This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2022 after the cliffhanger ending of The Gilded Cage so I couldn’t tell you how excited I was to get an ARC copy!

I dove in headfirst and finished the book in a day, I was that engrossed that all other distractions were ignored!

In this book we meet up with all of our old friends as well as a couple of new characters thrown in. This makes the ‘quest’ group quite big and there is chance for all the main characters to interact with each other.

Now I will be honest 75% of this book is moping and I am not here for it. But having said that it is nice for a character to have to deal with consequences but I felt it slowed down the pace of the book. There is a quest in the story but it is very much over shadowed by the moping and angst. So much angst. Sometimes I forget that YA is so angst!

A drawback for me is that a lot of Kiva’s story is told by other people to other people and we watch on like they do, I feel it was more telling and not showing.

I also thought with a book with two villains in we would get more hardships with them involved but that doesn’t really happen.

But I am not all moans, I did enjoy my book binge and the story ended well, the world building was great as we saw a lot of new kingdoms albeit briefly. Some of the twists were predictable but hey that’s YA!

I will definitely find myself rereading this trilogy in future and that’s what you want in a series.

4.5/5

The blood traitor is the final part of the prison healer trilogy (spoilers below for the end of book 2 the guided cage).

Kiva is back in Zalindov, the death camp where she spent most of her childhood, and this time at the hands of her own sister. Hooked on angeldust, alone, and having betrayed her friends and the man she loves it doesn’t look like there is a way out this time. Nobody leaves Zalindov after all, especially not twice.

Okay so I will admit this has been my most anticipated release this year. I picked up the first two in the Waterstones new year sale and devoured them. I even found myself putting off finishing the book, just to keep it going a little bit longer.

I loved it. Full of the same twists and turns as the first two books, with a satisfying ending. I did not expect to love Cresta, but she really is amazing.

The romance between Kiva and Jaren continues to build. But more than that I really enjoyed her relationships with the rest of the family, especially Caldon.

Obviously it’s not perfect, I would have liked to see some of the LGBT relationships hinted at in the earlier books actually come to fruition, or be explored in more depth. The writing and the dialogue can be a bit too overly descriptive, but that is also just common in the genre.

Overall, a very satisfying end to a fun trilogy.

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the e-arc for an honest opinion.

Please take in mind it’s my opinion, and everyone is allowed to have one.

How to explain how much I’ve loved this whole serie? This book pulled me out of a YA Fantasy slump, from beginning till the end it had me hooked. I like how such an easy, fun and fast read this was.

Honestly when you’re going to read it get tissues ready, I’ve cried a couple times. It was literally a rollercoaster of emotions, there was sadness but there was also fun.

I’m so glad to see that some people got the redemption they deserve like Cresta, bloody loved her character in this book! Hope we get to see more of her. Also the other characters were so great all of them were so well written.

And not to mention the whole plot? I didn’t see that coming.

10/10 Would recommend this to everyone!

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read the blood traitor.
So I was surprised by the ending of the first and second books which never happens to me, so I went into this one determined to guess the ending which I thought I'd done...I didn't I was close but still caught out.
I will say one part broke my f**king heart, I very nearly yeated my kindle luckily I carried on.

Now we dream.

This trilogy is quite enjoyable in a broader sense. However, what started with a harsh prison setting and a survival story slowly disintegrated into a squabble between kingdoms, rebel movements and a story of magical prince and princesses vying for the right to rule. However, unless this is the first YA fantasy you are reading, not a lot of what happens will come as a surprise.

Mild Spoilers ahead!

Coming to this finale, I definitely liked this one better than the 2nd book. The writing and magic system is easy to follow. There's an important quest central to the plot which was enjoyable to read. And, because the said quest required that the characters travel to different countries, we did get a decent amount of world-building in this one as compared to the previous two books.

Plus, this book has a huge ensemble cast of characters travelling together while dealing and juggling with their varied relationship dynamics, which was definitely interesting to read. Some of the relationship development was done better than others. Kiva and Caldon are already great friends and their chemistry is palpable in this book as well but I also truly liked the friendship that developed between Kiva and Cresta. I liked the romance resolution in this one. It was again slow burn and the author took her time getting the main couple, Kiva and Jaren back together. But, unlike the previous book, I could actually feel the tension between our love birds as there was a lot to unpack between them and I really liked how everything turned out for them at the end.

Moving onto some of the not so good stuff. Literally, every other character is a secret royal in hiding and it was so predictable that one of the biggest reveal about a characters identity came across as extremely lack lustre. The author did attempt at creating a diverse cast but everyone ended up in a hetro relationship even though she hinted at a possible m/m relationship in the previous book for two major side characters. Like mentioned previously, some of these relationships weren't developed properly and frankly they were completely unnecessary because I couldn't care less.

