The Name-Bearer has never wavered from her mission.
Find the Unnamed Prince.
Deliver him to the Flowers of Prophecy.
Bring peace to the kingdom.
For years she trained in the safety of the Danrayan Temple until she was ready to face her destiny. Then, with the help of her friends, she scoured the continent and found the prince that was promised. And yet, despite finally having the key to her people’s fate in her grasp, the Name-Bearer’s journey is far from over.
The capital is overrun with monstros. Her greatest champion is out of her reach. And every ally she thought she could rely on is losing faith in her and her mission. If Tierramadri is going to be saved, the Name Bearer will have to face her most impossible task proving to everyone that the Flower’s Prophecy is not only true - but worth risking everything for.
The Daughter of Danray is the third book in The Flowers of Prophecy series by Natalia Hernandez. I actually didn’t realize that this wasn’t the last book in the series. I got to around eighty percent and wondered why there was still so much plot left.
As with the first two books in this series, this third installment is PHENOMENAL!! The way Natalia writes is so special to me. I feel so immersed and involved in her books, and it genuinely changed my brain chemistry.
I adore this ensemble of characters and how complex and developed they all are. Not a single one of them feels one dimensional. They all have their own journeys and goals and hopes. I love watching them interact with each other and trust each other.
There isn’t even a ton of romance in these books, but what we do get is SO SWEET!! Since the plot itself is more fantasy and political fiction, romance is obviously not the main focus. However, watching these characters slowly build up their relationships and bonds is so rewarding and moving.
I can’t wait for the fourth and final book in this series, and I will mourn the day I have to say goodbye to these characters and this world.
3/5 stars. Mild spoilers but they’re out of context so it’s fine.
So this series is actually a quartet instead of a trilogy, which I didn’t realize when I started reading this one. Here’s what I’ll say: I love Danika, that’s my fave, I support her in everything she does even when she does something stupid. Aside from that—
I think the author’s prose and the pacing of each book separately of each other is improving with each installment. This third book goes by incredibly quickly which I appreciate, but something I found a bit frustrating is that most of the action part of the plot is concentrated on Rawl as opposed to Nova and Danika. This series’ heart has always been Nova, but in this book it feels almost like she’s a side character in her own story which is very incongruous with the title, cover, and rest of the series. For Nova there’s just a lot of sitting around and waiting for pieces to fall into place for the events that are gonna happen in the final book, which brings me back to saying that this series’ fundamental issue is the pacing that was set in books 1 and 2 and is not really aided by the addition of side quests that aren’t actually connected with the rest of the book. Will the magic pearl be useful in book 4? Undoubtedly, but if we think of a book series as an outfit and each book as an individual garment, Rawl’s pearl quest is the equivalent of a giant piece of extra fabric hanging off of what is otherwise a decently structured shirt. I still stand by the thought that this series should’ve been structured as either a duology or at most a trilogy. But I digress.
Also not to be a mean lesbian but I don’t *love* the way Danika and Nova’s dynamic is handled in this book. Like how are you gonna spend the first two books very purposefully building this romantic tension between the two that’s strained by their circumstances — only to then within the first 100 pages make them have a conversation where they’re like ykw actually, those two kisses weren’t the best choice like you’re just my bestie. But also Danika is still incredibly jealous whenever Nova gets close to Axchel. And Nova kisses him in one scene but then is all cuddled up with Danika at least twice afterwards. I love my friends, but I’m not hugging my friends by like cupping their cheek and their waist or having them bury their face in my neck. Messy, messy, messy. Kinda funny if Nova wasn’t so consistently saying she likes that man.
In short, not the best but a good time regardless. I’m hoping that with the pieces that have been moved in this book then the final book is gonna be the home run I’ve been wanting from this series.
The Daughter of Danray by Natalia Hernandez is a fantasy and book 3 in the Flowers of Prophecy series. It follows a group of people with the same goal of finding the Unnamed Prince and bringing him to his rightful place!
