The Mage

Hmmm. Not sure about this one. As a romance, it's fine - well, maybe a little too easy for them, but then they've been courting (mostly off-screen) for about a year already. But Hope's surprise introduces a whole sequence of completely new, unrelated to the previous books' stories events, to the point where this book feels a bit disconnected and random. One major reason for the surprise is to give them some distance and make them court one another rather than just automatically fall together...but there are so many things going on that their love-play gets a bit buried. The scene where Rora gets her Fountain extracted is beautifully done, but Morg and Hope...well, actually, they do play an important role in it. But their roles were very show more little foreshadowed and are lightly explained, so it doesn't connect up very well. Hope's insistence on chocolate as the cure for all ills is amusing, but again - it comes out of left field. The kidnapping is nicely done and logical within its framework (which is born entirely of the surprise Hope brought), but in the time when the focus should be on the Convocation and the fulfilling of Nightfall's incipient independence, there's this major side-story dragging off in another direction. And then the Convocation itself has this major event that comes out of nowhere - looking back afterward, I can see a few things that refer to it, but without the knowledge of the event they didn't mean anything. Decent story, excellent characters as always, and while I'm reading I enjoy it more or less - but looking at the book as a whole, it's not quite as satisfying as the previous ones. Too bad this one is the culmination of the series.
Rereading because I read The Grove, which takes place partly during the Convocation - very interesting seeing the two POVs. Reading this on its own, not as part of the series, it's pretty good - so that just means that it's a good book but the rest of the series is great.
Reread:
Usually I find this book annoying, as too many unheralded events pile in to complicate what _should_ have been a simple courtship (with, admittedly, complicated events around it). The Mendhi brothers, Duke Finneg's idiocy (we never do find out what he intended, at the end), the whole thing with Morg and the King of Katan - and of course, the initial trigger, Hope's secret. And a random extra fleet thrown in just for giggles. Honestly, it's a big messy pile and usually I find it too annoying to make a smooth ending to the series. This time, for whatever reason, it worked. Helped that I already knew Hope's secret but that hasn't helped before. Somehow, the piling on of Katan's interference, and the various other interferences, worked for me this time, in a smooth (and steep!) arc to reach the climax of the book and the series. Nice. And of course now I want to read others in this world... show less

I really like this series of books. The author closed up most of the endings well with the characters. I want to an epilogue to the book so that in a few years we find out how all the characters are doing. I was also disappointed that Hope has kids in another universe she will never see. She should be upset to give them up like that rather than ambivilant.

I give the series as a whole 3 stars. I really liked the story line and premise, but I did not like the romances. I often found myself skimming the romance parts to find out what was going to happen next with the story. That is out of the ordinary for me.

80 pages on it's still really really boring. No spark between the couple, lots of talk, talk, talk. I can't waste more of my time on this book, peeps and will be donating it to my local library. DNF for me.

We knew from book one that Morgenen and Hope were destined for each other, but we didn't know that Hope was the previous Duchess of Nightfall. We also get the Convocation of the Gods and a nice wrap up of the series.

Jean did mention that she has stories for other parts of the world she has created and there's Shifting Plains as a first foray into that.

Awesome reading. Start with The Sword then finish with Finding Destiny in order. You can't go wrong with that. Morg is awesome and patient. He didn't have to wait, but it made it better for him to wait.

from official Jean Johnson website:
Hope, Morganen's foretold bride, has finally arrived on the island. She hasn't been telling the full truth about herself, and the consequences will stretch further than even she anticipates. Just as Morg gets used to Hope's revelation, new enemies arrive on the Isle, seeking to steal away the brothers' chances at creating a new nation. During the attack, an old foe resurfaces and strikes amid the confusion, kidnapping the final bride-to-be. Either Morg will rescue Hope and help his faimly complete the Prophecies of the Seer Draganna and the last Duchess of Nightfall, carving a new kingdom in the process...or their enemies will be free to slaughter them all....