I have been looking forward to this conclusion of the Black Witch Chronicles and was thrilled to be able to get an advance copy of the audiobook from @netgalley in return for my honest review:

Elloran Gardner Gray, the Magedom’s Black Witch, is desperately fighting against the forces of the Shadow as it swiftly consumes the forests and oceans of the West. Meanwhile, the realms of the East are doing their best to track down and kill Elloren instead of fighting against the Shadow. All of Elloren’s allies must come together in this sweeping epic finale to stop the Shadow and save Erthia and the Natural World.

With strong themes of environmentalism and diversity, the bad guys in this story are very bad and seemingly unconquerable. The situation for our heroes seems hopeless. No spoilers but I will say there is an interesting twist in the second half that I did not see coming. The story really emphasizes how important our natural resources are and that we should be taking better care of our forests, waterways and atmosphere. It also highlights the benefits of everybody working together to care for our Earth.

As a conclusion, it is grand although it wraps everything up a little too neatly for my taste. I would have preferred a little more left to my imagination. Content warning: this last book contains quite a bit of sexual content (not as graphic as some) so I would recommend for 18+.

The quality of the audiobook was very good. I liked the narrator who made good use of different accents and made each of the characters very recognizable. On the whole, I love this series and this conclusion was very fitting.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I want to start off and say, I will always recommend this series to people. It's one of my favorite YA fantasy series especially the first three books in the series.

That being said, this book just didn't live up to my expectations and there were decisions made that I wasn't totally into but that is okay. I still had a good time but it definitely wasn't the great experience I usually have with this series.

I received an Audiobook through NetGalley for review.

I had already read this, prior to receiving the audiobook, but it was truly lovely to hear the pronunciations for this book, and the series at large. The narration features one person, but they did give distinctive voices and accents for the entire cast of characters, and it was fun to hear what they all might sound like with all the inflections and attitudes.

The Dryad Storm is long, both as book and audio- it truly is an epic in its self within the series.
We've been collecting this whole host of friends and families along the way, and The Dryad Storm really branches out to cover all those assorted characters and their part in the battle for Earthea.
The story is really formulate like one big story with adjoining novellas sandwiched inside, with epilogues after the finale. It's not just Elloren and Yvan's story, and the battle against Vogel and the mages of Gardenia.

There's so much growth and breaking down barriers for so many characters.
I had read this initially at the same time a massive natural disaster was happening locally and it hit me so hard emotionally. The delicate balance of nature and destruction for those living in it, and the slow renewal and how important that effort is.

The Dryad Storm really is a commentary on caring for your planet, and the natural world, and the bonds that connect, and the divide for greed and power and domination destroying it. To save it for the future generations.

The ending to the epic Black Witch Chronicles. This was a bittersweet listen, and u thoroughly enjoyed it. All the character arcs and storylines coming together in the final adventure was the ending this series deserved. The final message of love conquering differences will love on in the readers and listeners.

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.

I'm so happy now that this series it complete and I love how the epilogue wrapped everything and everyone up so well! It is one of my absolute favorites and Laurie Forest is amazing.
But I honestly feel that at least a quarter of this book could have been left out entirely. There was quite a bit of unneeded information and was a bit slow going. But all in all the series is fantastic and it will always be a top 10 recommendation for me.

I absolutely loved the black witch series. The first books were fantastic. I believe the last two focuses too much on the side characters.

What happened!? I'm so sad! I loved the start of this series but this one doesn't even seem like it was written by the same author. It's so repetitive and tedious and we completely lose the plot of the original MC, Elloren. I really hate the way her story went so maybe it's good that we lost sight of her, but trying to focus on these other side characters, who all have the same storyline, did not make it any better. I don't know where the author or editors went on this one, and it suffers for it. This finale was long awaited and now I'm not surprised that I didn't hear about it early. What a disappointment.

I was super excited to see this ARC on NetGalley! I read the other books in this series in June of 23' so it was rough in the beginning trying to place everyone. It was nice to get an ending to so many character stories I had honestly forgotten about! Everything comes together nicely. If you are a fan of the others you will defiantly appreciate this book.

Description
Black Witch of prophecy Elloren Gardner Grey has unleashed her powers and embraced her legacy as a Dryad and guardian of the Forest. But the losses—of life, of love—have been almost too great to withstand as the Shadow continues to devour the world. With only a tattered shred of hope remaining, the Bearers of the Wand of Myth must battle their way back to each other to mount a final stand.
But Elloren and her allies are not only facing Mage Vogel's advancing forces—the armies of the Eastern Realm will stop at nothing to see the Black Witch struck down.
With Elloren's bonded mate prophesied to kill her, Shadow demons rising, and the ties between allies unraveling, can this fracturing world unite to face down the coming storm?