Let's talk about Kiva. I have been pretty nuetral on her throughout the series with this book being no different. This girl has suffered a lot of trauma, like the first few chapters of this book is pretty dark and I feel for her, I truly do. However, it also felt that this was one of those circumstances were the author kept putting her character through hell and back just for the sake of developing her character or just because every other character could feel sympathy towards her. It was also off putting how her trauma was shared with rest of the characters. Kiva being high and spilling her guts out about how much she has suffered while all the characters are "oh poor Kiva, look how she has suffered, surely she should be forgiven now". It was callous and done in poor taste.

Jaren is still a very nice human being if a bit angry and indecisive at times about his feelings for Kiva but I honestly thought that some moping did him good.

There's a new villian in this book and while vague mentions were made of him in the past I had expected that the main conflict would still remain with Zuleeka's rebel forces. But, Zuleeka is barely in the story and at about 92% when she does decide to make an appearance, the fight between Kiva and Zuleeka, which the author was building throughout this book got over within 1 or 2 chapters. It could have been one hell of a fight but it failed in its execution because our characters were busy fighting the other big bad while Zuleeka was reduced to a mere after thought.

The ending did manage to tie up the various plot threads together and was as predictable and sappy as I had expected but I'd still say this was an overall enjoyable trilogy to read. Especially, for those who are new to or in general enjoy the tropes of a typical YA fantasy.

The third book in the series and I was counting down until I could read this, excellent writing and spot on plot lines. Could not ask for more!

This book was such a good addition to the series. I fell in love with all of the characters throughout the series, and this book brought it all to a great end. This series has become one of my favourites of all time, so I was glad to see that the Blood Traitor did not disappoint. I read the entire book in a day, fully emerged in Kiva's struggle with her demons in Zalindov, and I loved seeing her try and repair her relationships with everyone that she has wronged. The chemistry between all of the characters was great, and I loved every single part of it. Absolutely recommend reading this series if you haven't already.

This is the final instalment in the "The Prison Healer" trilogy and oh my god, I still need more.

I absolutely loved this. There isn't one thing I didn't like. The conflict in the book is amazing and kept me on the edge on my seat the whole time. Caldon is amazing as ever and Kiva is as strong as ever. The character development we get in this book is sooo good. Cresta is such a kick-ass in this book, I loved her so much. My heart broke for Jaren through this book, I just want to squeeze him in a tight hug. Same goes for Tipp.

This book wrapped up the series quite nicely. It didn't end the way I wanted it to end but I loved the ending none-the-less. It was such a sweet ending and it still made me want more! I'd love a spin-off series/book to this trilogy. It'd be amazing!

I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but it definitely wasn't Cresta's completely turn around. What makes this world building so different is that I really don't expect the turns in the plot, unlike with other fantasy novels. The plot came to an interesting end, although I would have liked to see more from Kiva and Jaren - it felt a little rushed and I definitely feel like their problems could have been explored more. The magic system felt familiar and safe but I loved it, it was unique in its own way. I would have loved to know about the anomaly army, too, how come there was so many? Even without these details, I absolutely adored The Blood Traitor. I read it once in a whirlwind and twice to really let myself savor every character and trope.

Wow. What a book. What a series.
I think this is up there with one of the best series I’ve ever read. Every single book has hit the mark & this one isn’t an exception.
Apart from Sarah J Maas, I don’t know another YA author that writes the side characters so well. I find in a lot of books where the author tries including more and more characters, you end up forgetting about them or just not caring about them at all. I knew from the second book that Lynette didn’t have this problem, but she proves it again in this book. We have a few new characters joining the gang and one in particular (maybe 2 actually) I found myself rooting for SO HARD. Caldon though will always be my number 1. One of my favourite characters EVER.
We have a quest in this last instalment (YAYYY) and thinking back to it now I’m writing this review, I’m shocked Lynette managed to include so much without the book being 700 plus pages. We travel to multiple new places all bringing something different. We have intense arena fights, a marketplace full of strange things, and a small side quest in one of the last locations (my favourite). It’s paced extremely well. The only thing I think some people might complain about is the situation with Jaren (don’t want to spoil) takes a long time to happen, but in my opinion it’s placed perfectly. By the time we get there so much has happened & it’s truly emotional. The scene in the dessert between Kiva & Jaren had me full on ugly crying, aswell as Kiva on angeldust. That had me crying with laughter to crying in pain very quickly.

Also, just want to add that Lynette is the queen of plot twists. I didn’t see this one coming at all. At. All.

I’m so sad it’s the end of the trilogy, but equally so happy that I found it and it will forever be up there as one of my favourite ever YA fantasy series. You know a book is good when you keep thinking about it and I haven’t been able to get this out of my head. Anything Lynette writes is now an auto buy and if anyone is reading this who hasn’t started the trilogy or wondering if this book will live up to first 2, I can confidently say you won’t be dissapointed.
Thankyou so much to NetGalley & Hodder & Stoughton for the e-arc.

What a perfect ending to this trilogy. I loved every page of it. It flew by. The twists and turns the characters. Everything just fit together nicely and tied it all up. I’m so sad this series is over! Easy 5 star.

A beautifully written book. Really enjoyed reading this. Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read

Lynette Noni has done it again, this is a masterpiece. I LOVED it. The tension, the drama, but especially the characters. Tipp, Cresta, Caldon - my heart. It was so intense, an ultimate page turner and I hope this isn't the last we see of these amazing characters.
I loved being back in Zalindov with Keva, it is such an incredible unique setting for a YA fantasy and I loved every minute. It was amazing to be back with these amazing characters, grow to love ones you hadn't realised were so amazing before and meet new ones.
This is one of the best YA series I've read and I cannot recommend it enough.

After where The Guilded Cage left of I could not wait to start The Blood Traitor and thankfully it picked up at the same place it left. I don't know if it was from having such high expectations, but I am left feeling a bit disappointed now that I've finished. I found that parts of the story was really rushed, and that depth and understanding of the world Kiva et al occupied, just wasn't there. There was moments of genuine rawness, and some of the character development was amazing, Cresta now being a firm favorite. I did enjoy the storyline, and it will be something I reread but think that will be more because of the strength of the first two books

This was such an amazing conclusion to an amazing trilogy. I loved this story right from the start and honestly it didn't disappoint. The development of the characters was so well done I loved them all so much. I loved to know more about Cresta, she's iconic. And obviously the relationship between Jaren and Kiva was chef's kiss, the yearning, the tension, the love YES PLEASE.

I have NO WORDS. This book deserves all the stars in the world. It was so amazing, I had high hopes for it and it did not disappoint. Lynette Noni has managed to break my heart again and again, and then mend it and then break it again. I don't even know what to say about this book, just that I loved it with all my heart and it's such a perfect ending for a beautiful series. I'm going to miss these characters so much, I've grown to love and appreciate them, even those I hated at first.
The Prison Healer is now one of my favorite fantasy series and I will neevr stop talking about it. EVERYONE needs to read this series!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kiva thought she knew what she wanted—revenge. But feelings change, people change... everything has changed. After what happened at the palace, Kiva is desperate to know if her friends and family are safe, and whether those she wronged can ever forgive her. But with the kingdoms closer to the brink of war than they’ve ever been, and Kiva far away from the conflict, more is at stake than her own broken heart. A fresh start will mean a perilous quest, forcing mortal enemies and uneasy allies together in a race against the clock to save not just Evalon, but all of Wenderall. With her loyalties now set, Kiva can no longer just survive—she must fight for what she believes in. For who she believes in. But with danger coming from every side, and the lives of everyone she loves at risk, does she have what it takes to stand, or will she fall?

Poor Kiva really goes through it in this book. But I can certainly say I deeply admire her courage. Her vulnerabilities made her stronger and she embraced them over the course of the book, allowing them to become her strengths. She faced many challenges but despite the lows, and the absolute rock bottoms, she continued on - trusting herself and those around her to keep going, to keep moving forward. I could relate to some of the darker moments Kiva went through which endeared her further to me. She’s definitely a favourite character of mine.
I must admit that Jaren annoyed me for a lot of this book. Sure he was going through a lot - particularly with what happened at the end of the previous book - but did he need to be such an ass about it? Hell no! I forgave him a little bit since he was dealing with something monumental and I’ve always liked him in the previous books but oof. It was certainly an experience to see him behave so differently to the prince we know.
Caldon never ceases to impress, annoy and endear me. He doesn’t lose his sunny disposition despite everything thrown in his, and the group’s, direction. I definitely would mind such a delightfully sarcastic and wildly protective friend in my life!
Cresta was an unexpected but delightful addition to our motley crew! It was fun getting to see a different side to her hard exterior and watch her let loose with everyone. Her support of Kiva was incredibly touching and I almost wish we got to see even more of it!
Of course I can’t forget to mention Tipp and Naari as well! Absolutely brilliant characters that have my heart. I need more and more of them please!

