Name: Beyond the Veiled War
Rating: 4.53 (14 reviews)

3 reviews

August 1, 2026

A quick tldr for people not wanting spoilers and also incase the spoiler tag decides to not work:

I have many issues with the book and left it as a 2/5. Issues I had in book 5 have either stuck or become more apparent. Vivalda has extreme power creep where most of her powerups and skills never felt earned. She has all the answers and solves every issue which makes the supporting cast unneeded. Her more grounded elements are minimized that made her an engaging protagonist. While I expect the story to center around the main character, Vivalda’s focus came at the expense of the other characters agencies, arcs, and my general interest in them making it more so feel like this book was a one woman show with cardboard cut outs as side characters. The pacing and the world building are some of the best in the series. This book functions more as an end note to the rest of the series than an individual book.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD:

PACING:
This is the thing i felt showed the most improvement from book 5. Where book 5 had scenes that dragged and 6 had a battle scene that dragged this book handled its own pacing perfectly.

MAGIC SYSTEM:
These books are shown to have a soft magic system. We are never given any specific rules with how they work or what they can vs cant do. We are also never shown if the magic drains energy. I have no problem with it and in some ways it benefitted the previous book’s fight scenes visually. When we had the scene with Aladora using magic to show her bits and pieces of her past it painted a beautiful picture that wasn’t impacted by the soft magic system. We are informed about malijae which is a concept for a fantasy story that is really neat. While the concept is great it’s impact to the story is held back by a similar issue with other parts of the book where it’s not foreshadowed and isn’t explained until after all the action is over. For such a big lore drop how it was implemented makes it seem like it was thought up of last minute instead of a planned out decision. While book 5 was written when the author was a child and I don’t expect a lot of foreshadowing, book 6 didn’t have foreshadowing either.
We are told about Zyla’s magic turning dark after her daughter died while prior to the event it was light magic. I love having these details it opens up so many questions that hook me in as a reader like how magic can just transform. It proves it’s a fluid system that allows the reader to debate how else magic can be impacted. What impacts it in a negative way is the lack of explanation works against many characters. For example the serafae are constantly in their magic form while Aladora and Vivalda aren’t. Given those two transform into very similar looking “fae” it makes the characters so intertwined that if you swapped the outfits they feel like the same character. Kalvara and Riverlynn are also never given transformations which goes to an issue is how the magic system is written it makes it appear as if it has favourites. While Aladora and Vivalda have a full transformation Riverlynn and Kalvara are just shown to have magic and not much else which make it appear the magic system sees them as less important. While reading some parts came across that the author controlling the magic in the moment based on visual coolness over it being a natural progression. It also felt like Vivalda’s magic was never fully decided upon in the books. Silva controls plant life and can make her body grow, phoenix controls fire and is able to be revived like a phoenix, Aerowen controls ice, snow and ice fire, and Zyla is a dark enchantress who turns out to be a light enchantress but Vivalda never gave me the impression that she had a specific magic type and it felt scene dependant. In one scene she’s breaking a door down, in another she’s spawning a shield, and in many scene’s what her magic is doing isn’t fully explained.

WORLDBUILDING:
One of the biggest positives were the new areas we were shown. Seeing the other afterlives and systems made the story that previously suffered from lack of world building so much more broad. The author was able to describe them beautifully where it felt like such a huge improvement from previous books. One thing I had issue with is why there’s a class system in the afterlife. Why do fae’s get a seperate afterlife from humans? The only thing I can think of is when the book mentions that some of the gods felt humans shouldn’t have magic, but the god apologized so why would the class system still be there? If a fae and human marry are they just destined to never see each other again?

THE AFTERLIFE SYSTEM AND THE GODS:
Despite the highs the afterlife system made this book and by extension all previous entries a more frustrating read. Knowing Vivalda was destined to do this made it feel less like a personal victory for the character and more of a birth right. I also have issue with the gods. We are supposed to believe these gods are top of the food chain power wise yet they had no real impact on the plot. They didn’t do anything in this book besides give Vivalda a power up. They sent Vessoria down to help Vivalda yet when she tried to do the job they gave her she had to beg to get help for Vivalda’s malijae which just makes her job harder. Despite the gods being shown to seperate human and fae and see fae as better none of the characters besides Silva ever calls them on it. Even Vivalda the main character never says anything about how unfair the gods are shown to be. It makes the gods feel biased towards faes and harder to side with or even respect as gods. Despite one god being said to apologize to human souls for their destinies the god’s actions dont line up with their own words.
The book didn’t justify how the gods treated Vivalda. I never had a moment where I viewed Vivalda as more deserving of things than other characters. Im left with questions over who controls the prophecies and how they even know there is one. Originally I assumed the gods controlled it yet in the book its stated Vivalda’s prophecy awoken the gods which to me implies an outside force having a hand in it.
Now the two sisters came back and one was given parts of every gods magic and the other was given a “whoops sorry your prophecy was bad but here, we can send you back to a town that sees you as Melantha”. It made me dislike a character who was one of my favourites in book 5. It made Vivalda feel that she couldn’t be strong on her own and instead needed cosmic favouritism to succeed.
I also noticed odd contradictions in the prophecy and how Vivalda is talked about in relation to it. First it is said her prophecy was to defeat Melantha then right after Aladora said she defied fate. Vivalda says in the book she always felt she was different from everyone else where if the citizens isolated her away from them or hated her how would she have known? Her sister also has magic so did she feel different from her sister? She was never shown to have any friends for her to compare herself to

