ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I was pleasantly surprised by The King of Koraha.

I read The Eyes of Tamburah and The City of Zirdai a few years back and while I wasn't exactly a fan of them, I decided to give this series one last go. I came in with moderate expectations and came out thinking this book was my favourite book of the trilogy.

I think this series was intended to be a duology because the story itself in The King of Koraha felt more like a standalone than a continuation of The City of Zirdai. This book focused on Shyla and Rendor venturing to Koraha to meet the King, discovering that he needs their help. Someone has stolen all his coins by putting in counterfeits and they need Shyla's abilities to find the culprit. With tensions looming and a powerful force using mystical pendants to get more followers to believe in their rebellious cause, the pressure is on for Rendor and Shyla to bring balance and restore the peace.

This book was very fast paced. There seemed to be something happening on every page and there was never a part that was slow or boring. It was edge-of-your-seat level action packed. I remember reading the last 200 pages or so in a day or two because I ended up being so engrossed in the story. There was nothing dull about this book and I really enjoyed going through the story with Shyla and Rendor.

On top of the fast paced action, there was a strong focus on characterisation. Shyla was such a strong, courageous and tenacious character. She was fair, honest and a true leader. I found her inspirational and I hope one day I could be like her. In the previous books, I never felt much towards Rendor but there was a real focus on developing and showing him as a flawed character that I couldn't help but feel like he was real.

All in all, this book was my favourite from the trilogy as it was action packed and there was a lot of focus on building characterisation. I'm excited to read more from Maria V Snyder in the future.

ACTUAL RATING: 4.3 STARS

I absolutly couldn't wait to get stuck into this one! book 3 takes us on a journey across the sands to FINALLY meet the king!!. full of action , mystery and romance! this was such an awesome ending to the series and im sad its over!

I didn't know what to expect from The King of Koraha, especially when I felt like The City of Zirdai was really wrapped up nicely. Of course Maria V Snyder exceeded expectations yet again with a fantastic wrap up to the Archives of the Invisible Swords trilogy!

The King of Koraha saw Shaya and Rendor tackling new troubles and adventures. After responding to a summons by the newly appointed King, Shyla is tasked with finding the cities stolen taxes.

This book explored so many new places and I really enjoyed the continued world building. The suspense and adventure was non-stop and the plot twists always kept me guessing!

I really enjoyed watching the relationship between Shyla and Rendor grow! I really didn't feel a connection to these characters until this book and I think it was well worth the wait! I also really enjoyed the friendship Shyla formed with the King!

As usual this was another fun, fast paced story, and a fantastic conclusion the The Archives of the Invisible Sword. If you are a fan of Maria V Snyder's other series yoy will love this trilogy!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for providing me with this eARC.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Like the first and second books in this series, there is a lot to like about The King of Koraha. The concept of a world ravaged by a climate requiring the populace to live underground feels very necessary. The way they manage to extreme temperature is interesting and worth further exploration. However again, the whole book doesn't really work. The characters still feel very thin and apart from Shyla and maybe Rendor, I couldn't remember any of the characters from the previous books. Even Shyla feels flat apart from her blonde hair and light complexion. Someone mentioned to me that the book was initially written in the first person and rewritten to be in third person. This made more sense to me as the pacing felt a little off.

I won't to be able to recommend these books, but I think there are more satisfying fantasy series out there. However, there are enough good bits that make me glad that I finished the series.

I loved the this, the third book in this series, continuing on with the story of Shyla Sun-Kissed and Rendor and there journey.

Fast paced, very exciting and an epic conclusion to this book series. I love Shyla and Rendor and love that they are always trying to save their city. I love there strength, their relationship. The story flows well and is so well written that I just didn't want to put it down.

This is fantasy at its best!

Maria V. Snyder has done it again with the thrilling ending to the Archives of the Invisible Sword trilogy!

"The King of Koraha" follows Shyla and Rendor as they travel to meet with the King of Koraha. No information was provided to them as to why he has summoned them, but Shyla has a sense of unease and foreboding as she travels. When they arrive, Shyla quickly realises that she is up against powers and enemies she has never before imagined. She must work quickly in order to save her people and ensure peace and safety returns to Koraha.

Quite easily the best series that I had read in 2021 and an absolutely fitting final book. Full of excitement, "The King of Koraha" was an absolute page turner which I could barely put down. As this is the third book of the series, we are well familiar with Shyla and Rendor, so there was increased focus on building up the characters that were new to this book (such as the King). I appreciated the care that was taken to build the personalities and stories of other characters as this added to enjoyment of finding out what would happen to each person in the end.

