His Mortal Demise is a perfect sequel to The Last Bloodcarver. After the dramatic ending of the previous book, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was not disappointed.

In the second instalment, we are given a second point of view, which not only expands the romantic subplot but also creates a fascinating structure for this narrative. The novel begins with confused Nhika waking up, vaguely remembering saving Kochin and trying to determine what had happened to him. Then, the POV shifts to Kochin, months prior, as he desperately searches for a way to save Nhika. The two timelines connect towards the end. I found this structure creative and captivating.

I was fully invested in this story and found the book hard to put down.

I really liked this series and this was a great sequel and conclusion. It took me a little time to get back into the series, I feel like I should have reread the first book before I read this one. But I still really liked this. I really like the two main characters and I liked seeing the flashbacks and the present and how everything melted together. The plot was great, the characters were great and I'm so excited about whatever Vanessa Le will write next! Also, I definitely want to reread this series sometimes.

DNF at 30%

Similarly to The Last Bloodcarver, His Mortal Demise suffered from poor pacing and an unlikable main character. I just found myself struggling to care about the plot and the questions I should have had. I felt like I could predict where the story would go, which left me so apathetic and bored.

If you loved the first installment, then this might be a win for you, but unfortunately this was a DNF for me around the 30% mark.

Rating: 4.5/5
I received the eARC for my honest opinion.

This book is the sequel for The Last Bloodcarver, and wow this book blew away how much I liked the first book. So much more action, drama, YA fantasy, mystery and suspense and so much more. This book picks up a few months after book 1 and the readers will get to see what has happened to Theumas since Nhika gave her life to save Kochin and he could live on…. Except we all know that love can be a powerful thing.

I loved how we got to see more of Kochin in this book, and I know that it’s told in Dual POV with Nhika but you will see what I mean when you read it. You will notice that this book is told in different points of time, but the characters and their timeline do meet up in the present time later in the book. I loved that throughout the book I was getting feelings of hope, loss, fearfulness, and joy. You will get those feelings from all the characters that you will meet in the book, but I love that our main characters really get to understand those feelings and use them to help take down their enemies. I enjoyed getting to understand what heartsoothing means across the whole country and understanding why people are fearful or envious of it. With the world building it was done so well, and the pace of the book was perfect for me.

The characters in this book are what really make this book shine, with their growth across the book and from being main characters – side characters. I loved that we got to understand Kochin’s POV better and see more of his internal thoughts, I liked that he would still talk to Nhika even if it was just her hallucination. You will see how Heartsoothing was different for him and trying to understand and love the gift that Nhika left him with but also getting to understand how he can use this gift now to change the world for the better or to at least bring back Nhika from the dead. (and nope I won’t tell you how). I was heartbroken for Kochin and I could understand his reasons that he had that took him on the adventure/path back to Nhika. With Nhika I loved that she was still so strong through everything, having the knowledge that Kochin was gone and then the horrible news about him you will see how she handles all those emotions. I loved getting to see how these two handled their lives after they met up again and to the ending. The author did a wonderful job wrapping up the plot, giving us readers what we needed/wanted.

I also received the audio of this book, I got it after I read the book but that was okay for me because I got to experience this book all over again, and this time with it being told by these amazing narrators. I loved that they did an amazing job with ensuring that the readers get all the emotions that the characters are feeling.

I want to thank NetGalley and Macmillian for the opportunity to review this book.

I didn’t think it was possible to love Nhika and Kochen even more than I did after the first book…but WOW, they’re character development even while separated (wish they were together for more of the book🥲) is amazing🥹❤️

I don’t usually adore books that switch between perspectives, but I feel like it was necessary for this story and Le did a beautiful job of intertwining the two separate narratives and timelines together.

The plot. The pacing. The ending.
(chefs kiss💋🤌)

5/5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Very enjoyable, and as a duology finale, it was done well. I honestly was wondering if we were going to wrap up everything in two books, but Vanessa Le did and did it perfectly imo. She leaves room open for more stories from this world, but for now, we are complete.