THE HIGHS AND THE LOWS:
The highs were the pacing and the way the author describes the scenes. This authors natural ability to paint a scene onto a page with poetic words is staggering. Its a genuine gift she seems to have either trained for or naturally possesses which makes scenes visually amazing.
Another high was Silva’s characterization. She was genuinely the most well written character in this book and if every character’s arc was given the same attention to detail as her arc it would have made the book a wonderful experience to analyze other characters. Every time I saw her on the page it was a true delight and I knew we were in for something good.
The lows were the relatability of the protagonist and the way most characters arcs were handled. In book 5 Vivalda was a relatable and interesting protagonist that drew me into the story. In book 7 her relatability was squandered. I never agreed with the narrative that she earned the power-ups or some of the praise and it more so read like the author was adding as many powerups onto one character as they could to make sure she stayed interesting where when she was just a princess set out to concur a foe much more powerful then she could have imagined she was so much more compelling. I walked away from this book feeling Vivalda’s characterization was one of if not the weakest as her flaws like her impulsiveness were forgotten about and her strengths themselves were pushed to the side so she could also have the gods give her more power then she otherwise already possessed. We are also told that she feels like Riverlynn isn’t ready to lead but we are never given a reason as to why. It feels like the writing is trying to convince us that Vivalda is the only one right to lead without touching on why other characters can’t. We get the same thing with Kalvara. If its because the citizens couldn’t trust her I find that unfair given that her being possessed is seemingly prophesied. Even if we do go with that Vivalda gave into the possession momentarily in book 5 so by that Riverlynn would be the best choice since she was constantly around her father who was possessed yet didn’t give into the possession. At times it feels we are given reasons why Vivalda would be a good leader of the guards than a king. She can fight yes but we arent shown any other things she does to prove she is more deserving of ruling as king beyond that. Unless we are to assume Vivalda will be constantly either fighting in wars or causing them fighting will be 1% of the job if that. When it comes to her being a leader in book 5 she left her team to try and handle Melantha solo. She also left to try and find her mother in book 5 which led in part to her mother’s passing. She has been consistently shown to be impulsive without any character growth which if I were in her kingdom would worry me. In book 6 she doesn’t really lead as much as just stand at the front in battle which again goes back to my belief of her being a great leader of the guards. Riverlynn is a kind and empathetic person who gets along with others easily which a kingdom would actually need after a crisis as big as what happened in the book. Where Kalvara despite also impulsively running off did it to isolate Melantha from everyone else while Vivalda’s was out of the impulsiveness to face Melantha while distrusting her friends or to be a hero. Kalvara has shown love for the kingdom and it’s people and it shines in the small pieces of her backstory we are given. That makes her a wonderful leader who would put the citizens first above herself and her own want for battle which I again didn’t see happen with Vivalda.
Another issue is it felt that despite Kalvara and Cassius getting some of the shortest ends of the stick beyond everyone else it’s either brushed past or not mentioned at all. There is an offhand mention that his soul went to a good place and Kalvara as stated previously comes back with a sorry at most.

CONSEQUENCES AND STAKES:
This book didn’t have many stakes since it reads like an epilogue on things we didn’t see in the previous books but it did impact how I view the stakes of the previous books. Vivalda was revived and given huge power-up with no draw backs, we are told Aladora crosses the fae and her hair turned red because of it but thats all. I understand the red hair being symbolic of the fae she crossed but it doesn’t feel like a consequence more so like the fae just decided her hair looked better red. We are never given hints to the red hair having any physical impact on her.

THE ROYAL FAMILY AND THE FAE:
Reading this series I kept noticing the feeling that the world had a huge fish-eye-lense on Vivalda and this book highlights the issue. Despite the fae being central to the plot they rarely interact with anyone outside of Vivalda and the interactions that are there are very brief. Silva had the most where she had a couple with Riverlynn and once with Kalvara. None of the interactions with the other sisters were impactful to the plot. Zyla only had a brief interaction with Riverlynn in book 6 while having no interactions with Kalvara and there weren’t any interaction that Phoenix or Aerowen had with any of the other sisters at all. I feel we could have seen complex dynamics with the other sisters. While reading it felt that the parallels were creating themselves. Zyla being seen as cursed as well as Kalvara her niece. Zyla would understand better than Riverlynn or Vivalda yet the characters never had any interaction. As Zyla being their aunt she never seems to show any care towards the other sisters. Riverlynn and Aerowen both having sisters that are shown to be more powerful than their younger sisters. Despite the parallel we are never shown it impact either character or them interacting with each other. Aerowen being a daragon which as explained in the previous book is a dragon who cant fully transform and has human like features and Riverlynn being a sister who is shown to be very kind and pacifistic where her older sister is the fighter would have something to bond over. It makes the book seem less lived in and it makes the book lack depth with the other characters.

