Her Blackened Rose by Isra Sravenheart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the third installment in the story of Lady Istra and Astrid, they have had time to receiver from their latest escapade, but Lady Isra has been changed by her latest experience, albeit she isn’t sure exactly what happened, but Astrid does and as he recalls the events, another problem is on the horizon for this duo of dark souls. Although Astrid has been honest with Lady Istra about some aspects of their life, he has also been hiding things from their past, things that he is not sure Lady Istra will be able to forgive him from hiding them and it is causing his some serious anxiety and a lot of distance between himself and his lady love. Meanwhile Lady Istra is becoming used to her new state of mind and body as she prepares for an unexpected meeting about the deeds of her recent past, but she counters every point with one of her own and succeeds in not relenting to the pressure being put on her. One member of the meeting is someone she hasn’t been acquainted with before, he introduces himself as Ronald and hopes that they can meet again in the future under more favourable circumstances. Astrid is suspicious and doesn’t trust the human, despite feeling no magical energies coming from him, he is just being protective of his Lady Istra and safeguarding her from those he believes may do her harm.

Ronald O’Kutte however, is devising a plan to avenge his brother Kane O’Kutte, he believes that Lady Istra is guilty of involvement in his brothers disappearance and he is determined to strike at her weakest point and destroy her like she has done to him and his family. As he thinks about what he can do, Astrid is visited be an old friend who warns him about Lady Istra’s future and safety so that he can formulate a counter attack if and when needed, but he is finding it difficult to keep his secrets and is unwittingly increasing their distance while she does the same with him. Time passes and Lady Istra encounters Ronald again while on one of her walks in the forest, she doesn’t quite know what to make of him, however, she remains polite and keeps him at arms length until she can return home to Astrid. A few days later, after a night of passion and intimacy between Lady Istra and Astrid, she wakes up for one of her early walks and wakes Astrid up with screams when she finds a devastating tragedy has befallen a member of her household during the night and she is distraught, she shrugs off the attention from Astrid and the have an argument over it until she walks off and leaves Astrid alone at the tower, it is during this walk when she encounters Ronald by chance and he sees the vulnerability in her and decides it is time to make his move.

As Astrid is waiting for Lady Istra’s return he becomes more and more worried as the time passes and she doesn’t return, meanwhile Lady Istra is lost within a spell and try as she might, she cannot escape it, the only thing she knows is that she needs to find Astrid and engage his help to end the danger she finds herself in, but this is easier said than done when she is trapped in a world reliving all her past evil deeds. Astrid decides to confront the last person she was seen with and get an answer to his one burning question, where is Lady Istra? Can Astrid find Lady Istra in time before the spell she is trapped in consumes her, or will the dark plans others have made come to pass in their favour? This is another adventure where magic and reality combine to create a world where nothing is as it seems and secrets are kept and the truth of them revealed, but how it ends is only found out by reading all the way to the concluding events.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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