All I can say is WOW. What. A. Book. I don’t think I could have asked for a better conclusion to this trilogy. I have been obsessed with the books from the beginning and I am thrilled that this one didn’t disappoint! We get an epic quest. Familiar characters become favourite characters. I JUST LOVE IT. I feel I don’t have the words to describe just how much I enjoyed this book. The ending, I must say, was absolute perfection. I laughed, I cried. There’s no better way to read a book than become so immersed that you scarcely notice time passing as you go on an epic journey with the characters - and that’s exactly what this book (and this series) delivered.

Overall, The Blood Traitor is an exquisite end to a series I truly love and adore!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you again to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of this book. Review will be live on my blog on 13th June.

Oh how excited I was to read this book! "The Blood Traitor" is the third book in Lynette Noni's Prison Healer series, and I very much loved the first and second book. They were highlights of the ya fantasy genre in 2021 for me, and I just loved the world and the characters. So obviously, my expectations were high for this final chapter in Kiva's story - and maybe they were too high after all. Maybe they're the reason this might turn out to be on my list of most disappointing reads this year.

Now, don't get me wrong, this is in no way a bad book. "The Blood Traitor" has an exciting overall story, great characters, some much needed (but a little hollow) world building and a happy ending that I enjoyed. The writing is still great, though I could have easily lived without the constant referring to gold-blue or emerald eyes. but that's just something I don't like in any story, so it's highy personal.

Where the book fails, for me, is in its pacing, its focus and the character development.

The story is exciting and it begins with a bang. There is not just one big bad, no, there are two! And they are both equally menacing. I liked that the book started right where the last one ended, making it an almost seamless continuation. The first few chapters do feel a little rushed though, especially compared to what comes after. It's a classic fantasy quest storyline, but it's told in such a slow, inconsistent way that the actual quest part of it starts to drag pretty soon.
This isn't helped by the fact that the book never actually focuses on the story itself, that the immediate threat looming over them never feels so threatening because most of the time is spent on - and I say this with love for my girl Kiva - a giant pity party. Half of the book is about Kiva suffering and then people telling other people about Kiva's suffering so they can pity her, or Kiva telling them about her suffering while on drugs so they can pity her, or people ACCIDENTALLY walking in on Kiva half naked with her so-far-secret wounds on display so they can pity her.
Now, Kiva goes through a lot. She is traumatised, and it was handled pretty well in the last book. I even wanted some more of it. I do feel like Noni is just throwing more horrible things at her this time around just so people go "poor poor Kiva" even more. There was no need for the abuse scene, it was entirely unnecessary, just to name one example. And while I liked Kiva dealing with her trauma, her inner monologues were written in such a heavyhanded way that I seriously, seriously got annoyed with her. Kiva's self-loathing becomes over the top and nonsensical at some point. At the end of the book I was honestly glad to be done with her, and that is coming from someone who used to call her one of the better ya heroines.

The heavyhandedness also extends to the way her suffering is found out by the people she cares about - those examples you see above? They aren't exaggerations. That is literally, honestly, the way it is written in this book. Other people tell her story while the entire group is in a room together, with Kiva not giving consent to her story being told and feeling constantly uncomfortable, just so everyone - but most of all her love interest, Jaren - can pity her. She gets high and accidentally tells the entire group her deepest darkest feelings and all the ways she was hurt, and then is embarassed the day after. Jaren walks in on her in just the moment her burns are on display. It is so incredibly heavyhanded and OBVIOUS that these scenes purely exist so that everyone can pity Kiva once again that I actually laughed out loud when Kiva said "I don't want your pity" one time. Yeah girl, tell that to your author.
And that is most of the plot. When the focus finally shifts towards, you know, the actual story being told, as in the fight against the two Big Bads, I was, I think, around 75% into the book. And the remaining 25% were rushed. The pacing was never an issue in the books before, so I was really surprised this time around. There are some twists, the biggest one very predictable, but they're still fun to read, so that was done really well.

Now, the characters. This book is about Kiva, but it does have a lot of great, intriguing characters. Caldon is still my favourite, though more on him later on. Tipp is my baby, Naari is queen, and I absolutely ADORE Cresta. Cresta is this book's standout character for me, and baby girl can do now wrong. Generally, she's also the one that gets the most character development - and I dare say, the one that gets an actual personality. The other new additions to the group remain one-sided and flat, I feel nothing about them. One is more or less just a throwback character from the first book who has no bearing on anything at all, the other is a character mentioned before but has very little bearing on anything at all either, and the third one is a character from Torell and Kiva's past that is very predictable and has about one personality trait. Then there's Zuleeka, the sister who betrayed Torell and Kiva in the last book. I was SO excited to delve into their sibling relationship, to see how this betrayal effects them all. It was probably the relationship I was most excited about - there's nothing. Zuleeka appears right at the end, and there is no actual exploration of her character. It's all very black and while. The characters in general lack depth, and this is my biggest and most surprising complaint, because while character development was never this series' strong suit, the character writing itself has been very enjoyable so far.

