Genre/Tags: Romantasy, Supernatural, Paranormal, TW: Violence, Death, Gore

Author: Callie Hart

Story Rating: 5 Stars

Narrator: Anthony Palmini & Stellar Bloom

Narrator Rating: 5 Stars

Length: 24 hours & thirty minutes

Audiobook Buy Links: Audible, Callie Hart

After finishing listening to Brimstone all I can say is Callie Hart’s mind is wild. Seriously. I also love the apropos quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the beginning~

~”Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

Saeris is now the ‘King Killer,’ having dispatched Malcolm at the end of Quicksilver – he was the cruel but long running king of the vampiric Sanasrothian Blood Court. So she’s thrust into the Court’s politics and shenanigans at Ammontraíeth. Like having a coronation to become their new – very much disliked – queen that ends in complete chaos. One of the 5 vampire lords, Ereth, gets Kingfishered for disrespecting Saeris and I was good with that. I was also good with Saeris coat-hangering the melodramatically painful Zovena – one of Malcolm’s lackies – then using a chair to sit over the top of her. That’s what you get for trying to incessantly undermine our girl Saeris. It’s good to see her holding her own, be it in Yvelia, Sanasroth, Cahlish, and beyond. She still feels the fear and does it anyway. Saeris made me want to continue my Fae & Alchemy series journey with her and the sexy AF Kingfisher right by her side.    

This book does a lot of travelling in terms of places and events. There’s a lot of names – some that go the distance, some that don’t. I wouldn’t recommend picking this book up without having read Quicksilver. The author does give you some reminders of book #1 but not enough to help you plumb the depths of attachment that start in book #1 and build here. About 50% is spent in the realm of the Blood Court, sometimes zipping out via a shadow portal. There’s the different vampire lords, the enemy of Kingfisher, but he’s her mate, so they have to deal. Among them, there are two who were once in Kingfisher’s inner sanctum – the wary Foley and the resourceful Taladaius. Over the centuries, Taladaius had risen through the ranks to become one of the five lords. He was the Keeper of Secrets to Malcolm. Foley has shunned the vampiric lifestyle and lived predominantly in the Sanasrothian library for about seven-hundred-years. Then there’s the interesting vampire lord who is not a vampire. The Hazrax.  

The last of its kind. It is twice as old as anything else that draws breath in Yvelia. Taladaius had been oddly vague when he’d spoken of the Hazrax. It was not Fae, but it wasn’t vampire, either.

Again, there are numerous beings that are in and out of Saeris’ and Kingfisher’s lives. Satyrs. Witches. Feeders. Fire sprites. Fae. Vampire. Others I won’t mention. But I will mention Onyx, the little snow fox that collected Saeris in book #1. He’s here again and adds some truly heart-stopping moments for this animal lover. 

And now he was being chased across the dead fields of Sanasroth by a horde of feeders. He must have been tired and ready to give up, but he was still coming. For her. And I was not about to let that little fox die.

I swear no one can either sleep, be poisoned, or killed without there being a metaphor, prophecy or doom riddle attached.

“They’re going to . . . destroy her, you know? It has already . . . been seen. This court will . . . fall . . . with her inside it.” His lips twisted, either a grin of relief or a sneer of contempt, I couldn’t tell.
“Saeris is safe,” I snapped. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”
But the vampire just laughed. Rasping, hacking barks of laughter.  

Honestly, can no one just die quietly? Poor Everlayne is in a coma and demons or dead parents are on speed dial through her. And Saeris and Kingfisher can now sleep connect – helloooo, huntsman’s cabin. Then the Wicker Wood. 

At the foundation of Brimstone is the necrotic rot that is killing thousands and swallowing up large tracts of land. Brimstone seems to be the answer to the problem but the only place it’s found in their realm is among the fire sprite pyres. It’s their lifeblood and Fisher is not using his friends’ supply. There will be another way. Anyone who’s heard a hellfire and brimstone sermon from the pulpit of a church can possibly think of a big old clue. However, where Hart takes KF and Saeris, that last chapter, was something. 

Another arc involves Kingfisher and Carrion Swift going back to Zilvaren to actually retrieve Hayden Fane this time. To also snatch & grab a whole lot of silver for alchemical weapons-making. Carrion and Kingfisher trauma bond over their time spent there. Kingfisher hated the heat but that was the least of their problems. They had to both deal with Joshin and the toxin fever dreams from that, uh… experience.   

