What an amazing ending to such a great trilogy. Charlie Holmberg once again did not disappoint! Siege and Sacrifice picks up where Myths and Mortals left off and grabs your attention from the start. With action and danger in every chapter, this thrilling conclusion ended perfectly. I was so excited to receive this book months before publication.

I was incredibly lucky to receive Smoke and Summons from Amazon First Reads, Myths and Mortals from Goodreads Giveaways, and finally to receive Siege and Sacrifice from Netgalley. I can't wait to purchase them all in hardcover and add them to my Charlie N. Holmberg collection.

Siege and Sacrifice was the perfect ending to the Numina trilogy! I have read every novel that Charlie Holmberg has published, and I have enjoyed all of them. This trilogy has surprised me in all the best ways. It has been so different from all of Holmberg's other novels, but it still has her signature magical flair.

Siege and Sacrifice in particular was incredible! It tied up all the loose ends while providing a rich backstory for the Numen, the Angelic, and more. It was so interesting to learn how everything started. The world building was just amazing.

Rone and Sandis did not disappoint. They got themselves into more impossible situations and their relationship continued to blossom through their attempts to save each other and the city that they can't wait to leave behind.

I read this series so quickly that all I want to do is start again and savor every nuance. Holmberg is such a beautiful wordsmith and I look forward to her future novels.

I love Charlie Holmberg's books and this one was no exception.
It's well written, engaging and entertaining. The cast of characters is fleshed out, the plot flows seamlessly.
I look forward to the next book by Ms Holmberg.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Book – Siege and Sacrifice
Author – Charlie N. Holmberg
Series – Numina Trilogy #3
Publication Date – September 17, 2019
Genre – Fantasy
Rating – 5 out of 5 Stars

Complimentary copy generously provided by the author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts - Story

I started out with a 4.5 Star rating but the more and more I thought about this whole trilogy and especially the ending of such a fantastical story….I had to bump up my rating to a PERFECT 5.

I devoured these books and was completely engrossed with the story of Sandis and the numen. The characters in this series are ones that will stay with me for such a long time and live in a special place in my heart.

And what was the best part of this book? We finally get a voice to Ireth and when everything all comes together…it gave my goosebumps…and still does when I think about it.

This is a series I would recommend and speak about to anyone who would give me the time or day…there are a few authors that I tell anyone who is an avid reader to try out…and after this series, Ms. Holmberg has made that list!

Reason for Reading – NetGalley choice and I love this author
Story – 5 out of 5 Stars
Steam – 5 out of 5 Stars
Angst – 5 out of 5 Stars
Writing – 5 out of 5 Stars
Content Flow – 5 out of 5 Stars
Would Read More from Author? Definitely
Recommend To – Fantasy lovers

This was a satisfying end to a trilogy I so thoroughly enjoyed. I'm a huge fan of Ms. Holmberg's work and endlessly fascinated by the words she creates. Fully fleshed out characters with weakness, doubts, scars and love. I did not want to say goodbye. (Read ARC via NetGalley but honest opinions are mine).

This was a really nice ending to the Numia series from Holmberg. When I started reading, I thought it was going to wrap up nicely with a bow and then there was a twist and I realized I was only halfway through. It was a nice surprise to see how she managed to shift the story and make it more complex in a pleasing way and then close it all up without being too convienent. If you enjoyed the previous two in the series, definitely finish it off with this one. If you haven't read them, do that first or you'll be a little lost since there is so much world building you'll need to understand this storyline.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.

"Siege and Sacrifice" by Charlie N. Holmberg was a great end to the series, probably the best of the three of them. I like how all the questions raised through the trilogy all tied together into one big answer. All of Charlie's kissing scenes are top notch. And I've always loved how good she is at metaphysical realms like the heart section of Paper Magician—this books has parts like that too, and it's almost her trademark at this point. The character arc for the Angelic was one of my favorite parts, and it had a really satisfying ending. There was a lot of excitement all throughout, and it was just a complete, satisfying adventure fantasy story all around.

I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A satisfying and exciting end to the Numina trilogy. Holmberg expands her world-building for the epic conclusion and adds more history to the rich world she's created. Rone and Sandis are both pushed past the breaking point and will have to decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to save their city from Kolosos. Rone will have to reconcile his feelings about his father, the angelic. Sandis will have to fight her own brother who is being used as vessel. Shocking twists, terrible secrets, and forbidden magic make this final book impossible to put down.

Thank you to 47North and NetGalley for the eARC copy of this book, provided for my honest review.

I absolutely devoured this trilogy. Now, I'd done the same with The Paper Magician trilogy and The Plastic Magician as well, and I find I just adore Charlie Holmberg's way of writing and story telling. The Numina trilogy was no disappointment.

The lore of this trilogy is just amazing, and you get so much of it in this third volume. Just about any question you might have raised from the first two volumes is answered in this third one. The only question I still have is what becomes of Bastien after everything - I suppose he does what he says he's going to, at least I can hope that's the case.

