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The Painted Maidens Trilogy #3
The Taking
Eighteen-year-old Serena reigns as queen of both the Undine of The Deep and the wolves of The Dry. The alliance between her maidens and the werewolves is shaky when all at once the basic necessities of food and shelter are taken away and both their worlds fall apart. After decades of war, the two societies must work together to face what lies ahead. A promised land is theirs for the taking, but first, they must survive each other.
332 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2015
7 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
Terra Harmony
18 books238 followersTerra is author of The Painted Maidens Trilogy ('The Rising', 'The Betrayed', and 'The Taking', the Akasha Series ('Water', 'Air', 'Fire', and 'Earth'), and 'The Kindred Curse Anthology'.
Terra was born and raised in Colorado but has since lived in California, Texas, Utah, North Carolina and Virginia. Terra has served a 5½ year enlistment in the Marine Corp, has earned her bachelor's and master's degree and presently runs the language services division of a small business.
Terra currently lives in a suburb of Washington, DC with her husband of sixteen years and three children.
Terra was born and raised in Colorado but has since lived in California, Texas, Utah, North Carolina and Virginia. Terra has served a 5½ year enlistment in the Marine Corp, has earned her bachelor's and master's degree and presently runs the language services division of a small business.
Terra currently lives in a suburb of Washington, DC with her husband of sixteen years and three children.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 22, 2015
This last in the series picks up where The betrayed ends. We are into Serena’s reign her brother Liam is in the archives learning about his family and Kai is now publicly known as Serena’s love interest. Alaric is dead and Serena is queen of the wolves and undine. Serena is trying to get her people to see they are in dire straights while also trying to convince her brother to become the alpha of his pack. Neither is going well. Food supplies for the Undine is running low and the pack is being evicted so now they must find a new home that meets all the demands of a pack and being Undine require.
This is the story of the journey of the werewolf pack and the Undine to their new home. The story of how they become friends when they were once enemies. How unexpected matings occur and how love helps give strength and encouragement. About the bravery of one queen, her brother and her mate to help unite their people and become a community.
The journey isn’t a easy one with both Liam and Serena making tough decisions before they even start on the journey. You see these two grow up quickly in the wake of all that has happened. The pack learns to forgive and feel as if they weren’t abandoned and the Undine begin to trust. Each starts out with wariness but as the journey plagues on and the dangers of the sea pile up they learn that working together and being friends helps each of them and kept them alive.
The connection between Kai and Serena is as strong as ever and when we get glimpses of private moments they are a treasure. The true treasure for me though was Liam. We saw him slowly find love for Sophia a Undine with hatred towards the pack due to her sister’s death. She too has affections for LIam and it is this that shows really how the chasm was sealed and that they will be okay living in harmony.
Again for me my favorite characters were Liam and Kai.Their quiet strength and loyalty just have no bounds and come forth in every action and word they take. The love they show for Serena and how they bond to each other is truly a gift. After that is Mariam and Murphy. those two showed us what it meant to have strength and courage but also to believe in your queen and know that even without them by her side she would be okay.
Each character brings life to the story as the plot unfolds of the tale of this odd group coming together and finding a new home in which they live amongst each other in peace. We see love emerge amongst the pack and Undine, friendships come about and we even see a medicinal cure come about as well. We see a tale of a queen and her soulmate giving each other strength and courage. A sister and brother showing love and loyalty and working together for the good of their people. A well written and great way to end the series although I do hope occasionally we will get tales from this group that captivates your heart and keeps you smiling as they work together to find peace and a new way of life.
This is the story of the journey of the werewolf pack and the Undine to their new home. The story of how they become friends when they were once enemies. How unexpected matings occur and how love helps give strength and encouragement. About the bravery of one queen, her brother and her mate to help unite their people and become a community.
The journey isn’t a easy one with both Liam and Serena making tough decisions before they even start on the journey. You see these two grow up quickly in the wake of all that has happened. The pack learns to forgive and feel as if they weren’t abandoned and the Undine begin to trust. Each starts out with wariness but as the journey plagues on and the dangers of the sea pile up they learn that working together and being friends helps each of them and kept them alive.