Thanks to NetGalley & Harlequin Audio for the ALC of this book!

The Dryad Storm
by Laurie Forest
Narrated by Julia Whelan
Publisher Harlequin Audio

Read all the books in the Black Witch Chronicles!
The Black Witch
The Iron Flower
The Shadow Wand
The Demon Tide
The Dryad Storm
Wandfasted (prequel ebook)*
Light Mage (prequel ebook)*

This is a series I adore, and often recommend. This book is good, and I loved it. Just like the other books A LOT happens. These books are high fantasy. This book though has more POVs than the previous books. This book shines light on numerous couples throughout the book. This being said, with the book having focus on so many different couples this book does have adult themes. While the scenes were not vulgar or overly descriptive they are not fade to black either. Just be forewarned as this book is still labeled as a young adult/teen book. The romance for the couples of the “good guys” are very healthy relationships. Great series, and this book really wraps it up beautifully.

This Fantasy Romance is book 5 in the Black Witch Chronicles. There is a lot of romance in this book with several couples. There is spice in this book. The book moves at a steady pace as Vogel is still wreaking havoc with shadow magic, and destroying every thing in his path. Elloren has to do whatever it takes to stop him, and that may mean aligning herself with those who want her dead. She has to do this before he destroys everything, and theres nothing left to protect. This book is action packed, romantic, and intriguing.

So long and not what I was expecting from the series. Unfortunately very different and fell off from the first few works. Difficult to keep track of all the characters, especially with audio. This book just feels like it doesn't fit with the rest. A lot of intense and high stress moments, basically the whole book with no backing off which is a lot for a book this long. Not sure if there will be more from the series, but not sure I would continue after this.

Thank you Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for this ARC of the audiobook The Dryad Storm in exchange for a review.

I’m going to start with what I liked about this book. She did a great job of making the bad guys really easy to hate. I still hate Vogel and Fallon. The twist with Vogel was definitely surprising but also made so much sense.

Unfortunately, the book does not have much else going for it. The first 3 books of this series were amazing, Demon Tide was a mess. I kept hoping this book would redeem the series, but alas, it ended with disappointment.

Firstly, there are WAY too many POVs and all of them seem to be having sex. There is way to much sexuality in this book for it to be YA. Not every person needed to find a mate. And, why do we need to have sex be this powerful force that saves the world? Also, why is Razor all of a sudden a shifter and mated to Oakland?

Another issue I found with this book was the idea of the forrest was turning everyone to the same side was far fetched. Everyone’s minds are completely changed by what it shows them. Some of the people have deep seated issues that I don’t think would be lightly changed.

Some of my favourite characters from the previous books only make a cameo in this book and it was extremely disappointing. All of those POVs and they aren’t for characters like Jared, Diana, her brothers, it was frustrating.

Alas, this could have been such an amazing conclusion but was muddled with unnecessary detail, POVs, and poor pacing.

Can I say, this is the first time in a while that I am so sad a series is ending. I am really REALLY going to miss these beautiful characters.

I enjoyed this one and appreciated the ending. It was great to see all of my favorites again and watch them grow. I felt the middle of the book was a little long and I could have used a little less new character introductions.

That being said, I have always loved how the general theme around these books is love and making the world a better place. During crazy times like now, it is nice to read about something that just seems so simple.

If you haven’t read The Black Witch Chronicles, this is your time to do it now that it is a completed series. It is perfect and you won’t regret it!

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

Read this if you like:
🐉 Love over everything
🐉 Final resolutions
🐉 World rebuilding

This entire series has my heart but I was a little disappointed in this final book. It was VERY hard to get into and there were so many different scenes that it was hard to catch up. Once I finally started grasping what was going on with those characters, it would switch to new characters.

I am so glad that it finally has an end but I am also heartbroken that it is over.

The connections to climate change were very prominent in The Dryad Storm. I think Laurie does a really good job of connecting the dots to her fantasy world and the real world.

3.5 Stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for an advanced copy!

I was excited to read the conclusion to The Black Witch series! I loved the first two books in the series--The Black Witch and the Iron Flower--and they will forever been in my list of favorites. I didn't love the last two books--The Shadow Wand and The Demon Tide--and I was hoping I would like The Dryad Storm better.

I did like this book better than the last two, and I think it brought a good conclusion to the series. I liked the epilogue and how the main theme of loving all people came through until the end. I do think there were too many perspectives, similar to the last two books--it took 25% of the book to get to one of our main characters. Despite that, I did like the story, though sometimes the magic felt a little unexplained. Overall, I liked the conclusion and liked this volume better than the last two.