Ahhh we finally got to the final book in the Empire trilogy! Thank you so much to Rachel’s Random Resources for hosting this blog tour and for having me included in it. Click on the banner for the rest of the schedule and to show support to my fellow hosts!

“We cannot shape the circumstances to fit our lives, only our lives to fit the circumstances. What defines us, as men and women, is how we respond to those circumstances.”

Exiled from the Empire as a traitor, Casyn’s words echo in Lena’s mind. Determined to find Casil, the legendary city of beauty and learning, she travels into long-unknown lands. Her experiences in the first winter leave her scarred and afraid, but resolving to heal, and supported by an unexpected love, she continues her search. A chance meeting with envoys from the Empire and Linrathe, desperately seeking help from Casil, forces her to a difficult decision. Struggling to keep faith with her choices, facing the almost-certain destruction of her land and her people, Lena’s journey takes her to a deeper understanding of loyalty, sacrifice, and the dimensions of love.

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Not content with two careers as a research scientist and an educator, Marian L Thorpe decided to go back to what she’d always wanted to do and be a writer. Author of the alternative world medieval trilogy Empire’s Legacy, Marian also has published short stories and poetry. Her life-long interest in Roman and post-Roman European history informs her novels, while her avocations of landscape archaeology and birding provide background to her settings. 

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources and Arboretum Press for this free copy.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this novel – well this entire series really – was that there wasn’t any magic involved like a lot of the fantasy novels that we are used to. It really almost felt like it was more historical fiction, except in a world that I’ve never seen or experienced before. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love magic and totally wish that I had some powers that I don’t know about, but being able to see a fantasy world without that magic factor and still find it interesting enough to follow for an entire series was great to me. I think Thorpe did an excellent job with this series, and the ending to this trilogy was just very well-written.

Lena has been one of my favorite characters throughout this trilogy and I’m so bummed that her story is coming to a close. I think she has been a really great protagonist in this trilogy, and her journey was one that I definitely will remember for a long time. Even the other characters that we got to meet, and just the world that Thorpe created was so interesting and I could see how some of the rules that they lived by could make a lot of sense.