My particular favourite aspect of this book was that the world of Koraha was explored further. The first two books took place in Zirdai, the city which Shyla lived, with other cities only mentioned in passing. The world building in this story was very interesting, including seeing how different the culture in each city was compared to Zirdai (especially related to each city's opinion of Sun-Kissed people).

The ending of this book was perfect and just what I was hoping for, being completely reasonable and realistic within the scope of the series.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this series this year and am excited to pick up more from Maria V. Snyder in 2022.

I feel like it's been a while since the previous book in this series, but that's incorrect. The previous book, The City of Zirdai, had its release date pushed back by a year because of the pandemic, but this book was released only 6 months after Book #2, which is awesome for me.

I had real problems reading this ARC - it literally killed my Kindle twice (actually three times because I wanted to be sure!) and I had to eventually download the Netgalley app on my phone to read it that way, which I did not enjoy, but I got through it.

I feel like this book had a better plot and much less repetition than the previous two books. Shyla is offered an investigation job and she willingly takes it on, as opposed to in the first book where she is forced to work to save someone's life. The scenery changes often, which is really lovely to see as we travel between different underground cities and monasteries. It means we get to see how different cities have different cultures.

I feel like this also had some really good counters for what I was viewing in Book #2 as Shyla becoming all-powerful, which is a flaw of many of Snyder's lead characters. Although Shyla's magic seemed limitless and ever-growing, she did have limits on exactly what she could achieve. Unlike in Book #2, it wasn't expanding magical powers due to strange illogical leaps in logic, or 'thinking' herself stronger. I felt like it was a better progression. I really loved seeing a time when even the seemingly all-powerful mind-manipulator Shyla was outperformed, and I also loved that she put limits on herself due to her own morality.

I also loved Rendor so much. I have such a weakness for reformed bad guys, but he's such a good guy that I forget he used to be a bad guy! I also love big burly guys as well, so I'm especially weak for him. I love so much that he and Shyla have an incredibly healthy sex life. It's really beautiful and wonderful to see (or not see, because this isn't erotica lol). What I especially love about Rendor is his love and trust in Shyla. I love so much that you clearly see when he is hurt or bothered by Shyla's actions, but she asks him to trust her, and he immediately accepts it and knows she will explain later. It happens several times in the novel and I just love it so much. They have such excellent communication with each other and I JUST LOVE THEM OKAY??

I loved how the villain's motivation was actually completely noble. I can't really fault the villain for what they are trying to achieve, only their methods. And even then, their argument is persuasive as hell. It's kind of like Thanatos on the Avengers movies. He's trying to save the galaxy from overpopulation, which I actually understand because finite resources, and he genuinely thinks the way he is going about it is the best way. Yeah, I understand KOK's villain's actions. I think that makes the motivation really realistic and understandable.

The only thing that didn't totally enchant me about this book was the interchangeability of the minor characters. I really had no memory of any of the Invisible Swords from Book #2 outside of Shyla, Rendor, and Mojag. I even had to be reminded that Gurice and Shyla were BFF. Mojag is the only interesting one, and that's only because he's a kid. Everyone else is interchangeable, their names and faces blur, and I don't really care about any of them. I cared far more about the characters that were introduced in this book, like the king.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I think it's probably my favourite out of the trilogy. I will definitely be re-reading it at some point because Maria Snyder is just the best, and so is Rendor.

Thanks to Harlequin Australia and NetGalley I received an ARC of The King of Koraha for a honest review.

I absolutely loved this. The King of Koraha is a fantastic read with many surprises. The struggles and resolutions are so satisfying.

I have loved Maria V. Snyder’s writing for years and this is a fantastic addition to her catalog of fantastic books.

I found it a bit more difficult to get into compared to the previous two in the series. That said I still enjoyed it, and enjoyed seeing more of the world. At some points it felt rushed as the characters were jumping from city to city, but other than that, I enjoyed it and will continue to recommend the authors works to customers.

A great end to the series, loved the action and adventure. Thank you for providing an ear. I rate this 4/5 stars.

I measured out my reading of this book so that it and the enjoyment of reading it, would last as long as possible. The King of Koraha was a fitting end to the trilogy; full of action, adventure and a touch of romance.

I enjoyed the entire trilogy and recommend reading them in order for maximum enjoyment of the story.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC.