They took my home, my secrets, and my family. Now they’re going to find out just how far a 'dud' will go to burn their world to the ground.
My adopted parents warned me that if the authorities ever discovered my secret, I’d be taken. They were right—but it turns out telepathy was only the tip of my power iceberg.
Now that I’m in the Conclave’s grip, things are looking grim. They’re funneling dark energy through weak witches, and because they think I’m just an AUA—the weakest of the weak—they have no idea what they’ve actually caught. The darkness here is seductive; it’s a parasitic force that pulls even my strongest allies into its grip, turning friends into strangers.
But I’m not alone. Out there, Ludo, Alexis, and Donovan are ready to tear through the Academy’s foundations to reach me. The Hellhound is on the hunt, too, his teeth bared for anyone who stands in his way.
Then there’s Cosmo. The arrogant dragon has been brought to his knees, his pride shattered as he begs for a forgiveness I’m not sure I can give. He’s desperate to prove he belongs at my side, but I’m not ready to trust the man who once treated me like dirt.
As the Lumina burns brighter within me, the truth of my heritage is finally surfacing. My blood carries a legacy that predates Validus Vale—a lineage so powerful it explains exactly why I had to be hidden from the world.
To save the innocent souls caught in the crossfire and bring my shattered family back together, I must master the power I once feared.
The "dud" is gone. The Lumina is rising. And this time, I’m the one making the rules.
♥Book Three is the high-stakes continuation of the Essence Bound saga. This is a paranormal academy WhyChoose romance where the heat is high, the magic is dark, and the heroine keeps all her men.♥
Nicky Shivers lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, kids and various fur babies. When not juggling the family, she is holed up in the study, writing stories. Her fictional characters work through challenges and personal flaws to find their HEA’s; sometimes in the most unconventional ways!
Shivers writes contemporary and paranormal romances, often with a #whychoose plot.
Yea I’m mad. I thought this was book 3 of 4 and it should’ve been. Finding out this was a trilogy when YOU DONT EVEN MEET one of the MMCs!! Like at all! The author has him in a coma until the end of the series?? This was insanely rushed and 2-3 of the mmc’s (not even including the coma patient) were barely developed characters.
This was such a great plot and I’m wildly disappointed with how this ended. I simply do not care about this secondary series the author is trying to spinoff because this one felt so unfinished I’ll never trust this shit again.
Next time maybe have the 4th book so the FMC can at least fuck each of her mates once. Never in my life have I got to an end of a RH series and they were still “just friends”.
I’m so mad at you bitch it’s a miracle this review is still 3 stars because my heart says 1.
I’m traveling rn so will hopefully do a better review later. But overall the entire series was an easy read for me. I enjoyed it. But I found some issues which as a reader ticked me off. 3 stars for this final book.
Some bad guys and some mean girls live. I mean. Come tf on. That annoying fiancé of Cosmo’s. We needed some sort of ending for her. She just disappeared from the story. Or did I miss her ending???
If you are rounding out a series like this why let one of the bad guys live? We don’t know if the other bad guy is alive or dead either. The bad guy “doctor lady” bites the dust. As this final book progressed the story got more convoluted and ridiculous.
But it all felt incomplete. Overall. This last book was supposed to wrap up their story and again, leaving it unfinished is fucking cruel to readers. No one wants a HFN in a paranormal ROMANCE!!!😡
And the last man in her harem-her bully-they never sexually connect on page. Not even in the epilouge. We have no idea how the fmc felt meeting her birth mom. We have nothing of substance.
It makes the story feel incomplete. Not sure if that’s intentional as she is moving on to another side character’s story. Cosmo’s sister. But still.
Finally back from my trip. I still agree with my initial assessment. This ending needed more and felt incomplete. Too many hanging threads weren’t cut off.
And it honestly pisses me off she had Cosmo in her harem and the author decides to just let it hang as unfinished. wtf. I decided for this reason to remove a star. That ending was shitty af. You take your readers thru 3 fucking books and can’t manage to get one of her harems guys together with her????