I'll keep this brief because I don't want to spoil anything. This series has definitely captured my heart. It's has such great fleshed out characters with flaws. You get warrior women, magical elements, creatures, and action. There's a particular storyline that just broke me to pieces. The world building is amazing. I am just so desperate for the next book!
Okay so I thought this was going to be the last book in the series because I was like “how much can really happen now?” And after reading all I can think is “SO MUCH HAPPENED NOW!” And I’m just absolutely blown away. The turmoil, the joy, the empowerment each character goes through just makes my heart so happy. Normally, I would HATE to have to wait for another book but I find that I have so much patience for the Flowers of Prophecy because OF COURSE they need time. Of course I need time to process all of this. This book makes me feel so calm and comfortable in the waiting, in the knowing that there is something better to come through the periods of little action. I’m thrilled about the finale of this series.
Y’all the series just gets better and better. I love how this book really took its time to develop from where we left off in book 2. I love how it really focused to the characters as individuals while developing the complexities of their relationships, due to the new plights they face. They’re strong diverse, relatable, and personallity rich characters. Excellent plot, beautiful world building per usual. ( I simply just KNOW every part of this series will be awesome) I love every single one of these characters so much. It was wonderful hearing from all the perspectives during the moving pieces of this plot. I cried and smiled while reading this as much as I did with the last book. It was a beautiful distraction on a bad day. (Literally speaking). I am so happy and proud to say that this has been one of the series that I think about on a random Tuesday. I can’t wait to see more of this series and more from Natalia Hernandez!
3.5 This was fine, but I didn't realize until about halfway through that this wasn't the final book like I thought. I was getting really concerned by the lack of progress until I realized that-- I thought it was especially strange that we'd meet new characters and flesh out more mythos in a final book, so in that respect I'm glad it wasnt the case. I'm not mad that the author decided to flesh things out more, but this felt way more like a middle book than the second book did. The title also feels misleading since Nova is basically a side character in this book and spends way less time with her own POV. The harrowing parts of the plot felt a bit too conveniently resolved and most of these parts felt a bit contrived in the first place (stop doing stupid things and acting like kids if you want to be taken seriously!). I'll likely still finish the last book if it comes out within the year, but I thought the second book had more going for it overall.
Natalia Hernandez did it again. This book series keeps getting better. With fantastic fleshed out characters, well described latin american inspired scenery and a dash of humour. I love the politics, i love the prophecies, and i love the magic system. If i was dared to choose a favourite character or a favourite plotline, I wouldn't be able to do it. This is a big recommendation to everyone.
Thank you to Natalia Hernandez and Michael LaBorn's Bindary for giving all Bindary members the opportunity to read this book before release. Michael LaBorn's Bindary is about black and brown indie authors. He even started his own imprint. So if you are interested in that, you should check out Left Unread Books.
pre-read: i am SO excited to read this. it's already going on my forever favs tags because i know i'm not going to be disappointed. Natalia Hernandez has done fantastic work on the first two books in the series and i have zero doubts.
This series is so goooood. The writing is amazing and you really feel like you’re in the story with how well it’s written and described. The friendships and relationships are beautiful. I really enjoyed all the character development and the new characters brought in as well. Even if they’re problematic, you still love them. My heart cannot HANDLE Rawl and Alric, I definitely shed many tears. Also… if we don’t find out who Nova ends up with I will lose my mind (shouting team Damika from the rooftops.) I went into this one thinking it was the last book, and am pleasantly surprised to know there will be a fourth. I cannot wait to read the last book, and see how everything wraps up. I will end this review with a quote that quite literally ripped my heart out, enjoy 😃
This is the third of what will be a four book YA fantasy series, and I found it to be a fast paced, fun read. As someone in their thirties, I’m not the target audience for this series and there are times where it definitely feels a little YA for my tastes. However, I think it’s a great series that is well written, and would definitely recommend it to YA readers and beyond.
Hernandez has created an interesting world, centred around these strong, female warriors, while also containing a diverse group of characters (and its multiple POV). While it’s true that Nessa’s part took more of a backseat in this instalment, I didn’t mind because Rawl’s chapters were my favourite. I love him and Alric and really enjoyed the addition of his sister, Mila, and her friend (boyfriend?) Andu.
