Time is a great wheel, and history repeats itself... unless it breaks, plunging the city of the living into the realm of death.
Reaper volunteers to drive his sensei home to Yukiyama, believing the road trip will benefit his teacher’s spiraling mental health. However, unbeknownst to them both, a thousand-year-old enemy has resurrected and awaits them at Moonlight.
Out of time and options, Ayame must go to the Immortal Court. But Jade Palace is a thicket of tall grass teeming with slithering snakes, and she must discern friend from foe if she intends to return to the floating world to help her family.
Death descends upon Nara as Immortal Father comes to Sunlit City in search of the royal diviner. As the final hour approaches, everyone must choose their allegiances, including Ayame, whose father and lord are destined to clash.
Keep Me is the conclusion to the Royal Diviner Trilogy and has content advisory for violence and intimate situations.
Brien Feathers is a fantasy author living in the land of permanent frost, horses, and Mongols. She likes reading, writing (of course), riding, drinking dark beer, and checking things off a to-do list.
Although she claims to love everyone equally, she really loves her youngest son the most. He has autism superpowers that allow him to speak all types of rare languages including drumbeats, elevator dings, and police sirens.
Miss Feathers loves grey days, orange cats, and all creatures human or otherwise. And she hopes you will love her world (fantasy) and people (characters) as well.
I received an ARC copy from BookSirens and the author. I chose to read this book. I leave my review voluntarily.
A very tumultuous tale, with a sweet ending.
The beginning was like a completely different story than book 1 and 2. Giving backstory, revealing more of the immortal court, and setting up Ayame in the modern age.
There was a lot to unpack in the story. So much happens to connect all the dots. It sometimes felt like so much that smaller moments were lost.
How do I feel about this?
Didn’t like the wait to get to the meat of the story, but all good things take time. That was mainly my impatience taking forefront. I did appreciate the background on Hissing Blade and further delving into his hatred of Kyuzo. Tying the modern biker gang to the bujin. The story could have honestly been split into at least half. So that the care and details the author puts into her characters could have been enjoyed and savored better.
In the end however, as always, I was left surprised and felt the story was whole and complete. No stone left unturned. This one left a heartwarming feeling that everything and everyone of the characters were where they needed to be. I feel it was worth the read and was satisfied with the conclusion.
‘Immortals walk among the humans’… …and that’s not a good thing. When boundaries break, there is no stopping the disasters caused by the disarray. Both kinds go into a frenzy in their fight for order vs chaos.
The author brought out some interesting thoughts: ‘Is it better to be ordinary?’ Wouldn’t it be funny if we were all dead and just didn’t know it? There was something about seeing people who were happy to see you that brightened the day a little in a dark, dark world.
Some sage advice from the author: ‘Live well and stay out of trouble as much as you can.’
Fave line: ‘Follow the scent of the sunflower field.’
May we never know the pain of torn loyalties or the sting of broken alliances.
Did JKR hurt you when she killed off Dumbeldore? Did SJM crush you when she killed of many characters? Well, Brien just said, “Hold my wine, and watch this.” 💅🏼🍷😈I finished this book a few days ago, and it’s taken me this long to get my review up because I just needed to grieve— to grieve for the story ending, to grieve for the characters…
Keep Me is the third installment in The Royal Diviner trilogy, and if this book had a playlist I think it would consist of mostly Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball and Evanescence’s My Immortal with a small dash of Godsmack’s Love, Hate S3x, Pain.
We start off with one of those crazy scenes (think like the ones after the end credits of the Avengers movies when we had no idea what the little snippet meant) that makes you scratch your head and wonder if you’ve got the wrong book because nothing makes sense…then we are off to the races. This book was full of twists and turns heavily seasoned with emotional damage. It was messy; it hurt. In the end, it will destroy you because while this book is fantasy, the messiness of real life and love are found woven into the very essence of this book. I spent 99.9% of this book wanting to go all Rupunzel on Ayame because while she’s an eons old lesser goddess, she’s clueless and so headstrong in her beliefs…not learning from her past. Every. Single. Bit. Of Ayame’s pain and suffering ends up being the direct result of her own stubbornness, and not being willing to listen to people who know better.
This book had me wanting to read faster because I needed to know how the in-between was going to be fixed. Was Ayame going to return to Lord Kuyzo? Was his name ever going to be entered into the book of life so he could cross over to Heaven once the in-between was fixed? But at the same time I wanted to slow down because the end was coming on all too fast…
The pièce de résistance of this book is truly the final scene though. It’s haunting. It’s beautiful. It’s perfection.
