Laura's Reviews > The Path of Salvation

I loved the first book in this series but fell in love with this one here.

The Path of Salvation is one of those books that keep you turning pages late into the night because you just have to know what happens next.
It's epic fantasy that deftly entwines magic and faith, mystery and suspense, bloody action scenes and moral dilemmas, on the background of a nicely layered good vs. evil battle, topped with a generous measure of feeling. But above all, this part of the Light and Darkness series, is first and foremost a love story. One that any romantic fantasy fan is bound to adore!

If The Power of Conviction set up the stage and made us wonder about that difference in between right and wrong, faith and obsession, or duty and heart, The Path of Salvation takes us a step further dealing with dark things done in the name of light and justice, as well as the moral dilemma of choosing to either stand back or react when faced with something inherently evil.

Picking up straight from the end of book 1, this part of The Light of Darkness tale shows us a priesthood that's clearly on the wrong path. The High Priest is busy conducting experiments on demons, torturing and killing with fanatic fervour and driving his priests in the same manner to slaughter any demon that gets in their path, children included.

The Temple village is more like an army training camp and very few priests can pride themselves on a soul that's not blood stained.

'The fight against evil, the High Priest had preached. But who was genuinely evil?'

By now, it's pretty clear to almost everyone.
'What had once felt right and just, had turned out so inherently wrong.'

And yet, there is a huge step between seeing, acknowledging and reacting. Especially after a lifetime of belief and even indoctrination. Do you follow orders even when knowing they are wrong, or do you defy them setting not only your life but also that of others on the line?
And this is just one of the moral dilemmas raised here. All skilfully dealt with and going hand in hand with great character development for both main and side characters alike.

And then there is the romance! The sigh-worthy bite your nails at the edge of your seat laugh and cry romance!



I don't even remember the last time I hung onto every single word like this! Because I wanted to know if the two lovers will find their way together. At the edge of the seat waiting for a reaction from a certain demon mother, or wanting to smack a certain demon upside his head for being such a dumbass! I may have rolled my eyes at his drama at times too with a muttered 'idjit!'




As for the rest involving the romance, I'm going to slap a big duct tape over my mouth now because I really want to gush about it but don't want to spoil. So I'll settle for saying this:

The love was the best part of the tale for me this time. Irresistible wonderful addictive love!

'You are everything I could ever wish for.'

And this pretty much sums up my feelings for this book too. It was everything I could ever wish for!

Written in a wonderful, elegant prose, this novel has something for everyone.
Love and tenderness enough to make you sigh, for all those in search of great feeling; as well as mystery and suspense to keep you guessing till the very end. Magic and faith, as well as blood and gore scenes aplenty, broken characters and emotionally crippled people, feelings enough to melt a heart and action to keep you at the edge of your seat from beginning to the very end!! And we even get a few beautifully written descriptive love scenes that manage to be super hot while keeping in line with the elegant tone of the narrative.

All in all, because I already held you too much, The Path of Salvation is an excellent sequel that managed to sneak it's way up onto my shelf of favourites.

A bloody tale of revenge and obsession, hope and redemption, and most of all, fierce love!
Dark, gruesome and heartbreakingly beautiful!
I absolutely adored it!