Give Way to Night by Cass Morris – a Review

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Description:
The second book of the Aven Cycle explores a magical Rome-inspired empire, where senators, generals, and elemental mages vie for power.

Latona of the Vitelliae, mage of Spirit and Fire, is eager to wield her newfound empowerment on behalf of the citizens of Aven–but societal forces conspire to keep her from exercising her gifts, even when the resurgence of a banished cult plots the city’s ruin. To combat this threat, Latona must ally with Fracture mage Vibia, the distrustful sister of Sempronius Tarren.

While Latona struggles to defend their home, Sempronius leads soldiers through wartorn provinces to lift the siege of Toletum, where Latona’s brother Gaius is hemmed in by supernatural forces. Sempronius must contend not only with the war-king Ekialde and his sorcerers, but with the machinations of political rivals and the temptations of his own soul, ever-susceptible to the darker side of ambition.

Though separated by many miles soon after their love affair began, Latona and Sempronius are united by passion as they strive to protect Aven and build its glorious future

Review:

Give Way to Night by Cass Morris is the 2^nd book in her Aven Cycle series.  This is an epic fantasy that takes place in Aven, with an Ancient Rome background, where they worship the Roman Deity.  The story is filled with magic, intrigue, history and romance.  Give Way To Night was a good story, but I did have mixed feelings, which I will note later in my review.

Latona, our heroine in the first book, continues to be the main character in this story. Lataona is the middle sister of the Vitelliae family that is highly respected in Aven. She continues to learn more about her mage Spirit and Fire powers.  Latona is in a loveless marriage forced by her father, but she is loyal & very close to her sisters.  I really loved Latona, and her two sisters, Aula and Alhena, and how strong all three women truly were. It was great when Latona was able to work with Vibia and Merula, who I thought were also great.

Sempronius Tarren, continues to be our hero, and is out in the field with his men to try and find out who is trying to destroy Aven, especially with strange supernatural attacks. Tarren is a very powerful shadow mage.

What follows is an exciting adventure that will put Latona and the other ladies in dangerous situations a number of number times.   Tarren will also have his hands full trying fight the unknown enemy and save his soldiers.  There were a number of villians that both Latona & Vibia came up against, as well as Tarren’s soldiers fight against.   I loved everything about Latona, Vibia, Aula, Merula and their chapters. I thought Tarren’s chapters were good, but all the other chapters were tedious, with too much details and slow reading, causing me to lose interest, pushing along to get back to Latona and the ladies.

As much as I enjoyed the story revolving around Aven, Latona, her family, Tarren, supporters, I did have some feelings about the rest.  I thought the other chapters with various villians/political members over done with so much details, I ended up skipping much of it. Overall, Give Way to Night was a good story, with some very good characters.   There is a cliffhanger, which makes me want to read the final book; however, I am still on the fence, as this was a huge book, with so many details and characters, I did get lost a number of times along the way.

Reviewed by Barb

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