Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

This book had a lot of potential but in the end it fell short for me. The story follows three sisters in Britain who journey to various locations in attempts to determine their family lineage.

I struggled throughout the majority of this book; it felt very rushed and like the author was trying to cram a lot of information in a short space while checking off items on a list. The accusations of witchcraft against Synne became very repetitive and the constant moving around made the story very chaotic. I would have loved to see more character development and world building along with the mystical.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publishers for access to this ARC 📚 I was also lucky enough to be in contact with the author directly, so a special thanks to L.P. O’Bryan.

🔥Quick Fire Review🔥

Genre/Themes : 🏰🏹⚔️🔮👑✝️👩🏼‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻
Tropes : Orphan, Love/Hate Relationship, Royal, Rich Vs Poor, Socially Inferior, Ancient Settings, An Inheritance
Positives ✅ : immersive and well-researched setting following on from book one and two, an overall engaging plot and enjoyable lead character
Room for Improvement 🔎 : a weaker first half due to pacing issues, some missed plot opportunities, uneven characterisation
Rating : 🌕🌕🌗

✍🏻Full Review - RISK OF SPOILERS 🛑

I struggled with this instalment for the first 40%, and was really worried it wouldn’t pick up as I’d really enjoyed the series and wanted a satisfying ending. Thankfully, it became a much better read after this point.

Characterisation:
Synne herself was a great read in this final book. We were really given her internal thought processes and conflicts regarding the anxiety of her powers and what they meant for her future, and her feelings towards Magnus, and later on, Roussel. She also showed her ability to scheme and plan, even if it meant having to hold herself back from being her usually quite brash self so that the men she encountered wouldn’t harm her or her friends.
Magnus however was still quite underutilised. His desire to keep a royal bloodline, by agreeing to find Synne’s lineage, is clearer in this book and shows how he still holds on to his traditions. He also shows more contempt towards Synne and her tendency to act as leader and make her own decisions, again showing his traditional mindset. However, it stops here. I still don’t get a sense of who he really is outside of these traditions. His and Synne’s love/hate relationship is shown more from her side, whereas I really wanted to know how Magnus truly felt beneath his bravado and to know why he would go to such trouble for Synne. Is it because he really loves her or is it because he just doesn’t know when to quit? It progresses to him hitting her but she magically forgives him at their reuniting at the end of the book. We could have had an apology, some accountability from him, an acceptance of her being more independent? We got an acceptance of her lineage, which was nice.
Gytha and Tate were unfortunately treated similarly. Tate acted how she did in book two, namely her envy and mistreatment of her sister. She continues to be demanding, belittling and accusatory towards Synne, often contradicting herself, and constantly feeling that she must fight her for the affections of men. I’d hoped to see a bit more of a redemption arc from Tate, especially with influence from the kinder sister Gytha. Tate also has two love interests in the story, but they are quite vaguely mentioned. In fact I don’t remember either of them speaking? They possibly did but I don’t remember it. One of them named Craig had a brother, Athol, who remains with the group throughout the story. I again only recall him speaking once or twice, and when he does seems to claim an unwavering loyalty to Magnus. I would have liked more context for this. Gytha felt quite forgotten in this instalment aside from when she
would discuss her dreams, the only storyline of her own being a very brief cornering by Bishop Rutilus’ men.
Ambr, the slave that the girls save and that had befriended Gytha in book two, was fairly significant in the middle of the story with her knowledge and ability to translate, and showed in some ways quite a dark sense of humour.
The main antagonist of the book is Bishop Rutilus. He was quite a dark character, seemingly getting erotic pleasure from inflicting or ordering the infliction of pain and torture, all in the name of his God. Some background to this would have been nice. His pursuit of Synne became obsessive, going far beyond any reasonable effort to find her. Again, under the guise of pleasing the Roman emperor, but its very heavily implied he just wants to see her suffer.
Roussel, the Empress and Andronicus were intriguing, quite mysterious characters. But I feel we didn’t get to spend enough time with them to gauge their characters.

World-Building:
Scotland, Denmark and Kiev weren’t explored much at all. The time the group spends there is very brief so I didn’t feel I got much of an experience of these places. Denmark especially was a shame as this was where Synne’s father was from. We could have explored more of this area in pursuit of him, seeing what the land was like and what influence it had for Synne’s family. We mostly just learn that they are outwardly Christian and as a result wary of anybody who might be a witch, while in some of these areas certain ‘old ways’ are being held on to secretly. Constantinople is the most detailed area we come to, understandable being the main aim of the story, and I loved it. The excess of the buildings designed with gold, the extravagant games held in the Hippodrome. The cosmopolitan society of men from all parts of the world, with Constantinople the heart of it all. The politics and corruption regarding the Empress, her missing husband the Emperor and the Turks. This was definitely the most immersive aspect of the story.
The sisters and their ‘abilities’ and the ‘prophecy’ still felt somewhat unexplained. If anything, Gytha feels like the most powerful sister yet Synne is the one everybody seems to be after. By the end of the book I’m still not sure if Synne’s powers are real or not. There’s plenty of mention of her being a healer, but she isn’t shown to do an awful lot of that in this book. And she also claims to be a seer, which confused me as well because that appears to be Gytha? So the ‘magical’ aspects of the story felt a little confusing.

