Ornament

Trinket #2

by Merry Ravenell

"Once you accept death as inevitable, the possibility of life can be quite painful."

Adrift in a nightmare and possibly trapped in a body that is not hers, Theia must strike a deal with Lord-Regent Ormiss of the Hippocamp to save her companions. But beyond Ormiss is the Pantere Priestess of Dreams, and terrible answers to questions she has never wanted to ask.

Genres: Fantasy

400 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 26, 2025

About the author

Merry is a dark sci-fi and fantasy author that currently lives in rural Alabama. She enjoys tormenting her main characters and doing excessive research to make sure unrealistic things are as realistic as possible.

When she's not writing, she enjoys coffee, vodka, painfully bad movies of all varieties, documentaries, coloring books, and knitting.

Reviews

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like, one question answered and more riddles

Despite the whole story being centered around questions and riddles (that STILL aren't answered, ahh!!) I do like this story so far. It's like, every time one question is answered, ten more crop up and everyone is talking in circles. I do find myself a lot like Theia though, in that, I want just more relationship building instead of mystery solving. But, also I do kind of NEED to know what happened at this point and will they ever fix the rot? The relationships within the harem are more slow burn and complex, and there's a lot of personality shown from the men for this being a story only from the FMC's POV.
I will say, the book does need some editing, but it's not so bad it's unbearable.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️/3 🌶️—A bit of a mashup of KM Hade’s Cruelly Made series, Ravenell’s 25XA (there are trinkets involved in the plot), and Laurel Chase’s Haret Chronicles. I didn’t like this as much as Ravenell’s 25XA series, which is one of my all time favorite sci-fi romances. This series is a fantasy that brings together a dying world, a missing princess, and disappearing supernatural races (think Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn or Sedona Ashe’s But Did You Die?).

[Louise Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mmm

Im.not sure im enjoying this series or not. Its very confusing. I have to keep reading because im part way through but it's a forced read not a read i enjoy.

[Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Merry Ravenell's stories, this was no exception.

One thing I was kinda surprised by is that I had already read most of this content - maybe it was on wattpad or something previously? Whatever it was, I liked the section with the pantere and the emotional resolution of that better in this version than whichever I read previously.

4 stars instead of 5 because I have mixed feelings about the pacing. I know that the slow mystery reveal is central to this story, but sometimes it feels like I'm reading 2 long books of exposition. I love this author, and her writing can involve a lot of this which I normally love, but reading this book I was just really craving more action/resolution in this volume.

[Madeline McLeroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. It got a little confusing towards the end. I was lost in the scenes with the Pantere Priestess. A good continuation to the story. Quite a few grammatical errors and typos I’m surprised made it through publishing. The answers we got to Theia’s story only give a ton more questions which is dissatisfying, but I saw there will be two more books so I am sure it will wrap up well!

[Trina · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent

Read this continuation by Merry Revenell . In this episode our heroes visit the isle of dreams after much hardship.