QUESTIONS I HAD AFTER READING THIS BOOK:

What made Riverlynn unfit to lead?

Why would Aladora bypass the other daughters to give Vivalda the crown?

What made Vivalda so much more worthy of godlike powers over her sisters?

Why have the class based afterlife system?

Did Aladora go to the fae when Kalvara ran away as she did when Vivalda was unconscious?

If Kalvara has her moms black hair and Riverlynn has her fathers red hair, how would Vivalda have gotten her fathers brown hair but had Aladora’s red hair only on the front two parts of her hair? Is the red hair genetic? If it is why didn’t Riverlynn get any since its shown to be able to grow anywhere in the hair?

Why did Aerowen thank Vivalda for helping her and her sister make up when she both didn’t cause the battle that made them become friendly towards eachother and she wasn’t there to help them make up at the time?

Who writes the prophecies?

Why was the father the only one not given some form of second chance?

Why did Kalvara’s protector never show up prior to the end?

Overall recommendation:
I’d say this book is better if you already know the characters but you still may have issues connecting to them in the same way you do in the author’s videos. If you enjoy power fantasies this book I’d recommend this book as well. I honestly think the first book is good as a stand alone and would recommend it as such if you were thinking of getting any.

Does this book make me excited about the upcoming prequels:

no. The books released didn’t make Aladora an impactful enough character for me to gain interested in her past. By extension she wasn’t a distinct enough character either. Throughout the fifth book it felt she had the exact right things to say in a motherly way which I respect as something she had gained knowledge of through her past. The sixth it turns out she was a secret warrior while Vivalda is a warrior. Throughout the moments of trying to learn about her as a person and fighter it read as if I was experiencing a Vivalda 2.0. Their armours despite being vastly different colour wise (Vivalda’s blue and black later blue and white and Aladora’s red and gold) are summoned in the same sort of way, I never saw any functional difference in the armour or what they show about each character seperately. When reading book 6’s battle scene even their combat abilities felt the same. Their fighting styles in battle were extremely similar. Even when broken down to basic mechanics they both have swords powers (which again I could never get a proper read on for what Vivalda’s were) and armour. It almost feels that reading a book about Aladora would just feel like a “what if Vivalda was thrown into a different scenario”. As I tried to understand the personality difference it just felt like Vivalda was just a more self conscious Aladora. I understand traits can be passed on but while Vivalda was very similar to her mother Riverlynn and Kalvara had nothing passed down. Riverlynn was shown as a very pacifistic character. She preferred to wear dresses over fight and we weren’t given much else with her personality. Both Casdius and Aladora are shown to be fighters. (I understand they could’ve shielded her from fighting but then again it goes back to my point of her not having any similarities to either parent). Then you have Kalvara who we know next to nothing about personality wise. All I could say reading the book is Kalvara’s personality is just being insecure other then that in this book she is shown to be insecure. We are told her sisters comforted her. Then we are told she moved past the trauma. None of which gives any discernible personality that I could relate to either parent. Then Vivalda is a fighter wanting to be a warrior and protect people like Aladora and by the end of the seventh book is shown as having all the right words to say as her mom did in book 5. The other characters I’d maybe see a pull for and have an interest in their backstory. The sneak peak we got into Silva’s past is interesting the family dynamic between her and her mother and how she is in some ways cursed to walk among people gains a readers interest and she was shown in three books to hold up well as a character. Phoenix maybe. It feels she’s that the book didn’t say enough about her past to make me interested in a prequel. Aerowen I felt didn’t even draw your eyes at all because the writing never gave her a chance to. Her pov was completely abandoned in the latest book and even in book 6 she only had two povs which severely limits the impact a character could have. Zyla’s was the most interesting in book 5 but by 7 and the reveal she was related to Aladora with no foreshadowing it makes me less interested. In the last 3 books it felt the sister plot point with Aladora was thought up last moment while all the way in book 5-6 her characterization was up and down which makes me feel that its how she’d be written in her past. My main issue summed up is that the narrative had such a lense on Vivalda that if the other characters were alone in a room I cant see who they’d be alone. Like without anyone else there so its hard for me to gain interest in prequels of characters that i feel couldnt hold up a story by themselves

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.

Beyond the Veiled War

CrazyCae

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