I listened to the first two books through the Libby app and read the third through KU. I enjoyed both methods and would definitely recommend the audiobook for those who enjoy consuming stories in that way, as it’s very well narrated.
This is the third book in the series with one more to go! It is a perfect build to the finale and I absolutely can’t wait to conclude the series. I loved the balance of character development, lore, action, suspense and interpersonal relationships. I think the pacing worked well and the plot moved forward enough, while still giving enough world building. This series has quickly become one of my favorite YA fantasies.
I DEVOURED this book, literally read it in a day and half. I was so sad but also happy to realize that this was not a trilogy but rather a four book series. Normally, I'd be upset as I sometimes worry that we're just getting filler. Yet, I think we needed this book and the extra time to develop old characters and new. There was so much I loved about this, this has become a new favorite YA series! I am only sad I have to wait for the final book.
Thought this was going to be the final book in the series, but looks like we'll have to get the ending in 2025. Definitely more from Rawl's perspective (not a bad thing, but a little misleading considering the title). I DID really enjoy seeing the different aspects of the world apart from Danray and I absolutely cannot wait for our final battle in book 4!
Now why did I think this was the final book in the series? I got to 84% and I was like, well things are not looking good! It was a really great story and moved a lot of pieces into place, but I wanted just a bit more!
I thought the first book was fine, book 2 was a bit of an improvement but this one (which was supposedly the finale, which was the main reason I picked it up) had me more annoyed than much else. Lots of grand speeches and paragraphs (re)explained our POV character's situation and more dramatics than I cared for.
It also felt like we were spending a lot of our time outside of Nova's perspective - she was the titular main character and I did miss having the focus on her.
I rated this book 3.5 stars ⭐️ I feel like this book really dragged for me. The stuff that happened with Raul and his sister at the mage school was interesting but didn’t need to be that long and all the discussions at the Danray fortress also could’ve been condensed. This book was unnecessarily longer than the others and I was really hoping for the exciting conclusion
Rather than a review, I have instead written a summary of this book, so I can remember when the next one come out! I struggled to remember book 2 very well and couldn’t find a summary online!
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- Rawl gets alric to the mage university, where he finds his sister Mila and her friend Andu. They agree to try and help Rawl save Alric from the mage madness. They set out on a quest to recover the Goldenshell, a powerful magical item - Nova, Axchel, Churan, Dami and Taruka are at the Danrayen Temple, later joined by Petra (who has been burying Raidea and her father) - The temple is still full of refugees from pelgar from the nightwood attacks - They are told by mamas spies the monstros are all heading south to the capital - They believe they are being commanded by Nova’s old bully, kichka and maybe her sister princess zerlina, who are actually the children of Lord Guerro - Nova goes to take her trial, but instead is visited by the goddess Danray who says she has already proved her worth and is a true danrayen warrior. She gives her another prophecy instead - They have council meetings and manage to convince the council to make Dami the new High Priestess, given it was adiras last wishes - Taruka sets off to the mage university to meet Rawl and alric and try to gather support for the flowers from the mages - Churan works with mage nuna at the temple but does not like her and cannot control his magic - Rawl and Andu manage to get the goldenshell by retrieving it from the sea floor - They find out goldenshell is actually a pearl. Pearl is only very strong defensive magic and would kill alric - Mila and andu try to save alric by using a spell on him to make him forget everything about himself, so he will forget magic and not be mad anymore. Same spell they use on families of name bearers. However, spell seems to kill him - Dami keeps going into pelgar to fight monsters to let out her anger - The party for her ascension to high priestess is planned but she is still unsure if she still wants to go ahead - Churan improves on his magic with nuna and sees the blockage to his magic. Needs to work to remove blockage but very difficult - As Dami enters her ascension party, she realises that she is not ready to become high priestess. Instead, she