A Promise of Peridot (The Sacred Stones, #2) by Kate Golden 
Series: The Sacred Stones #2
Published by Berkley Books on April 9, 2024
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 480
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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A prophecy of death. A weapon of hope. A sacrifice of love.
Arwen Valondale is sailing for the mysterious Kingdom of Citrine after the battle of Siren's Bay. Reeling from shocking revelations and her newfound powers, Arwen directs all of her pain and rage toward the man who betrayed her: King Kane Ravenwood.
Kane's presence is unavoidable as he travels with Arwen and her friends to seek the Blade of the Sun, a legendary weapon inextricably tied to her fate and the future of the realm. Even an uneasy truce proves difficult as Arwen fights against her unresolved feelings for Kane, who is willing to become darkness itself to protect her.
As Arwen faces creatures, foes, and magic beyond her wildest imaginings, she must discover the secrets of her past to defeat the monstrous Fae king Lazarus. But finding the light within might mean the death of her and everyone she loves.
Nope. I’m done.
This review is going to include spoilers. Go back now…
We learn at the end of A Dawn of Onyx that our hero Kane, who is a pretty nice guy, is not only a half-fae but he is the son of King Lazarus, the abusive King of the fae who rules his realm with an iron fist and now wants to rule the human realm as well just for giggles and he is using the kingdom of Amber to help him fight his war against his second born son.
Lazarus also, very helpfully, tells Arwen all of the secrets that Kane has failed to share with her, including such things as the fact that Arwen was the last born full-blooded fae (how is that possible?) and that the famous prophecy indicates that the King can only be killed by Arwen and that she will die doing it. (Which by the way it doesn’t specifically say. Like all prophecy’s it is very vague.) Again, this was an info dump in the last few pages of the story as Arwen and the survivors from the kingdom of Peridot race towards the boats to escape the Amber and fae soldiers.
Since Kane is such a nice guy, he had his people search for Arwen’s family and had them brought to Arwen when they all traveled to Peridot but during their bid to escape, Arwen’s mother is killed. This is also convenient since now Arwen can’t get answers about her being the last full-blooded fae.
This leads us into A Promise of Peridot which is mostly a story of a depressed Arwen who is whining about how Kane still kept secrets from her and now she can’t trust him. She moans that she is expected to die. She cries that her mother is dead. She is angry that Kane didn’t explain all to her. Really, how would that go, ‘I really love you too. I thought we can go to the movies tomorrow and maybe you can sacrifice yourself next week to save the world. Did I forget to mention that we have all been waiting 20 years for you get here and die for us?’
Yes, Kane realized who Arwen was because she exudes magic and light the only fae can see. That’s why everyone with fae blood knew who she was to their future. The prophecy says that there would be a falling star when Arwen was born so both Kane and his father knew when to start sharpening their swords for the big battle. Kane really wasn’t interested in who this person was who would make the sacrifice. He just wanted to find them and make them sacrifice themselves to save his people both in the fae realm and in Onyx. Of course, once he meets her, falls in love, he has a dilemma of what to do. Of course, he isn’t going to explain that he brought you to Onyx to die for everyone. Duh!
My question is why when the prophecy says “A king doomed to fall at the hands of his second son,” Lazarus didn’t simply kill Kane right then and there. Why let him live?
We spend the majority of this story doing two things: #1 – trying to find a safe kingdom for the non-combatants to stay who would hopefully fight with Onyx and #2 – trying to find the magical sword that Arwen needs to kill Lazarus. That’s prophesied to be “inside her heart.” That’s helpful.
Besides the fact that we are walking around with a moody, depressed Arwen, there are several things that didn’t make sense or were simply annoying.
Let’s start with the kingdom of Citrine. Citrine is located at the bottom of the ocean. Not like Atlantis but located in a magical bubble with regular air. It’s at the bottom of the sea but there are tides and sunsets and tropical breezes? How do they get fresh air into their bubble? There are trees (really?) but probably not enough to clear the CO2 from the air. I could go with magical lights keeping back the darkness at the bottom of the ocean but how are we getting sunsets? And tides?
Then there is Halden, a childhood friend of Arwen and her brother, who is in the Amber army and he keeps showing up to capture and recapture Arwen like he has magical powers and that power is an Arwen GPS. He has better sources than the mafia in a John Grisham novel.
Kane and Arwen keep going into dangerous situations looking for this sword as if nothing can touch them but death is a real concept and they come close many times.
As I mentioned, overall Kane is a good guy, even if he takes blame for all the worlds woes. Arwen is angry because he was planning to sacrifice her. He was willing to sacrifice both worlds to hide her away so she can be safe (for how long since no sacrifice means disaster to both worlds) and even when the Prince of Citrine is trying to woo Arwen, Kane sits back all sad and let’s him try since Kane lied to her and she should be happy.
The final nail in the coffin for me was the last chapters where Arwen is captured by Lazarus and finds herself tied to her bed with magical fae-resistant bindings (which we only learned about a few chapters before) and he is planning on making new full-blooded fae babies with her which will be better than his prior half-blooded kids. She would rather die and he tells her she can after she pops out a few puppies for him. Yuck, she was just doing it with your son a couples hours ago, Dude. This very rapey-vibed cliffhanger to the next book was a complete no for me.
In the end, the prophecy only says Arwen will make a sacrifice. It never says she will die. Maybe she can’t have chocolate ever again. That would really suck. Maybe it is simply that she will be stuck forever in a different realm than Kane. In the end, I don’t care.
Ha ha, loved your review. This isn’t something I would have read anyway, but it’s fun to hear about it. I guess romantasy is the new hotness and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.