The connection between Kai and Serena is as strong as ever and when we get glimpses of private moments they are a treasure. The true treasure for me though was Liam. We saw him slowly find love for Sophia a Undine with hatred towards the pack due to her sister’s death. She too has affections for LIam and it is this that shows really how the chasm was sealed and that they will be okay living in harmony.
Again for me my favorite characters were Liam and Kai.Their quiet strength and loyalty just have no bounds and come forth in every action and word they take. The love they show for Serena and how they bond to each other is truly a gift. After that is Mariam and Murphy. those two showed us what it meant to have strength and courage but also to believe in your queen and know that even without them by her side she would be okay.
Each character brings life to the story as the plot unfolds of the tale of this odd group coming together and finding a new home in which they live amongst each other in peace. We see love emerge amongst the pack and Undine, friendships come about and we even see a medicinal cure come about as well. We see a tale of a queen and her soulmate giving each other strength and courage. A sister and brother showing love and loyalty and working together for the good of their people. A well written and great way to end the series although I do hope occasionally we will get tales from this group that captivates your heart and keeps you smiling as they work together to find peace and a new way of life.
October 28, 2015
Amazing
This book was wonderful. The series drew me in and I was unable to pull away. I fell in love with the maidens and the wolves and didn't want their story to end.
This book was wonderful. The series drew me in and I was unable to pull away. I fell in love with the maidens and the wolves and didn't want their story to end.
July 26, 2019
Very engaging although it seemed to take a long time to get to the point
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 31, 2020
Book
I just got done with the book. It was very good. I think the ending was cute. I'll keep this book to read again.
I just got done with the book. It was very good. I think the ending was cute. I'll keep this book to read again.
June 12, 2015
[Full disclosure: I requested and received an ebook copy of the whole trilogy on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
The Taking picks up almost exactly where the second book, The Betrayed ends: with Serena deciding to move her entire civilization to a more hospitable environment. And since she’s now officially Queen of the Werewolves after Alaric’s death and the werewolves are back on the side of the Undine, that means they’re moving too. Moving two species who have been at war for almost two decades isn’t exactly going to be easy and Serena has no illusions. But ever since the werewolves were given an eviction notice from the protected park land, they really have no choice but to move with the Undine to a place where no one in the government will take notice of them or otherwise bother them. Lo and behold, they find a place up in the Arctic where it isn’t as polluted! But how does one get from around Vancouver Island to the Arctic on ships without having to land and go through customs?
The answer is to join up with the annual boat race, but that puts the move on an extremely tight schedule. Serena and the Undine must pack up the remnants of their civilization, transform into human form and keep that human form for almost three weeks. As we saw in previous books, the Undine tend to dry out when out of water for more than a day and it gets extremely painful after that. Not only that, the werewolves will have to learn to work with their former enemies and tensions are still high after Alaric’s death. Hmm…put two different species who have hated each other for two decades together on a cramped space for three weeks and see what happens. But as Serena makes clear to everyone, they have absolutely no choice. Still, some Undine choose to stay behind because they’re old and set in their ways. The move will decrease the pressure on the ecosystem because fewer Undine will be eating the sea life but the acidity of the ocean will eventually kill anyone who stays behind. Still, as Kai and Liam tell Serena, it’s not her decision.
Serena is now a mature young woman. She’s still struggling with being Queen at the age of only 18 but she’s really coming into her own. Now that she has political clout she’s finally free to ditch Murphy and mate with Kai, who is patient with her and doesn’t want her to do anything she isn’t comfortable with. Murphy takes the whole thing in stride because it means he can be with who he truly wants to without pretending to love a much younger woman. Amidst the uprooting of almost their entire kingdom, most of Serena’s subjects can’t be bothered and Serena has the confidence to do what she thinks is right. Still, things aren’t going to be easy sailing both literally and metaphorically because of the aforementioned former enemies being forced to live in cramped quarters together for almost a month. There are lots of bumps on the road to a new start.