I read through this volume in about 4.5 hours (I am a speed reader, I read the second book in the trilogy on the same day in about the same amount of time), and, honestly, I can't complain about the story in the slightest. Having a background in writing and literature with training on how to predict the way stories will go and turns that they might take had me guessing some of the outcomes early, I still wasn't disappointed in the routes taken with story telling. Everything flows naturally together and I wasn't left wanting for anything at the end. Sometimes, even good stories leave you longing for more, but I have to say the end of this trilogy was very satisfying indeed. Everything gets sorted fairly neat and tidy-like.

An absolutely stunning conclusion to the trilogy, and I'm sure that fans of the first two books will not be disappointed at all by the conclusion presented in the third book. Every character played an important part, whether for good or for ill. The sacrifices and decisions made by the characters has weight to it, and those decisions are important for those characters. Holmberg's writing, as usual, has wonderful character development.

Through it all, you feel the weight of the decisions made, the sacrifices that each character makes throughout the telling of their stories. For me, however, one of the things that had me turning page after page was the sheer amount of lore present in these books. I'm an avid fan of Comparative Religion and Religious theory, and stories like this just pique my interest with the mirroring of real-world religions. I could find a good few parallels to real-world religions, and the similarities fascinate me.

Don't get me wrong, this is by no means a story that is trying to tell you to be religious, Holmberg isn't trying to push off a set of novels in a way that forces you to believe in some sort of God. Religion is merely a means of transportation for this tale, and it is an important vessel for the telling of it. The Numina are akin to Angels and Demons, with a God-figure and a God-Antithesis figure (I don't want to call him the Devil, though he certainly fills the role well enough). The war between the two has been raging for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and it all culminates to this one snippet in time that these novels present for our reading pleasure.

Throughout the trilogy the characters both rely and question their faith, or the faith of others in the face of the dangers and trials they're presented with. In the end, it isn't their God, the Angels, the Demons, or the Devil who wins the day, but the people who sacrifice and try for the sake of their world and their loved ones. Even without the religious notes of the story, I think the trilogy provides a good and sound message: Don't rely on faith. It can only carry you so far, you have to do the rest for yourself.

Aside from that, the characters are quite loveable. Bastien with his dad-jokes, Rist with his prickly nature, Roan is essentially Flynn Rider from Tangled (and I love it), and Sandis is... she's wonderful. Each of the main characters brings something to the story that the other characters may have been lacking, and the tale is that much stronger for it.

Overall, if you enjoy action, adventure, romance, magic, and a touch of religion... well, the Numina Trilogy has just what you want. Beautifully written, and absolutely enthralling. I enjoyed every minute of my wander through the world with Roan and Sandis as my guides - even when I was crying (I'm not crying, you're crying).

Thank you so much to 47North and NetGalley for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own! I was honestly SO excited for this book, I was screaming at the end of Myths and Mortals and am thoroughly excited and honored to read this ahead of it's publication date!

I will omit the description due to spoilers for the first two books!

This is such an amazing conclusion to the Numina trilogy. Holmberg brought in a lot more lore in this book and finally explained the origin of the Numen. It is a sad and little bit heartbreaking story, but the sea (of) people at the end of the book made me so happy and we finally got to meet Ireth.

Rone and Ireth carried this book for me, along with the rest of the numen. Most of the action centered around these two and they made a great team in the ethereal plane. Bastien was another great character with his well of courage and terrible dad jokes. Bastien surprised me at the end, the vessels were being set up to become slaves all over again and he risked it in order to feel useful somewhere. My only loose end is wondering how he made out in the end!

The other thing I love is the Angelic's role, his sacrifices, and all of the lore surrounding his role that was explained. I think that whole scene was the first time I teared up while reading this. The Celestial and Kolosos have a great story too. The whole book is a great story, have I mentioned that I love all the lore yet?

The book IS full of lore but is also fully action packed , I think I blew through it in a 36 hour time period and will definitely be re reading the series at some point when I can afford to take it slower.

Thank you again to the publisher and NetGalley for the early copy!

(It is too early to post the blog link but I will post the link here about 2 weeks prior to publication!)

This book is the reason why I signed up to NetGalley in the first place, and I was only in the middle of the second book, Myths and Mortals, when I was too excited to wait a few months for it's release.

I'm going to start by saying it took me about a week to read all three books.

This last one only took me a day to read and is definitely my favorite of the trilogy. It dug it's metaphorical claws into me due to the end of Myths and Mortals and I finished that one at midnight the night before and I was so excited to read this book, I barely slept and when I did sleep, it was terribly.

