Blood of Truth and Traitors (The Hirathean Path, Book 3), by Aria Ashbrook | Free Audiobook
Blood of Truth and Traitors (The Hirathean Path, Book 3)Audiobook
The theory that power keeps people safe, and the city where it collapses
For three books now, Rose Kultavaris has been chasing power on the theory that enough of it would keep the people she loves safe. This volume is where the theory collapses. She is standing in a city built of ice and old knowledge, a place where everything she was taught about her own heritage turns out to be a story somebody else wrote for her, and the magic she has spent so long reclaiming is dangerous in ways nobody explained.
Kyor is there too, still holding to a vow that keeps him tied to a crown and a father he cannot defend and cannot leave, which means the two of them keep circling each other without ever closing the distance. Meanwhile the war stops respecting borders: prophecies start coming true in the wrong order, sacred ground gets blood on it, and Rose has to accept a possibility she would rather not look at directly, which is that she was not simply chosen by fate, she was made by it, and things that are made can be taken apart.
It is the third instalment of a dark, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romantasy series, and it picks up directly after the second, so it is not a place to start. The audio edition runs 21 hours and 30 minutes, read by Amanda Leigh Cobb and Anthony Palmini.
Long romantasy series live or die on whether they are willing to take something away from their heroine, and this third volume is where Aria Ashbrook finally does. Rose Kultavaris has spent two books collecting power on the theory that enough of it will keep the people she loves alive, and Blood of Truth and Traitors opens with that theory failing: a hidden city where everything she was taught about her own heritage turns out to have been edited, and magic that is far more dangerous than anyone admitted.
What works best is the pairing of scale and intimacy. The war stops respecting borders, prophecies start arriving out of order and sacred ground gets blood on it, but the emotional spine stays where it should, with two people who cannot simply be together. Kyor is still bound by a vow that ties him to a crown and a father he can neither defend nor abandon, and the tension between them is built on obligation rather than misunderstanding, which is a harder thing to write and a better reason to keep reading. Amanda Leigh Cobb and Anthony Palmini split the two perspectives, and on a book this long the alternation does real work.
The honest caveat concerns pacing, and it is a pattern readers have flagged in this series before. A reviewer at Past Midnight Book Reviews gave the previous volume three and a half stars and said it felt a little bit like filler, with too much back and forth between the leads and the answers about Rose's magic arriving later than promised. At 21 hours and 30 minutes, this instalment is long even by romantasy standards, and the same instinct applies: expect the middle stretches to be carried by atmosphere, banter and the found family rather than by plot momentum. The dire wolves are back, which helps considerably.
If you are new to the series, start earlier, and the earlier volumes are on the site: Web of Vows and Vengeance (Book 1) and Vows of Blood and Deception (Book 2). On Goodreads the series is holding up well, with the second book at 4.39 across more than 23,000 ratings and this one above 4.7 from early readers, which is remarkable for a self-published debut series competing with the big romantasy releases.
Blood of Truth and Traitors is the third book in The Hirathean Path, a dark, spicy slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romantasy series. Rose Kultavaris believed power was the answer, power to protect and to avenge, and this volume is where she finds out she was wrong.
She is standing in a hidden city of ice and knowledge, where nothing is as savage as she was raised to believe, and where everything she thought she knew about her heritage starts coming apart. Kyor is there too, bound by a vow that is strangling them both, while prophecies rise and war crosses borders nobody thought it could cross.
It runs 21 hrs and 30 mins, read by Amanda Leigh Cobb and Anthony Palmini, and it follows directly on from the second book. With the free trial, you can pick any title you want, this one included, cancel whenever you like, and the audiobook stays in your library after the trial ends.
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