The relationships are on par with this lack of depth. The falling out between Jaren and Kiva is dragged out to the max until it seriously doesn't make sense anymore for them to not just get together already, which makes a romance I was actually really into just... a borefest in the end. I don't need a focus on romance, I prefer my fantasy books with a dash of romance but focus on characters or plot or world building, depending on the book. But romance is pretty big in this last part of the trilogy, so the relationships should work for the reader. For me, they sadly don't, though there are some cute scenes between Kiva and Jaren later on. Most of their scenes are just frustrating.

The other two side relationships... oh man. Missed opportunies all around - or one missed opportunity, though it must have been a very conscious choice by the author that I simply do not understand because it actively takes away LGBTQ representation that was already teased before.
This seems to be a pretty queerfriendly world, though it's never explicitely stated as such. Princess Mirryn (who has one big scene in this one) is in love with a princess from another country, and noone really seems to mind that much, but it's also not talked about beyond the circle of characters we know. Because we never actually see these two characters interact and their romance is over due to circumstance, we can't really count that as representation. We barely spend time with either of them.
The previous book, "The Gilded Cage", finally teased some more representation with Prince Caldon openly appreciating Kiva's brother, the rebel leader Torell. The teasing wasn't subtle, Kiva herself reacts to it, so most people probably expected something to happen there. It seems to have been nothing more than baiting though, because Noni chose, for some reason, to add two women to the group in book 3 so that both of these men can just romance them instead. One of these women, Ashlynn, could have been cut from the book altogether without it making much of an impact. The two relationships blossoming from that choice are pretty lackluster - and I say this as someone who loves both Caldon and Cresta, but come on. It was almost comical - two women join the group, suddenly everyone is in an m/f love story. It was a very on the nose decision by the author.
There is an ace, maybe aro-ace character reveal, but this character appears one time in this book and it was never mentioned in book 2, where she was more prominent, so that's no real representation either. Some pretty confusing choices were made that took away from the relationships.

So what to take away from all this? It's probably that I shouldn't have high expectations for third books in a trilogy anymore, because I have been disappointed a lot, lately.
The world is still great, the ideas are cool, I loved traveling to these other countries (and would have loved to spend more time there!), and most of my faves remain my faves. But pacing and focus issues, rushed plotlines, lack of character development and general character writing and some questionable at best choices about romances make this a 2.5 for me, rounding up to 3 purely because I loved the first two books so much.

This was a great ending to a series I really loved! Kiva’s journey was definitely not easy and had my emotions all over the place! It was just as fast paced as the previous books and I didn’t want to put it down! There were some great surprises and some not so great ones, but I loved every second! Caldon and Jaren are still my favorites, but it was nice to add Cresta and Ashlyn to the gang as well! The ending had me worried for a little but it was very satisfying and I’m going to miss these characters! I will gladly read any and all spin-offs!

This book is the stunning conclusion to one of my favourite fantasy series. Thank you Lynette Noni for writing this incredible story.

The Blood Traitor follows Kiva, back in Zalindov again, as she battles new and old enemies with the help of some unexpected characters along the way. There is a quest (!) (we love a quest) and we are introduced to more of the somewhat troubled kingdoms of Wenderall.

First off, the writing felt different than the previous books to me, I couldn't put my finger on it - more mature maybe? This book is very action packed, there's less build up and lots happens in a short amount of time. There are lots of new faces, but with Kiva back in Zalindov, we're reunited with some old ones. Cresta is back and boy I did not expect to like her so much. Jaren was a bit of a lil b*tch at times though and I wanted to strangle him for how mean he was being to Kiva. The group dynamic was excellent and I enjoyed seeing how close they all got (found family trope??). Caldon is still an absolute babe though and if there is ever a Caldon spin-off Lynette, you can take all of my money. The twists, the turns, the betrayal !!! Insane and perfect, just incredible.

There was one point where I cried and hard, my reaction was along the lines of *how DARE you!!!* and *this b*tch gonna get slapped*. But all was resolved and the ending was just perfect. (Rooke got exactly what he deserved *insert me cackling*). I loved this trilogy and I will miss these characters so much. Everyone should read these books.

This book was one of my most anticipated reads of this year and I am so thankful to Hodder and NetGalley for the chance to review this book.