gets mama to take her trial and become a danrayen warrior, so she can then become high priestess - We learn alric is still alive, and the spell has worked. He is no longer mad but can remember nothing if his past. He knows that he loves and trusts rawl tho. - Taruka arrives at the mage university and updates them on what happened at the danrayen temple - Rawl gives her the likely location of the padir leader, and she writes back to danray. Petra prepares to leave to meet the padir leader - Taruka tells rawl he needs to get the mages on side. Mila says people are too afraid to do that, unless the archwizard auberon came and demanded fealty himself. As such, they decide to break him out of the castle dungeons. Alric insists on coming as he knows the layout of the castle - When they arrive at the city, there are monsters everywhere, thousands. They do not attack in the day, but there is a night curfew as they can kill as they please at night outside - Alric and rawl share a room and alric admits how he feels connected to rawl - In the temple, the new council led by Mama plans how they will attack the city and castle. However their priority is to kill the monsters and Lord Guerrero, they are less concerned with getting Churan to the flowers - Dami is named the new leader of the danrayen warriors (not the riders) and promises nova she is loyal to her - Churan makes good progress with realising his magic blocks - Petra heads to the leader of the padir. They initially says no to helping the cause as padir are non violent, but eventually says that they will let the padir people vote whether they will help - Back in the capital, they eventually find the archwizrd. However, he is locked in a cage and has had no visitors for years. He has damaged his brain by using magia to try and escape, so has moments of confusion and moments on lucidity. They are able to free him using his magic with Mila and andus - They take the archwizard to the university. The head of the university says he cannot help and orders them to leave. However, they stay and call an assembly of mage students at night. The headteacher comes to the meeting to warn them palace guards are searching for auberon. They place a cloaking spell on him and convince the guards the meeting is a spell stone purification ceremony. The guards leave and the headteacher says he will not stop them from recruiting mages who wish to help - Auberon also examines alric and says nothing can be done to break the spell or help him. He notes no mage would willingly give up their power and it is akin ti tearing out his heart, so the person left is not truly alric - Dami continues going to pelgar by herself to fight monstros. She fights too long one day and finds herself getting tired and too far into town to get back to the temple. When the others notice her missing, nova and general vashti lead a mission to rescue her. Churan sneaks out hoping to help. A few danrayens die and it seems they will be overwhelmed, when Churan is able to clear his magical blockage and use all of his power to kill the monstros. The danrayens now believe in him and the prophecy - Auberon speaks to the mages who all agree to join him in battle - Rawl writes to nova to tell her they have secured the mages. He also tells her the monstros in the capital are much more than expected meaning the danrayens realise they do not have enough numbers to win - Nova realises they need the cassalain army to help in making up the numbers to fight the capital. Axchel knows the second in command cassalian soldier and will right to him. They will also get king Enrique to March with the cassalain army so they can safely cross the borders without being attacked by andala
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Firstly, I want to say Congratulations!!!! to Natalia for the recent news of her new publishing deal! I can’t wait to re-read the Flowers of Prophecy books again under her new publisher! Who-hoo!!
Okay back to the book review. Overall, I liked it. However, there are some gripes I still have. One of them being that Nova/Nessa was barely a POV. Although, I am stoke that we got more of my beloved, Damika’s POV in this book, so my complaint with that is cancelled out.
However, I’m going to be real honest, I was not into Rawl’s POV as much as I would have liked. I like Rawl as a character and I did find some parts of his POV enjoyable, like his sister Mila and her love interest, Andu. I really did like the dynamic between these three characters. Although Alric, despite being a major secondary character in the last two books, in this book he was there in presence but not there as a character(?) (idk if that makes sense). He kind of just felt like an NPC following Rawl around even when he was still under mage-madness but had no real impact in this book.
