TO SHATTER THE NIGHT

A woman warrior fights to save her love and her country in Quinn’s fantasy romance, the second in a series.

Kiara Frey has been abandoned in the Mist. She traveled there as a member of the Knights of the Eternal Star on a quest to rid their homeland of a decades-long curse, but after a misunderstanding involving a magical artifact, the Knights’ commander—and Kiara’s love—Jude Maddox marooned Kiara and her sidekick Jake in the Mist. Due to an opportune run-in with some immortals, however, Kiara learns she needs to find Jude and bring him to the Moon God’s temple in order to retrieve a sacred moonstone necessary to trap the deity, make him mortal, and kill him, thus ending the eternal night that has plagued the land for decades. Meanwhile, Jude has made it back to civilization, where he is now wanted by his king for the crime of desertion. Jude is bent on keeping the Godslayer—a weapon that does just what its name suggests—out of the king’s hands, but that may be impossible with the forces of an entire kingdom arrayed against him. When Jude is captured, Kiara must turn to the greatest thief in the realm—a crime boss known as the Fox—to rescue him and help them reach the temple. Quinn writes with every knob turned all the way up, the emotions of her characters resonating with the same intensity as the book’s fantastical elements. Here Kiara and Jude’s desire for each other increases under the influence of magic: “His eyes burned, his stare piercing, seeing beyond my barriers and walls. I gazed right back, past his doubts and insecurities, past the mask he wore for everyone but me. The raw truth of him was perfect, made for me, and my pulse danced with anticipation.” The plot will be nearly incomprehensible for those who have not read the previous volume, but fans of Quinn’s distinctive world of finicky gods and blighted lands will enjoy this conclusion to her duology.

A blistering romance novel laden with sword-and-sorcery elements.