Yeah. I’m pissed. If this author intends to extend their story then it’s HER responsibility TO EXPRESS THIS WITHIN THE PAGES OF HER BOOK!!!! I’m not joining yet another fucking author fb group just to get info that should be in a book. Ugh.
RH no MM OW drama HFN. Not a HEA. Feels unfinished.
Spice was mid. Not a lot for a RH series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This one finishes this portion of the series, but it appears more off shoots are planned. This is good because there are lots of unfinished plot lines which makes this ending quite unsatisfying. There's a lot less silliness from the characters in the one. The plot becomes quite full and exciting. The end lasts a minute and crashes down never allowing the reader to enjoy the outcome. Some sloppy editing.
Boring. Lots of ironically labyrinthine and unnecessary plot diversions.
They make sooo many long winded plans and the results are often quick and disappointing.
Speaking of, the spice is both of those things as well. She’s only with one guy at a time and it’s mostly closed door. Turn those meetings into emails and put some teamwork into something we’d actually enjoy for the love of all things unholy.
The spice scenes we’re there for are brief. All the description goes into the wrong bits.
We shouldn’t have to conjure up imaginary context to obtain the whole experience. That’s not our job.
Enjoyment in that arena is psychological, that’s why we like to read it. Especially from the woman’s POV. A passive list of events without mentioning the sensations and stakes? Not gonna fly.
And, again, it’s all male POV spice, so their report of getting in and out and done would almost excusable if it weren’t as disappointing as their non-magical counterparts. I mean, what else is the third book for?
The only time there’s a team effort is with the most unappealing thing they can do with all their bits. And certainly not as a first time collaboration with her. That’s just the thing – it’s done to her, not with her. She’s just a pincushion with two needles stretching the same place and we’re completely unaware of how she feels about that.
Anyway. I’m not a complete heathen and did want to learn more about their magic or whatever. Some of the missions are exciting but quick.
All they do is plan. Talk and talk and plan and plan and then talk about the plans. It’s all very annoying because everyone knows nothing goes to plan once discussed aloud. You’re just wasting our time!
I took a break, came back and turned the page. Someone immediately spread a map out on a table and I almost cried.
And Wes? More like Waste. What even was the point of him?
That was the dumbest climax I’ve ever read. Deux ex machina mangled mess.
Genuinely cannot believe I read three books for that crap.
I’d be interested in the story this sets up if this weren’t such a flagrant display of failure. I can’t and won’t trust this author to be capable of quality when they had all the quantity in the world and squandered it.
Horrible ending. read another review that said the ending was a set up for another series and that is why the ending was bad. I do not agree. I can see the link to the spinoff being necessary but the whole last 25% of the book was rushed and overly simplified. The book was clearly set up to have a fourth book but then the author rushed the ending. The climax of the story was only supposed to be killing Janine to stop her from spreading more dark energy and hopefully removing it from others. That does not even remotely cover the rest of the reform they are working toward. Even with the addition of the extra story elements. Those definitely need more discussion. Like the other reviews, there are still too many unanswered questions. The Void, why they couldn’t kill Janine, what happened to the other dirty people (except for Jordan’s father), why wasn’t he punished, and more.
And then there is the drastically less than stellar epilogue. I absolutely despise epilogues to set up another spinoff instead of a look into the future happily ever after. Unless it is clearly to set up for more books in the series. This one leaves the door open but doesn’t really set the story up for anything other than the spinoff. And it’s not really a look into the future, more like an unsettled aftermath. There is not discussion of how she connected to Opal, what is going to happen with Cosmo, or even what the plan is for the future. It was so stagnant and completely lacking.
However, I gave the book as a whole three stars instead of one because the plot was good. I really thought it was going to take at least one more book to get resolution and for once wasn’t upset about it. There was not a ton of filler, but excellent plot development with a little steam thrown in. Not as much as the description hinted but some. Mostly meh however. There was so much potential, it just fell dramatically short. And since I don’t like the prison trope, I won’t be reading further.