There were a few moments that I felt were a bit repetitive and dragged out; but then BAM everything came together and happened quickly, but without being unrealistic.

In the end, highly enjoyable.

Thanks to Roaring Brook Press for the gifted ARC!

I absolutely loved THE LAST BLOODCARVER, and have been anxiously awaiting the end to this Vietnam-inspired dark fantasy. Again, the use of medical technology mixed with magic is so up my alley, and I love the tragic love story at the center. I think the duology is best read TOGETHER, because I had a hard time jumping into HIS MORTAL DEMISE a year after reading THE LAST BLOODCARVER. I did still enjoy this one, but not quite as much as book one.

Overall, I think this book is nearly perfect. Its the sequel to
the last bloodcarver. Its a YA series that explores both medical science like the human body and a girl who can perform blood magic. Which I found extremely interesting. It perfectly immerses both science and magic seamlessly. It explores dark themes like colonization and dealing with morality. I would make this duology into my top
ten for YA fantasy this year!

I wasn't able to get into this book. I read about 50% in and just couldn't finish. I think if I read it more in the fall then I would of devoured this book. I was so excited for it :(

[Note: His Mortal Demise includes a significant amount of body horror, including summaries of medical experimentation by a colonial power and detailed descriptions of injuries. In addition to this, one character enlists in a war, and there are serious injuries and death that occur in that portion of the book, including a sequence where a character is trapped in a partially collapsed building. There are also repeated, but short, incidents involving animal death.]

I absolutely loved The Last Bloodcarver, so I was very excited to get my hands on its sequel/conclusion, His Mortal Demise. On a structural level, author Vanessa Le’s decision to split the story into past (Kochin) and present (Nhika) made it possible to have two mysteries being investigated simultaneously: how to bring Nhika back to life and what happened to Kochin after he succeeded? Presenting the story strictly linearly would have undercut the first half of Nhika’s scenes as the reader would already know all the answers, but jumping back and forth between the two timelines was a great way to ramp up tension and inspire dread as Kochin’s point of view got nearer and nearer to the present.

I said in my review of The Last Bloodcarver that it took a while for me to warm up to Kochin, and I’m happy to report that I was immediately rooting for him (and his desperate desire to bring Nhika back to life) from the start in this book. It was fascinating to be in his point of view and get to understand his outlook on his life and his power. Following him into actual war as he tried to figure out exactly what he would or wouldn’t do in order to bring her back made for a compelling, if occasionally horrifying, journey. When Kochin found his moral/ethical line, it was a relief, even if it made things so much more difficult for him. In the last book, we spent a lot of time with Nhika making small connections with her family/heritage, and I appreciated that we got to explore Kochin’s relationship with heartsoothing and his family this time.

Nhika’s plotline of trying to figure out what had happened to Kochin and how the world had changed during her death was also a lot of fun. While the Congmi family took much more of a backseat in this book than the previous one, they were still a solid support for Nhika as she tried to track down what had happened to Kochin. I loved the slow reveals from her point of view, many of which provided ominous clues to what would be happening in Kochin’s story. And when Nhika and Kochin’s plots finally reconnected, it was immensely satisfying to see their devotion to each other rewarded.

Recommendation: If you enjoyed the first book in this duology, His Mortal Demise is a worthy sequel and conclusion. The dual narratives allow for two mysterious to be explored simultaneously and keep the suspense high until the plot lines finally converge. While the war isn’t wrapped up by the end of the book, the character arcs end in a satisfying place, and the genuinely hopeful ending leaves a reader believing that all will be well, eventually. The duology was a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to what Vanessa Le writes next.

I ended up DNFing this book pretty early on, and maybe will revisit it but just could not get into it right now. I enjoyed the first book and its unique magic system and world, and after the cliffhanger at the end, was excited to see (spoiler alert) the MMC slowly go insane while trying to bring the FMC back to life. However, she came back to life in the prologue, and then his POV is set 6 months in the past while hers is present time. I don't really care to read 6 months in the past when I now know that whatever he did worked, so my suspense is gone. Alas.