Carrion remains funny and irreverent and I love that about him, but he also had a couple of moments where his lineage hit home. It was nice to see him and Kingfisher getting along. That he’s the rightful heir to the Fae throne is important and something that was fleshed out more in this book. There are still a number of other threads that are left open, because series.   

The Relationship: Hart raised the level of Saeris and Kingfisher’s interpersonal heat, trust, faith. While Saeris was totally and utterly finding her way in Quicksilver, and the relationship between her and Kingfisher started off pretty rough, here they are very much a power couple with different skillsets, ones which see-saw in different but equally dynamic ways. She’s certainly more confident in this book, although she has a crown, the world, and some gods resting on her shoulders, all while coming into her unique half Fae/half vampire self. And in amongst it all, Saeris declares her love.   

Kingfisher’s love is clear and obvious in Brimstone. Saeris grounds him and for the first time since losing his mother, which was a long time ago, he has someone he thoroughly trusts and loves deeply, feeling deeply loved in return. 

He’s still his possessive self but he’s all for her holding her own and is proud of the way she has compassion alongside a fire that burns within her. That no matter his past, no matter what’s occurred, Saeris has his back.   

He swallowed, giving a tiny shake of his head. “I’ve killed more people than I can count. I lost the parts of myself that knew how to feel anything other than pain and sorrow centuries ago. But for better or worse, you have brought me back to life.”

Saeris was basically alone back in Zilvaren, nearly died there, had to look after a (clearly ungrateful) brother. Now she has someone who would do literally anything he could for her. She’s grateful for their fateful paths crossing. For a sense of family. And Kingfisher is not the only one who would burn the world down.  

These motherfuckers had taken my mate. They had him trapped here, I knew it. They had officially fucked up, and boy, were they about to pay.

Another major arc is Saeris’ multi-runes that mark her skin now, not solely the original Gods-Bound markings. They’re literally causing her pain. She is unintentionally dangerous because the runes are currently unsealed, including her quicksilver and Alchimeran shield runes. There is much more to come – like what the runes fully do, more on the quicksilver pools, where the alchemy will take her. She’s more comfortable with the quicksilver and multi-metals, which is unusual because she’s a hybrid Fae-vampire, iron and silver are not usually their friend. Thank goodness Foley’s back. His family was littered with Alchemists. I’m glad the two men who have spent a long time away from their friends are back and that new characters are interwoven, for good or bad. I’m sure we’ll see more of Taldaius at some point.

Edina of the Seven Towers, aka Fisher’s deceased mother, left a book for Saeris. Edina was a powerful oracle who foretold a woman coming into her son’s life like a meteor. She drew her a thousand years ago. The book is prophesy that Saeris cannot read out of order, and more importantly, must be read as needed. Not always easy when your prophesy is on a need-to-know basis and you’re not always sure when you need to know, and sometimes you’re running away or toward things. Pffft, prophesy.   

“It’s hidden,” she rasped, “among the stars.”
“What does that mean?”
“The stars . . .” Edina’s eyes rolled back into her head.

I had two problems with this book-

1. This male.
2. My mate or just mate  

They’re both overused and both pulled me out of the story at times. It’s a long book and the author does repeat things, some probably in case the reader puts the book down, forgetting parts of it while actually finding time to sleep 😀 It’s quite feasible because a LOT happens in Brimstone… including some name changes. However, mate or male could have easily been pared back. At the end of the day, that’s the only niggle I’ve got.     

Overall: 

I liked Brimstone more than Quicksilver, and I loved that book. So that equals big love for Brimstone. The narrators help. Dear lord, are they good. Anthony Palmini has the sexiest voice narrating Kingfisher. Secondary characters are also well done. Stella Bloom has a beautiful and clear voice, full of emotion. They do say ‘performed by’ on the cover and that’s correct, Bloom and Palmini give a performance. Yet again, the overall production value was top notch. These are two of the best audiobooks I’ve heard. I was completely immersed as I listened to this of a nighttime. It’s taken me forever to get around to reviewing the audiobook but it deserves a review because it is so damn good. Hart poured a ton of love into Brimstone and I felt every bit of it as I read. For all the enjoyment and the rollercoaster moments, for the love, for the worldbuilding, for the imagination, for that ending, 5 Stars! I cannot wait for the next series book.