After FOUR long years of waiting for this book to come out…I almost didn’t want to read it. I had a hard time seeing the light ahead after the miserable ending of book 4, and I don’t care to read books where there’s no hope.

This series has taken me for a ride. I LOVE Free the Darkness (book 1). I love Reign of Madness (book 2), but I barely enjoyed Legends of Ahn (book 3) for reasons explained in my review for Kingdoms and Chaos (book 4) – which I simply enjoyed.
What I’m saying is, just because I love the first book doesn’t mean this book gets an automatic 5 stars. So, let’s break it down.

What about Mage of No Renown (book 4.5)?

I enjoyed Wesson’s prequel/#4.5 book, Mage of No Renown, and was sure to finish reading that one before jumping into this one. Having finished them both, I’ll say you don’t need to read Mage of No Renown, but it helps. Several places/characters/events of Wesson’s prequel are brought up in Dragons and Demons, but they’re also explained – just in case you didn’t read it.
Beware: if you read Dragons and Demons before Mage of No Renown, you’ll have lots of spoilers. (As if Mage of No Renown wasn’t already spoiled enough because it’s a prequel).

Supposing you’ve read the previous books…

Dragons and Demons finally answers many of the questions presented in books 3, 4, and 4.5. For a refresher, Kingdoms and Chaos (book 4) ended with a lot of major problems:

Tam has a hole in his mind that’s slowly driving him crazy, and he’s been captured as a slaveFrisha and Tieran’s betrayal (yes, I’m calling their romance a betrayal because Frisha didn’t break up with Rezkin first)What the flip–there are two Brandts, and which one is real?After everything he’s been through, Rezkin’s unconscious and dying from a poison dart

Honestly, after setting book 4 aside four years ago, I’d forgotten about two of those. Thankfully, most of those issues are resolved within the first two chapters and the plot of Dragons and Demons truly begins with two problems:

Tam’s predicamentWesson needs to return to Ashai’s Mage Academy to level up and recruit the mages before they’re all taken by crazy King Caydean.Don’t worry, this is all revealed within the first five chapters. I’m keeping this spoiler free.

Because these issues are in different directions, they split the party.
Wesson takes Striker Kai and a couple others to return to Ashai. Of course, Wesson’s “wife,” Celise, stows away to join him.
Rezkin takes Mage Nanessy (who brings Striker Farson), Reaylin (who brings Jimson), Striker Shezar, and Marlis Tomwell to go after Tam.
Actually, it splits again as Rezkin and a friend are abducted via magic to a community of Eihelvanan (yes, they’re elves), where Rezkin finally gets some answers, but is given his most intimidating challenge yet:

Rezkin must learn to have feelings

For the first time in many, many years, Rezkin felt true fear. The prospect of feeling things was more than he could abide.

Chapter 9, “King’s Dark Tidings: Dragons and Demons”

While reading, my mind frequently reflected on Sergey Zagarovski’s beautifully macabre collection of “When Death Fell in Love with Life.”

Unknown titles, by Sergey Zagarovski (When Death Fell in Love with Life Collection) https://www.instagram.com/sergozagarik/Cleanliness vs. Vulgarity

If you’ve made it this far into the series, I’m guessing you don’t mind a lot of violence with a dash of gore. Dragons and Demons is more of the same. We get a fight scene in almost every chapter, ranging from duel practices to bare-handed killing. We also get some fantasy fights with wild cats, demons, and . . . dragons! I would say this is a spoiler, but it’s in the title and cover.
As for the romance, it’s more involved than Legends of Ahn (book 3) (let’s be real, that’s not hard), but less sexual than Kingdoms and Chaos (book 4). There are two passionate kisses on screen, but they only kiss. There’s one instance of off-screen love making, but the descriptions of it are so vague, that for all we know, they simply had a loud hug.
As for crude language, it’s limited to the biblical swears (like d*mn*d, h*ll, and g*d), usually referring to the condition, place, and person(s).

Final Score

As I mentioned above, I don’t love every book in this series, BUT I really enjoyed this one. Yes, Kel Kade made us wait four whole years for this book, but I think he used those years to make this book the best he could. It answered more questions than it presented (unlike books 3&4), had multiple engaging plots, developed the characters we’ve grown to love (particularly Rezkin, Tam, and Wesson), and expanded the world in adventurous ways.
I’m giving it a solid *****5 stars*****

Rating: 5 out of 5.Predictions for Book 6

Yes, there WILL be a book 6.

Without giving any spoilers, the ending of this book left me . . . strangely satisfied. Like, I can end the series right here and imagine their happily ever afters.
Of course, the truth of what’s likely to happen should be such an adventure, that I’m very curious to know how it pans out.

For spoilers and my predictions, highlight the three boxes below.

REZKIN HAS A DRAGON?!?
Okay, I knew this would happen as soon as they explained what the stone necklace was, but I am so psyched for this.
As I’ve said before, “Dragons make everything cooler.”
However, according to the age and size of the baby dragon they saved, I predict Rezkin to lie low with his newfound freedom for a few months, maybe a year.

I expect everyone to scramble about, trying to keep Rezkin’s empire from falling apart while he makes final preparations to kill Caydean, raises his dragon, and seeks how to tame his new demon and use his magic without going insane.
Yes, Caydean’s still alive, but with Berringish gone, the king seems manageable (even if he managed to kill Rezkin).

I predict Frisha’s predicament (which sucks and I have a hard time seeing her way out of it) to be the catalyst that brings Rezkin back to his friends. Or he’ll seek out Wesson to help tame his new inner-demon.

Here’s to hoping the next book doesn’t make us wait another four years.