I honestly wanted to just speed through the entire book at some point. It just kept dragging on and repeating the same plots over in a different format.
Thank goodness for whatever happened at the 78% mark, because that's the only reason I was able to finish this book.
Aside from that, I do think it was a bit unfinished. Like Theo's whole parentage situation. There really wasn't even a hint about what she did after finding out and how it went down. Plus the whole Wes thing? That happened way too suddenly and out of the blue!!
Everything was super rushed towards the end and that took away from the story a lot.
I do think this was a cute series idea though! Curious about the interconnected series for Cosmo's sister. But I'm in no rush or actively seeking it out.
This did not need to be a trilogy. I plodded on with the first 2 as the plot intrigued me, however, very little happened until right at the end of each book. It felt long and drawn out in order to make it a trilogy.
The ending felt rushed with lots of unanswered questions. It seems it's left that way to introduce another fmc and her storyline for a new series. It felt disappointing after sticking with 3 books to not get a solid ending.
eh, this book was fine. Several parts felt unnecessarily dramatic and overdrawn. Sexy scenes were random and felt a little forced. Cosmo's relationship with Theo felt inorganic and just weird. The ending was also weird. like it was wrapped up but not wrapped up. they had skipped 2 months? I won't lie I started skimming it towards the end because I got bored. I don't know if I will read the next book.
You're telling me that at no point did they realize that boning is what regenerated her power? At no point? Not even the smart one?
The only character that didn't feel like a fantasy novel caricature was Jordan, who was literal basic mean girl. Everyone was flat, two dimensional. The premise was very interesting but this was probably the most forgettable series I have ever read.
Imaginative, suspenseful, mind blowing and captivating in its entertainment value, I loved this well written series. This final book was an unputdownable success in my opinion. Riveting from the very first page to the last, I felt my heart leaping multiple times as the drama progressed. I loved this book and this series. I cannot wait to read the next series which is a spinoff from this series. Fantastic storytelling.
god this trilogy was good 😩absolutely loved this third and final installment of the series and i feel like so much happened and the way everything tied in together was scrumptious! i was at the edge of my seat which is exactly where i like to be. wish we had more of darling wes once he was lucid and some cosmo one on one time too but it is what it is. also so stoked to see what aurora’s story has in store for us! will be keeping an eye out for the release in september!
Was good. Felt rushed like it needed more or something. Other than that it was good. Liked that she forgave Cosmo at the end and they all became her mates. Wish they had had a moment together like the others but it was good. Lu is my favourite mate. Glad Wes ended up alive in the end and woke up to come to the rescue and help. Glad Cosmo's father died and they got somewhat of that closure. Not sure if I will read the next series.
Ovarall a good story. And it had capacity. I'm not impressed by all character development, aswell as language and the style of writing. Wes is kind of missing through out the whole series. The ending felt rushed. What I've read about the new story with Cos's sister feels kind of more suitable for me and I'm looking forward to it.
Rushed, summarized epilogue and terrible character development. Unclaimed bond, even at the end and unsatisfying plot holes. I don't recommend, poorly executed and repetitive
Uh… this was not complete. Lots of story left to cover but I guess it continues in another series. Also, other characters besides the FMC were using UK phrases when they’re not from the UK. Lots of inconsistencies like this throughout.
I struggled to finish this book. The connection between the FMC and her bonds is not written well, the book in general is not well written, jumping from one thing to the other from different perspectives in a rushed way.
Been a while since ive been invested in a series as must as this really loved the characters and only wished there was more at the end. A definate must read series.
I hate that the paragraphs are not actually paragraphs. The writing was choppier this time. And seemed like it was in a hurry to finish. I won't continue the series.
I really enjoyed this series. The author has an original voice. I highly recommend reading this series. The final book is just as good as the prior ones.
These books were refreshing and a little twisted. A new kind of academia that doesn't stick to just dragons and vampires. Enjoyable read great characters great banter.