The plot is of course interesting because by this point I was very invested in the characters. It was also quite a bit more fast-paced than the previous two books because of the time-crunch nature of the Undine/werewolf move. At the same time, the ending almost felt a little too rushed. It was exciting and thrilling but I really missed out on the little details of how everyone was going to survive and adjust up in the Arctic. The journey to their Arctic haven in the end was very rushed. I wish Terra Harmony had slowed things down just a little bit; enough to maintain the excitement without sacrificing her descriptive writing.
Still, The Taking was an enjoyable conclusion to what has been a good trilogy. If you haven’t started the trilogy I’d definitely recommend downloading the first book for free and giving it a try. And if you’ve stuck with the trilogy thus far you’ll enjoy the ending. I know I did.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Taking picks up almost exactly where the second book, The Betrayed ends: with Serena deciding to move her entire civilization to a more hospitable environment. And since she’s now officially Queen of the Werewolves after Alaric’s death and the werewolves are back on the side of the Undine, that means they’re moving too. Moving two species who have been at war for almost two decades isn’t exactly going to be easy and Serena has no illusions. But ever since the werewolves were given an eviction notice from the protected park land, they really have no choice but to move with the Undine to a place where no one in the government will take notice of them or otherwise bother them. Lo and behold, they find a place up in the Arctic where it isn’t as polluted! But how does one get from around Vancouver Island to the Arctic on ships without having to land and go through customs?
The answer is to join up with the annual boat race, but that puts the move on an extremely tight schedule. Serena and the Undine must pack up the remnants of their civilization, transform into human form and keep that human form for almost three weeks. As we saw in previous books, the Undine tend to dry out when out of water for more than a day and it gets extremely painful after that. Not only that, the werewolves will have to learn to work with their former enemies and tensions are still high after Alaric’s death. Hmm…put two different species who have hated each other for two decades together on a cramped space for three weeks and see what happens. But as Serena makes clear to everyone, they have absolutely no choice. Still, some Undine choose to stay behind because they’re old and set in their ways. The move will decrease the pressure on the ecosystem because fewer Undine will be eating the sea life but the acidity of the ocean will eventually kill anyone who stays behind. Still, as Kai and Liam tell Serena, it’s not her decision.
Serena is now a mature young woman. She’s still struggling with being Queen at the age of only 18 but she’s really coming into her own. Now that she has political clout she’s finally free to ditch Murphy and mate with Kai, who is patient with her and doesn’t want her to do anything she isn’t comfortable with. Murphy takes the whole thing in stride because it means he can be with who he truly wants to without pretending to love a much younger woman. Amidst the uprooting of almost their entire kingdom, most of Serena’s subjects can’t be bothered and Serena has the confidence to do what she thinks is right. Still, things aren’t going to be easy sailing both literally and metaphorically because of the aforementioned former enemies being forced to live in cramped quarters together for almost a month. There are lots of bumps on the road to a new start.
The plot is of course interesting because by this point I was very invested in the characters. It was also quite a bit more fast-paced than the previous two books because of the time-crunch nature of the Undine/werewolf move. At the same time, the ending almost felt a little too rushed. It was exciting and thrilling but I really missed out on the little details of how everyone was going to survive and adjust up in the Arctic. The journey to their Arctic haven in the end was very rushed. I wish Terra Harmony had slowed things down just a little bit; enough to maintain the excitement without sacrificing her descriptive writing.
Still, The Taking was an enjoyable conclusion to what has been a good trilogy. If you haven’t started the trilogy I’d definitely recommend downloading the first book for free and giving it a try. And if you’ve stuck with the trilogy thus far you’ll enjoy the ending. I know I did.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
May 4, 2015
I have really enjoyed this trilogy, but I did feel that this final instalment felt a little rushed towards the end and left me really hanging and wanting more! It also occured to me later that very little mention had been made of baby Erving, whom I thought was going to be a instrinsic part of the plot. With any luck the author will delve back into this world to fish him out and tell his tail.
July 19, 2016
The ending was great. This trilogy was unique in the way that the big battle took place in the second book and everything wraps up in the third as our heroes deal with th aftermath of the battle. This book is a migration and there is a lot of technical talk about boats that went over my head but oh well.
December 7, 2015
Possibly my favorite of the trilogy. 4.5/5
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews