THE TRAITOR'S KINGDOM

Power grabs spoil peace talks in this trilogy finale.

After saving a Demoran prince, befriending the long-estranged, desert-dwelling Casmuni, and deploying a dreadful weapon against a Kimisar army, Sage Fowler seeks peace between the three contentious kingdoms. Now an ambassador with powerful allies among the royals of Demora and Casmun, teenage Sage’s solitary schemes alienate her friends and frustrate her loyal love interest, Maj. Alex Quinn. When assassins interrupt Sage’s clandestine rendezvous with Kimisara’s Queen Regent Zoraya, the women flee, and Sage scrambles to protect Zoraya, Casmuni Princess Lani, and her grieving Demoran friend, Lady Clare Holloway. Feminist Sage wants peace but also empowerment for the women of all the kingdoms; always strategizing, Sage insists that women be queens, not pawns in this political chess game. Amid danger, romance still blooms: Sage and Alex contemplate marriage while Lani, Clare, and Zoraya also encounter love. Like a PG-13 Game of Thrones, the flurry of political and military maneuvering unfolds against a pre-industrial, Northern-European–like setting. Many Demorans—such as Clare and Sage—are white, in contrast to the usually bronze-skinned, dark-haired Casmuni and Kimisar. Beaty (Traitor’s Ruin, 2018, etc.) offers flawed, flailing, and often furious characters grounded in reality and sans superpowers or inexplicable skills.

A satisfying and suspenseful end to a solid political fantasy series.