Too much happens for it to flow or get involved with. Some good character stuff, but not enough for the sheer avalanche of event. And nothing much of wonder. ( )

This is the final book in the Court of Fives trilogy. Court of Fives is a 2017 Lone Star novel, so you know it’s good! This is one of my favorite trilogies because it’s well-written and interesting..

The commoners desire to overthrow the ruling class, the Saroese, so Jessamy needs to choose her side. She has a foot in each world, as she is half Saroese and half Efean, a Fives competitor, and the future king’s girlfriend. She doesn’t like how the Patron’s have abused her people for so long--killing them even. She also doesn’t want her father, the Saroese general, to be disgraced or for Kal, the prince, to be killed in overthrowing the government.

The situation between the two groups comes to a head in this novel. Can the Efeans attain freedom without becoming over-powerful, like the Saroese? Jessamy is at the center of the plotting, trying to avoid being captured. Kal’s uncle still considers her his property. He wants her for money and to manipulate her; if need be, he will arrange for her death. Kal, meanwhile, needs to be king if there’s any hope of survival for anyone. Jessamy has many rings turning and just needs to make sure she can plot the course without losing anyone she holds dear.

When I began the trilogy, I had a hard time dealing with the way the Efeans were treated, especially the women, by the Patrons. What I like is that Jessamy is smart enough to be believable. Often in young adult books, the main character will drive me nuts because she fumbles her way through (or he) and really displays stupidity and ends up letting luck make the plot work. Jessamy’s character is consistent--she is very much capable and is very smart, which makes all that happens more believable. Also, the plot is well done. I do think they travel about a lot to try and advance the plot, which is less believable. This is one of the better trilogies, and you are missing out if you choose not to read it. ( )

With Efea threatened by foreign forces and internal divisions, Jessamy has to choose a side.

It would be so easy for this story to have shifted its focus away from Jes’s family and her career as a Fives adversary. But in spite of the war and revolution, in spite of the events which separate her from her family, what the story keeps circling back to the people and the game Jes loves.

And they are all so thematically relevant to Efea’s political situation. In numerous ways, her family represent the complicated relationships, tensions and conflicted loyalties of the Saroese and the Efeans. The potential for love and for betrayal, for potential for power to wielded wisely or misused. This trilogy is also the story of a highborn Patron family using Jes’s family to further consolidate their own power, and of the way Jes’s family fight against that.

As for the Fives, the Fives is not just a game.

I loved Buried Heart. It is tense and surprising, and I was so invested that at one point I realised I was shaking. There are a lot of things I appreciated, like the role Jes’s mother gets to play, the way it handles the inevitable love-triangle, and the thoughtful way it navigates that revolutions are not easy answers.
And it pulls all the pieces of the narrative - well, nearly everything - together in a way that is realistic, hopeful, a little bit heartbreaking and kind of epic.

“As you and Bett got older, you started agreeing with everything Father did and said, as if Mother had no part in the success of the household, while Bett began complaining that Mother just gave in to him and did everything the way he wanted. But actually, it’s just that Mother never argues in the Saroese manner, with a winner and loser. She negotiates and finds ways people can share. Ways we can live with dignity and happiness. Because we were happy then, Jes. Mother and Father were genuinely happy. That’s what’s so sad about it all.”
I’m too choked up to answer her, so I just stare at the mesmerising swirls and eddies of the current. Isn’t this movement, which never ceases and never repeats, the essence of Rivers? Even when you are trying to stand still you are nevertheless in motion. The past clings to us as we hold tight to our regrets and our pain and to the gardens of joy we wish could bloom forever. Yet the current drags us ever forward into the future whose true face we will never see until we take the next step, where every step is a new unmasking.

This trilogy is going on my list of favourite audiobooks. They’re really well done. ( )

BURIED HEART was a good conclusion to the Court of Fives trilogy. Jessamy is torn between her Seroese father and her Afean mother in a culture ruled by the Seroese. As a mixed blood person, she is not accepted in the Seroese culture except that she is an excellent player in the game of fives which obsesses Patron and Commoner alike. She is also beloved of Kalliarkos who is very closely related the the rulers of the country which doesn't endear her to either group of people.

She needs to decide where her loyalties lie since she knows that there is a revolution brewing among the Commoners and lots of intrigue among the Patrons will have an impact on Kalliarkos. Since she was instrumental in freeing her mother, her siblings, and their servants from being entombed alive with a dead Patron by Lord Gargaron, she is in extreme danger. When Lord Gargaron captures her and stuffs her in a barrel (which hits just about all of my panic buttons), he forces her to help him woo armies from other countries that he wants to help him take control of the country. He puts Jessamy in a isolated mining prison to keep her until he needs her again. This is where she really becomes a revolutionary for Efea as she coordinates a prison takeover and escape.

The story has interesting revelations, lots of battles, lots of plotting, and a nice romance. Fans of epic fantasy will enjoy this whole trilogy. ( )