2.50 If Book 2 already disappointed me some, Book 3 sealed that deal for me. What started as something very promising, with exciting intrigue and characters that were NOT AT ALL the sweet ne'er do bad heroes and heroines usual to fantasy novels, turned into a messy, confused mishmash where the only thing that made sense was the way the characters remained their old unlikeable selves. Book 3 is very confused, very confusing and messily presented, both in terms of plot as in terms of writing, as well - it read like a mid-draft still in need of work, if only to see to the typos, the repetitions and the carelessly thrown in sentences. As in its predecessor, a large chunk is spent on laying the grounds for something that promises to happen later on, but that something, although it does come to pass, takes place off page. Mildly irritating, no? The plot is very confused and too much time is wasted on stuff that really makes no sense for me as a reader, almost as if the author's introducing a whole new cast of characters when this is the end of the trilogy - they're not new characters per se, but boy, do they feel like it... I particularly detested Kitty, while Sora had been one of my favourite, albeit never being properly explored, but that's the writer's prerogative: their favourite characters won't always match the readers' choices. Reading this final book in the trilogy felt like the author perhaps had room for 4 books instead of 3 but got tired of the whole lot and wanted to end it as soon as they could. The conclusion was rushed, though the entire book dragged, and the only reason I'm rounding it up to 3 stars is that last chapter, which was beautiful, beautifully written, poignant and felt like someone different from the one penning down the entire novel had written that bit.
Reiko, spirit of storms, has realized that the story the young girl Yuke has been telling about Ayame and the Warlord Kyuzo, is her life. A thousand years have passed since she left her beloved and her daughter to return to the Immortal Court to ask for a boon from her immortal father. Unfortunately, her Immortal Father believes he has discovered that the Royal Diviner he has been searching for is in Sunlit City and Nara and its mortal inhabitants are all in grave danger. To make matters worse the reincarnated Prince Hissing Blade, a dark diviner is on the hunt for Kyuzo to keep him from interfering with his plan to force the royal diviner to do His bidding. Wow, what a wonderful conclusion to the Royal Diviner series. Bloody and vicious battles between mortals and immortals, demons, magic, betrayal, and so many twist in the plot it made my head spin. Wonderfully well written, complex, and unique characters who will be forced to choose which side they are fighting for, and Ayame will have the most difficult choice; her Immortal Father or her beloved warlord Kyuzo. I highly recommend this book and series to other readers.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
It's a legend of a love that transcends time and realms as the Storm Goddess sacrifices for her family and tries to fix the Inbetween. All the pieces of the puzzle come together beautifully, and once again I'm sucked into the story and all of my questions were answered! I was so frustrated that Ayame lost so much, but it was all so real in my mind. It was the stuff of myth and legend and love in all the best ways.
Why are you reading this review on book three anyways? Get your eyeballs over to book one and start reading, because I know if you read book one, you would already be reading book two and book three! Do yourself a favor and dive in! Read my other reviews of book one and two if you're still on the fence about things.
Brien is a hidden gem of the indie world, and I will shout from the interwebs wherever I can, because as a fan, it is my duty to make sure I have someone else to gush over this awesome author.
I finished the trilogy in about three days , and it was worth it!
Kyuzo is such a devoted man, and I can’t help but like the guy now. Would have like to see more from his pov. Also glad my favourite character ‘survived’!
The first scene made me wonder though, would Hissing Blade be a different man if he was treated differently in his youth? Were the Immortal Father’s intent pure at first but changed along the way? It would have been nice to know his true reasons and not hear it from other people. And Ayame, well, still immature, and I was a little mad at her how she reacted after the final fight..she is still naive. But it’s a happy ending, and the ending scene was beautiful, made me tear up a little bit. Well done!
This had everything that I was looking for based on how much the previous two books in the Royal Diviner Trilogy series. It worked well in everything that I was looking for from the romance element. The characters felt like the same people in the other books. I was never bored when reading this and thought the overall feel worked well. I thought the way Brien Feathers wrote this and am excited to read more from them.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
A perfect ending to this trilogy. As usual, Brien's commitment to the characters and their backstory, the attention to detail in building the world, setting each scene, and explaining the relationships are top-tier. Her ability to switch back and forth between timelines and maintain the story's momentum was wonderful.
This is my first series by this author but, will not be my last!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This is the third book in the trilogy. It begins a lot differently than the second book. I am glad I continued reading thru the beginning. The story really became more engaging for me after the main character father's festival. I would recommend this 4-star dark fantasy to lovers of great adventures
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I let out a loud contented sigh when I finished the book. It's exactly what I was hoping it would be. I couldn't put it down. I kept saying just one more page which then turned into a chapter. It's riveting. A beautifully written book that Brien Feathers does exceedingly well. I highly recommend the trilogy.
Keep Me(Royal Diviner Trilogy #3) by Brien Feathers I enjoyed reading and recommend. Ayame finally gets her memory back and is determined to get back to her family but wants to first get their names in the book of the living. Things don't go as easily as she wishes. There is a lot of action in the book. This series is dark fantasy
Keep me in your heart. Keep me in mind. Keep me where you need me. Keep me posted. Keep me safe. Keep me updated on the situation. Keep me in your thoughts. Keep me in your prayers. Keep me in your arms. Keep me reading this book over and over and never wanting it to end. Enjoy!