Loved the first book but didn't remember a lot of the details so it took a little time for me to get into this one. I continued to enjoy the magic and the worldbuilding. Kochin's character development was also enjoyable to follow - I loved seeing him heal, grow, and stay true to himself.

I really enjoyed the dual POV in this one! The alternating timelines quickly resolved the last book's cliffhanger but kept the mystery going of how exactly that resolution happened. I thought the writing had improved as well and I felt more emotionally connected to Nhika and Kochin and their relationship. This definitely felt like more of Kochin's book rather than Nhika's and I liked seeing Kochin's character development in how he feels towards himself and his heartsoothing. The ending with the antagonist was a bit too clean and easy for me, but I get that it fits with the overall tone and message of the duology.

Overall it was a satisfying conclusion to the duology and I'll be looking forward to reading whatever Vanessa Le writes next.

Thank you to Fierce Reads, Macmillan, and NetGalley for the eARC!

For a book under 400 pages this took me a long time to get into. I loved The Last Bloodcarver when I read it last year and was super looking forward to the second book in this duology. This second installment picks up about 6 months after the end of The Last Bloodcarver. Kochin goes to war, to infiltrate the island of Yarong , to find a way to raise Nhika from the dead. We see early on that he was successful- but not how he managed to do the near impossible. And the world the Nhika wakes into is very different from the one she left.

The switch in the narrative style, now a dual POV with a timeline split, made it feel like it took longer to be fully invested in the story. Aside from Kochin and Nhika many of the characters that we got to know in the first book fade into the background as the mystery of how Kochin brings Nhika back from death are slowly rolled out. Though once the timelines converged, everything picked up and I was fully invested again. In fact I wish more time was spent on the morality involved with heartsoothing and war, than on Nhika’s resurrection.

I wasn’t sure how Vanessa Le was going to manage finishing this story, with the way The Last Bloodcarver ended; I wasn’t sure who would make it out alive in this book either. In the end, it was a good conclusion to the duology, just not the type of story I was anticipating.

As much as I was fascinated by the first book, apparently this sequel didn’t piqued my interest at all… this book has 2 POV, Nhika & Kochin, but their POVs started on different timelines: Nhika in the present, Kochin in the past. It’s disorienting a bit and I needed awhile to get used to it. And thankfully later in the story, their timeline aligned.

The magic system was the only thing that kept me from DNF, because it’s cool. But other than that, I didn’t really care… on the first book I felt like the romance was artificial and this book still failed to change my opinion on that. Overall it’s just okay, i felt indifference on most of it. Still worth to read tho, for the magic system.

This was such an amazing conclusion to The Last Bloodcarver Duology. Much like my last review of the first book, I am absolutely in awe of the writing style and magic system. The writing style so easy to get lost in and not hard to follow, there's a lot of descriptions to really paint the picture and let you marinate in the emotions of the characters. The magic system, while complex as it blends magic and science, isn't hard to understand. I loved the characters and reading from Kochin and Nhika's perspectives, it was so satisfying to see them come together after spending the majority of the book apart. The themes of like self and culture and survival really came through and felt all aspects to be pretty heartbreaking.

Got dinged the .5 because I felt like there were so many red herrings as to what happened to Kochin and it kind of bogged down the pacing. I was about 73% of the way through and thought, "uh-oh... we're almost to the end and we still haven't found out what's going on..." While the ending wasn't THAT rushed, it shortened the payoff for me. The payoff being finding out what happens to Kochin and the couple's reunion. But I understand it, since it's a duology, you don't have the luxury of another book to wrap up loose ends in a satisfying way, hence the half deduction instead of the full star.

Still love the book though. Think it's a good ending to a duology. Had to round rating down to a 4 due not allowing me to do half stars

It’s The Last Bloodcarver sequel time! Vanessa Le’s duology comes to a spectacular end.

