The Battle of Evernight
The Bitterbynde, No. 3
By Cecilia Dart-Thornton 

     The Battle of Evernight is the gripping conclusion to Cecilia Dart-Thornton’s Bitterbynde trilogy. She has saved the best for last.

     The story began in The Ill-Made Mute, where we met Imrhein, a deformed, mute servant with no memory of her past until Maeve One-Eye cured her deformity and muteness. Then, in Lady of the Sorrows, she took the name of Lady Rohain of the Sorrows Islands. With her blonde hair dyed black, she made her way to the palace of the King of Erith. She had to tell him of the treasure found in the cave under the Waterstair. She also falls in love with the man called King James XVI, whom she met as a Dainan warrior named Thorn.

     Now, she has remembered her past. She is Ashalind, a Talith woman of barely seventeen. She had gone to the Fair Realm to be with her family. But when the Faeran King, Angavar, and his brother, Morragan, fought and were accidentally exiled from the Realm when the Gates were closed, Ashalind chose to be exiled with the king. She now remembers she had left one gate open by blocking it with three strands of her golden hair.

     But the Horned One, the one who leads the group of unseelie wights called the Wild Hunt, is still hunting for Ashalind. She must get the gate open again for Angavar before Morragan knows it exists. She sets out for Arcdur in the north, traveling only with Viviana and Caitri and disguised with her hair dyed brown and dressed in common clothing. She now goes by the name of Tahquil.

     Fraught with perils, her journey will keep you turning the pages. The end is stunning. If you liked the first two volumes, you’ll love this one.