Prose\Plot:
I felt this story really needed the multiple POVs that we’d had in book two. It allowed for so much more development of supporting characters and allowed for interesting storylines that would link together at the end. I also wish Magnus had had a point of view in this series as I still felt by the end of the book I barely knew him and didn’t understand what Synne saw in him. The prose seemed to take on a blend of book one and two, with some of those anxious, short choppy sentences being back with Synne’s internalised thoughts. This was mixed with some sentences that were a little bit too long. The first 40% of the book felt too rushed for me. With the vast amount of content trying to be crammed into quite a short novel, the story in Scotland and Denmark felt very much like trying to tick everything off a bullet-point list and this was reflected in the writing style. In a certain scene there was too much focus on where everybody was, people were ‘to my left, to my right, at my other side, stood behind me’ every few sentences rather than just focusing on what was happening. It added to the feeling of just trying to set the scene as quickly and concisely as possible. They were then only in these places for a few pages and were off again, finding out it was dangerous for them to be there, finding a person willing to help and then escaping. I think there could have been more dedicated to trying to find Synne’s father, exploring by themselves or following leads rather than immediately finding out. The battle at Kiev was when the pacing started to improve, this scene in particular was a great read. Magnus’ ‘death’ however was an unnecessary storyline for me. If anything I’d have preferred it to have switched to his POV and have his encountering of the emperor and journey to save Synne going on in the background, rather than it being a ‘twist’ that he had survived. It was an obvious twist due to the several hints in the last chapters so I’d have rather that hadn’t been done and instead given some chapters dedicated to Magnus. The Empress and Roussel being the baddies and Andronicus being a good guy was the better, less predictable twist. I’d have liked a POV from Tate on returning to the Prince at Kiev, to see her fulfil her part of the prophecy and develop her romance with him, as opposed to it being vaguely mentioned at the end. I also wish we’d seen Ambr start her own life now she is no longer a slave. Overall, I felt this book needed to be much longer to fit all of the content in while still keeping us engaged with the characters and keeping a consistent pace.

This book had a lot of potential, but it ultimately missed the mark for me. The story follows three sisters in Britain, one of whom is set to marry a man but wants to find her father first. They make their way to Denmark, where one sister is part of royalty, and the plot takes them on a journey that includes escape, supernatural events, and lots of drama. The healer is continuously accused of being a witch, with the birds, rain, and wolves seemingly playing a significant role in the plot.

They travel to Kiev, where one sister falls in love, only to leave soon after. Then, they end up causing chaos in Constantinople before returning to Kiev. The constant movement and the repeated accusations of witchcraft felt repetitive, and I struggled to stay engaged with the plot.

The pacing was off, and the characters didn’t fully capture my attention. Despite the dramatic setting and supernatural elements, it felt more like a chaotic mess than an exciting adventure. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it, and it didn’t hold my interest enough to make me care about the outcome.

1.5 ⭐ – I felt this one lacked the depth and connection I was hoping for.

We have a known group of 3 sisters that are in Britain with a man who is waiting to marry one of them but she wants to find her father first. They go to Denmark first because she is part of the royalty, then the escape and go to another site and each time the healer is made out as a witch when birds do something or it rains or the wolves come and save them. It places them in Kiev where the rain comes and one of the sisters falls in love but leaves at this time. They end up in making a mess in Constantinople and end up back in Kiev.

As an avid reader of historical fiction and fantasy titles, I was drawn to the description of "The Day of Synne" by LP O'Bryan. A girl and her sisters on the search to prove their royal lineage-- my kind of book. The best thing I can say about this book: that is, in fact, the plot. However, I found this story immensely difficult to read.
The grammar was extremely poor. There were times I had to question if I had just read a run-on sentence and couldn't make sense of what was being said. There were also repetitive phrases, as well as redundancies when it came to describing plot points. The writing style was overall immature. Feelings were written robotically with no... heart or description.
In chapter one, the character simply states, "I felt I was going to die." What exactly was she feeling? There are so many lines like this in the story that could have been expanded upon to make a reader connect deeper with the story. Was her heart racing, was she panicked? We don't get any insight other than that vague sentence.
To expand upon the things that made very little sense to me and bring back the line mentioned above, at that point in the story, an eagle swoops down from the sky, and she felt like she was going to die. There is not enough evidence surrounding that incident to warrant such a dramatic-- yet vague-- reaction. I also felt like the story could have benefitted from a third person point of view instead of a first-person point of view. First person points of view do not typically bother me, this is not a standard preference of mine. Perhaps I felt it didn't fit with how little depth was written for the character?
All of this dramatically interrupted my flow of reading. I couldn't enjoy the story because I couldn't go more than two paragraphs at a time without becoming distracted by the poor grammar and trying to deduce what was actually important.
I was back and forth on who the intended audience was-- children? Adults? It felt like a story written for young adults, by children. If the prose was more mature, I would have been able to read without pause and follow the plot without distraction.