Beware, as unmarked spoilers for book #1 will follow!

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Okay, y’all. At the end of The Last Bloodcarver, Nhika died. Using the last of her strength, she healed Kochin and saved his life, passing along the bone ring that had belonged to her heartsooth ancestors in the process. Now, Nhika has woken up in one of the Congmi family’s other manors on the other side of the country. Kochin is nowhere to be found, and Theumas is now at war. Her entire world has turned upside down, and she’s desperate to find answers, but Mimi and Andao are hesitant to tell her the truth.

Six months ago, Ven Kochin almost died, but he was rescued by Nhika. Using technology developed by Dr. Sando during Sando’s attempt to resurrect his dead son, Kochin keeps Nhika in a comatose but stable state. With Theumas on the brink of war, he ventures home to see his estranged family and make amends before setting off on a fool’s quest to find a way to revive her. His own resources dwindling, he knows that he must make his way to the island of Yarong, from whence the heartsooths originally came. Who can he trust to keep Nhika safe while he searches for answers?

Vanessa Le’s writing is just as solid in His Mortal Demise as it was in The Last Bloodcarver. Nhika and Kochin’s split narrative is clever and well-managed, keeping the tension tight as his timeline ticks down and hers continues on into wartime. I’m thrilled to have gotten a chance to read this one. My utmost thanks as always to MacMillan and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for a fair review. His Mortal Demise dropped on Tuesday, 3/18/25. Go check it out!

This review originally appeared here: https://swordsoftheancients.com/2025/03/21/his-mortal-demise-a-review/

I loved The Last Bloodcarver and while I did enjoy this book, I was also a little disappointed.

It felt like book 1 was Nhika's book, and book 2 was Kochin's book, though obviously there were some POVs in each. I really like Kochin and I enjoyed getting to see him grow and develop into his ability and background more. However, the structure and pacing was harder to get into than for the first book. Book 1 had a central murder mystery pushing the plot along in a fairly linear way, while this book goes back and forth between present day, six months prior, present day, five months prior, etc, breaking up some of the immersion and tension. The central mystery from the last book's cliffhanger (will Nhika be brought back to life?) is solved in the first chapter, and I found a lot of the conflict in this book to be less engaging than the previous murder mystery. I also wish we had more of the Congmis in this book.

However, I did really love all of the scenes where Nhika and Kochin were together, and I think this book really built on that relationship in a way that felt true to both of the characters. I was satisfied with the ending and felt it worked well with the rest of the story, and I enjoyed getting to know Kochin's family better.

His Mortal Demise is the second book in The Last Bloodcarver duology. I loved the first book so this was a highly anticipated 2025 read for me. Unfortunately I was somewhat disappointed. Let me start with the good: the last 20% of this book - wow! It leaves you gasping for breath, it’s so epic. Scenes that feel like they’re straight out of movie, so action packed one minute and then heart wrenching the next. Extremely satisfying conclusion. But you have to get there. I very rarely DnF books and had this not been an ARC I’d have come close to it - and of course I would have missed out on the amazing last part. It’s extremely slow paced, meandering and separates our two main characters for almost the entire book. The Last Bloodcarver showed us that Kochin and Nhika scenes light up the page - making His Mortal Demise a shadow in comparison.

Thank you to Macmillan Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review .

I thought this book wrapped up the duology really well! I liked the introduction of the dual timeline/POV, I really enjoy when a book has me trying to piece together how the past led to the present.

The moral dilemmas were really increased in interesting ways, I liked how the issues weren’t black and white, meaning I couldn’t predict what characters would decide since there wasn’t really a right choice.

I liked the development of the characters and relationships, I thought they followed up on the first book well.

I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the first book, but I think that’s just down to personal preference. I liked the murder mystery of the first one, and I’m not a fan of WWI-ish settings like was happening in a chunk of this story. Not that it didn’t fit with the story overall, just not so much what I liked reading about.

I think this is a great duology that brings a lot of unique aspects to the genre.

Thanks to the publisher for the copy.