the beginning of the story with Kochin and Nhika.