Also in Rawl’s POV, there was writing choice made in this book that I was SO not a fan of. Whenever Rawl would get to possibly curing Alric’s mage-madness, that plot line would hit a snag and Rawl would feel hopeless again. But then a new solution would come up, but the writing would delay telling us what it is. The plot would withhold new solutions for dramatic affect multiple time. And it causes character dialogue to go:
Character 1: “No. It’s impossible.” Character 2: “What is it?” Character 3: “It might work.” Character 2: “What might?” Character 1: “It won’t work.” Character 2: “What won’t work?” Character 1: “We can’t. It’s too dangerous.” Character 2: “What’s dangerous? What are you talking about?” Character 3: “We have to try!” Character 2: “What do you mean? Try what?” Character 1: “Absolutely not! He could DIE?” Character 2: JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!!
And this happens a few times in Rawl’s POV and by the fourth time, I also yelled “just say it already!” and was so annoyed, I was ready to throw my phone across the room.
I do think the writing and the prose has gotten better and better with each installment of this series, but I also think this book is just a little too long. I think there are some portions we could have cut out or made shorter.
While I did enjoy this installment enough to still give it 4 stars, in my opinion, of the three books that are out so far, book 3 is the weakest. However, I’m going to assume book 3 is just here to tie up some loose ends from book 2 and get the characters developed and positioned where they need to be for book 4.
I for some reason thought this was a trilogy, I think because book 4 isn't up on Goodreads yet even as a no name no title thing, and I think that my belief that this was the last book kind of hindered my like of it a little because it never felt like the last book or like things were wrapping up and I was so confused and a little annoyed.
But that aside, and knowing it's not the end of the series, I really enjoyed it.
I think it was really good at moving the plot along and set up for the next (and possibly) last book brilliantly.
I LOVED the plot with Alric and Raoul! I love them so much as a couple and my heart is BREAKING for them. I really need them to be good and for everything to right itself.
And I really liked Raoul's sister and Andu as well! I can't wait to see them officially get together.
I was interested in the Nessa/Nova and Damika and Axchel, but not as much as the other plot. I'm not a love triangle fan guys I'm sorry! Though, I do honestly like this love triangle because I don't feel like it's clear where she will go, or that it was wrong of her to develop feelings for one of them because she was already with the other. I do think I slightly lean more towards Damika, but I really like them both. And I honestly think it might go Polly since Axchel made the comment about his people not expecting to own someone including their heart.
I'm really excited to see where this goes and I feel like it's going to be an EPIC conclusion!
The daughter of danray is a fantastic story, but not quite the story I had in mind as the third book of this trilogy. As often as I found myself captivated by the colorful descriptions and beloved characters, I found myself deeply missing the heart of the story— the name bearer herself.
Rawl and alrics story is heartbreaking, and the addition of Mila was delightful (she has quickly become my favorite character), but I feel their story overshadowed our long journey thus far with nova.
Speaking of nova, my darling girl, she’s grown so much through these three books. Her evolution as a character is a beautiful, cathartic one to watch, finding her own inner strength as well as leaning in to the strength around her. My only wish is that we could have experienced more of the action from her eyes, and felt more of the weight of her evolution. This felt like a very long novella, showcasing the strengths of the side characters rather then giving us glimpses of their world while following novas journey. I felt myself wishing the beautifully described action and adventure was happening to our heroine rather than her devoted friends.
With that aside, the book is truly written beautifully, and you can see how much Hernandez has grown as an author. The chapters were engaging and fun to read through, and I found enjoyment in what others might call filler. The world, the characters, the mythos, they all feel real. Anyone could read this series and know that it’s a love letter to the fantasy genre, with real world influence beautifully woven in.
I can’t wait for our fourth and final book to draw this adventure to a close!
Same thoughts as last time. I really like the concept, I think the world building is awesome, but I think it would be more well suited as an adult fantasy series. There's a lot of fleshing out of character relationships and interactions that is just not happening due to the more simplistic nature of YA prose. Definitely not enough to stop me from reading (and apparently waiting on the FOURTH ONE for what was a trilogy) but I really would have loved it to be more meaty and detailed.