The excitement was very much worth it because I ate this book up. It answered questions I didn't even know that I had! But I absolutely love this story, the characters, the relationships, the character building and the world itself.
I usually hate YA books these days, just because it only seems to be about the romance and there isn't usually much character development, but this series, the romance is more of a background aspect, which I love, because it doesn't overwhelm you with sap and tears and blah.

This entire book is like the meat and potatoes of the trilogy, there is never a dull moment and the entirety of it is heart pounding and heart gripping. You can't help asking yourself "What now? What the hell are you going to do now?!"

In a way, this book also felt completely different from the other two just because of all the chaos and darkness. It was very epic in the sense that it seemed very final. Like it was all or nothing. Which it is.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this series to any fantasy lover and I will definitely be buying the box set when it's available to add to my collection.

The wrap up of the trilogy. I'd long awaited and for the first time was slightly eh about one of her stories. Not that it was bad. It wraps up things well. There were some good twists as well. I think I just had too high expectations. Several sections I just found my mind wandering. Be sure to read these in order. It's an interesting story overall with great characters as always.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for honest review.

I absolutely loved this! I found it to be the perfect ending to this series. In the previous books, I found the lacking of information frustrating, and in this book, all of my questions had satisfying answers. I don't want to give too much away, but I was pleasantly caught off guard by different plot twists that pushed this book forward. While I felt that the world building struggled in the first book, and improved in the second, the third book was really able to smooth out any rough edges that were left. I loved the resolution, and honestly, would LOVE even more in this world now that it has been solidly built up! If you liked the first two books, you will really enjoy the finale!!

📚 review 📚Siege & Sacrifice by Charlie N. Holmberg.
Sandis and Rone are caught is an all out war started by Kazen as he releases the most powerful numen anyone has seen. They must gather forces to battle the creature or face the destruction of the world.

Sandis and Rone return to save the world. Faith is tested and bonds are forged. I really like that this book brought about more characters and showed that adversity bring out the best and worst in people. I like the revelations that crisis brought up and how faith and knowledge are put to a test for everyone. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I

Normally, endings to YA novels leave me wanting more or being frustrated with the author for the way they wrapped up the story. This is not the case with this book!! It picks up right where the second book ended. Holmberg addresses everything question you have from the series, although she does it organically and you barely notice as it's happening.

The story is engaging and I had trouble putting the book down to sleep. Holmberg paints their world so clearly that you almost feel like you can see the battles raging Watching Sandis and Rone grow throughout the series, and especially in this last book, was incredible. Each character also has realistic reactions to what's going on around them (Sandis is a little cool headed for a teenage girl, but it makes me like her better). I loved how Rist reacted in the final chapter. It was realistic and fit his character perfectly.

Holmberg has absolutely cemented herself as one of my favorite authors with this series.

This was a nice ending to the story, and things came to a natural and expected conclusion. It felt a bit too obvious in parts and left too little to the reader to derive for themselves, but overall I was pleased with how everything came together.

I felt like I was on the back of a galloping horse riding for my life or the life of my beloved, while reading this book. Of course, in this story you can’t ride the back of the horse because he is inflamed. This trilogy had me on the edge of my seat and Siege and Sacrifice did not disappoint me.
I thought this was such a satisfying conclusion to The Numina Series. It picks up right after Myths and Mortals ends, so you are shot right into the middle of an intense action sequence. There is so much running in this series that it really made me want to get off my lazy butt and run to get in better shape.
This book checks everything I seek in a book: fantasy/magic, some romance, characters with personality. I adore Sandis and Rone and I care how their story turns out. I read this one in about three days because I could not put it down.
One of the aspects of this book that I really liked was that Charlie Holmberg was able to give more information and backstory to what the numina are, how an amarinth was created, and other details about the world she created all while moving the story along in a really organic manner. Holmberg really has a knack for creating monsters, so much so I am really looking forward to seeing fan art that comes out for this series.
I can't recommend this series enough! I would love to see something similar to what the author did in The Paper Magician series with The Plastic Magician, where the heroine makes a cameo. Give us a little peek into what happens next!

A spectacular end to the series has left me thinking.. what am I going to read next, nothing could hook me this much. Between reading the second and third book I would often find myself thinking, 'what next??' ' how will this finish?!'.

I will miss this series (until I re-read it again and again!) but I am so excited for what Holmberg is going to do next. But I know after this series and Paper Magician, it is going to be great!

Satisfying ending to the trilogy. The dread numen Kolosos has been summoned and threatens to destroy the world. Can Sandis, Rone, and their friends unravel the secrets behind the numen and stop him? If yes, at what cost? I’m a fan of Charlie Holmberg’s work (starting with the Paper Magician) and this very different and much darker fantasy trilogy was also enjoyable. Quick read, satisfying ending. If you liked the first two books in the trilogy you will like this one too

I'm glad I got to read the end of this series, although I didn't like this book as much as the first two. It's a lot more complex, and not really in a way that seems to make much sense. Still, you get to find out what happened to all the characters, so it is satisfying.