BookView Review

Brigham’s latest entry in the Kestrel Harper Saga pushes the series into its most turbulent and emotionally charged territory yet. Rhidam sparkles under the Festival of St. Mátán, but Kavan senses an undercurrent the crowds don’t see; his dormant Sight flickering to life with vague alarms. Well beyond the celebrations, pressure mounts as Neth militarizes, refugees bring troubling accounts, and the city’s familiar structures begin to strain.

Brigham skillfully weaves the novel’s supernatural thread, and she proves equally compelling in mirroring it with a political landscape under strain—rising militarism, displaced populations, and the quiet erosion of Rhidam’s structures of power. Lorant, Jerit, and Seren anchor the story with a bond pulled taut between private devotion and the long shadow of the crown. Brigham renders their changing dynamic with measured clarity. As external pressures and inherited power close in, the story grows into an appealing blend of close character insight and mythic scale. The novel’s pacing remians steady and intentional, the plotting exact, and the narrative threads interlace with ease. The final chapters deliver satisfying resolution while hinting, quietly but unmistakably, at greater turmoil to come.

Haunting in its resonance and deeply satisfying in execution, this is a must-read.

***