It seems that the author has learned his lesson, and the new series maintains my interest in the characters and in the worldbuilding much better in the case of Alwyn. What happens then when a woman preacher begins to find a following? What happens when her voice and sermons cause huge numbers of people to follow her? What happens when a man in her company has a gift that tells him when people lie? I love Alwyn’s character, he is everything I want in a book character, he is good at almost everything he does and he does whatever is needed, whether that be leading, fighting, negotiating, writing (he is a historian and scholar), and being an outlaw. I know a lot of people do not like characters who are good at everything (similar to a chosen one—which he also is in a way) but I love it. Alwyn is still following Evadine but he is starting to see her corruption. She is not who she used to be, she is not as merciful or passive, rather she has declared herself a supreme Queen over everyone. Alwyn (as noted in the last book) has started having relations with Evadine, but he is starting to realize that her motives are going to be the downfall of everyone and the country. He notices changes to her leadership and character, she is now willing to present a lie to the people and is now on the offensive rather than defensive; she has shunned all Caerith from Albermaine. He now has a choice to make—does he continue to blindly follow Evadine or does he become a Traitor? When I was reading The Pariah, I noticed that each Part of the story was preluded by a quote 'from the Pretender's account to Sir Alwyn Scribe'. And I kept asking myself: That means that Alwyn's gift for gab didn't render you blind to his shortcomings nor made t(his) story a heroic one.

Evadine has fully embraced her role as the Risen Martyr. Perhaps she has embraced it too much. She, too, has changed from when we met her in The Pariah. Evadine has changed from the woman giving nightly sermons to her followers, to an almost cold woman who feels the need to cleanse the land of those who would question her. As I mentioned, her arc brilliantly speaks to the idea of fanaticism. There are those who can whip a crowd into a frenzy because of their “beliefs”, which may or may not be what they actually feel. They simply want the power. Then there are those like Evadine, who truly believe what they are and feel it is their duty to carry out what they must in the name of those beliefs. Gone are the nightly sermons, replaced by a woman who will do what she must to those who do not believe in the Risen Martyr of the Seraphile. She has gathered thousands of followers who join her cause, and in her name, will do whatever she asks. Again, the fanaticism of whipping a crowd into a frenzy using her words, was something Evadine always excelled at. It is watching this change that Alwyn wrestles with.This series became better and better with each book, the testimony of Alwyn the outlaw who became a scribe, then a knight is genuine and his journey is more tragedy than triumph. Overall, definitely recommend as I do every book of Ryan's I have read and I'm really, really hoping that the ending is a cliffhanger for the next book!

Special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to match its excellence with Tower Lord, but you did and if anything, you topped it! I re-read Blood Song just before Tower Lord was released and after reading Tower Lord, I couldn’t let the story and characters go. I had to do another re-read of both books. They are so good, I feel I need to read them again. They are like a drug, I can’t get enough of! LOL.Honestly this book did not go the way I expected it to at all. And I'm really glad it didn't because I think, I hope that because of the completely out of left field plot twists there will be a book four and as this series has rapidly became my favorite of Ryan's I'm 100% for it!