i think i've grown to realise that one of my biggest pet peeves in books is when authors stretch out a trilogy so that it becomes a quadrilogy, which, you guessed it, is exactly what happened here. i have enjoyed this series' previous installments, and while i had some issues with them, none of the books were as frustrating as this one was. firstly, there's the thing that the series loves doing, which is send people on endless quests and journeys. every book has basically every character having to go somewhere far to the point where it becomes tedious, is there really not a singular other way for things to get done? secondly, this book had nova, the literal main character, on the sidelines doing absolutely nothing. nova and the other girls she grew up with are the heart of the story for me, and seeing them treated as side characters was disappointing to say the least. we instead focus on rawl's quest of trying to save alric which was mostly a wild goose chase. i also wish i would have been more invested in their love story as it is angsty and their relationship has always been interesting to me, but i did not care as much as i would've wanted to. despite my many complains i did enjoy this and i do plan on reading the last book, i'm very optimisc because this book focused on tying up previous plotlines or developing them better, which will hopefully result in the last book being more action focused and giving enough attention to each thing we have to wrap up.
A solid 4⭐️ from me on this very anticipated read.
With the once-trilogy getting extended, this book is in a similar vein of the first where more foundational work needs to be set leading to the grand finale. For that reason, it drops below the second book—far and away my favorite of the series—for me. I do love Rawl and understand why he and the mages had to be the focus. But I miss Nova and the Danrayens!
Plus, after the tension that built between Nova/Nessa and Damika at the end of the second book, it felt like a letdown to basically table the topic/maintain the Nova/Nessa-Damika-Axchel love triangle for now. I know there were greater things to focus on but I am chomping at the bit for the conclusion here!!
Churan’s development was good; I’m very glad we got chapters specifically through him. He got a worthy redemption in Pelgar.
The other (and main) detractor for me was how easy Auberon’s rescue felt. With all the monstros around, they were able to just slip out with him? The pacing here felt very off, as though this all had to happen in order to keep the story moving along since we were getting late into the second half. Love that kooky old man, though.
Overall, the book kept me engaged until the very end, and I’ve enjoyed seeing the growth in Hernandez as a writer. I cannot wait for the conclusion of this series!
4.5 out 5 stars: This one was slower paced, but it did make me happy that I remembered most of the characters despite it being so long especially with their being multi-pov. I did love that we got more of the mythology in this book as I live for those moments. As well as learning more of the magic system and how it works
It did remind me of everything I loved of this book such as the found family feeling of the warriors. How it is okay to have our own strengths and weaknesses. I also loved the new characters we're introduced to as well as coming back to the others. It reminds me how I love Churan's energy, but also his dichotomy of being a kid with an old soul and the fate of a prophecy on his shoulders. I also adored the banter between all the characters. The LGBTQIA rep along with the BIPOC rep and spanish throughout this book is everything to make me feel seen and more.
The yearning and complications of love, are everything. I am pouting a bit that this trilogy became a saga and the cliff we are left on at the end.
I had two major problems with this book. The first, is that this book is overwhelmingly stagnant. To fill the space left by the minimal progression of the plot, there are multiple instances of manufactured disasters that all arise from the characters making incredibly stupid and otherwise pointless decisions. My second problem with the book, are the impromptu character therapy sessions that occur in every other chapter. I wholeheartedly support good communication between a cast of characters, but there comes a certain point when it becomes excessive. In this book’s case, that’s nearly every time a conversation becomes even mildly emotional. Now to be fair, the therapy-session communication format has persisted throughout all three books. However, combined with the nearly complete lack of plot progression, I had an extremely difficult time finishing this book. I will not be continuing this series.
I think the books in the flowers of prophecy series just keep getting better and better. I seem to be enjoying each one more and more. Everything about this book was great. I loved the writing style and the plot and the characters. I need more! Sometimes I feel, especially with fantasy series, that the books and series just drag on and on as if they could have been put into fewer books. But for this series I don't think that's the case. It just works. The characters are all so loveable and I want the best for them. I hope they all survive the journey ahead of them otherwise I will be devastated. I can't wait for the next book in the series. I'm so excited to see how the series will end.
Audiobook specific: I love the narration. I'm sure it will be seen as too slow to some, but I liked the pacing. I became so mesmerized by it. Very soothing and enjoyable for me.