Title: The Black Key
Author: Amy Ewing
Publisher/Year: Harper Collins 10/4/16
Length:   237 Pages
Series:  The Lone City #3

Overview

For too long, Violet and the people of the outer circles of the Lone City have lived in service of the royalty of the Jewel. But now, the secret society known as the Black Key is preparing to seize power.

While Violet knows she is at the center of this rebellion, she has a more personal stake in it—for her sister, Hazel, has been taken by the Duchess of the Lake. Now, after fighting so hard to escape the Jewel, Violet must do everything in her power to return not only to save Hazel, but the future of the Lone City.

My Thoughts

This story has finally found it’s ending and while it’s very very expected, i think that we got to see the culmination of a lot of things.  where this series differs from a lot that i’ve read and loved, it’s that we don’t get to see the details behind what’s next, but at least we get to see the ‘what’s now’ bit of things.

So as you’ll remember from the last book, we learned that Hazel was taken as the replacement surrogate for the Duchess of the Lake and that meant that Violet now had a personal quest to protect and save her in addition to furthering the agenda of the Black Key Society.  That of course means that bad stuff is going to happen since we know that once emotions are involved, all hell breaks loose.

Before she’s even able to get that sorted out, she and Sil and Raven work together to bring surrogates from the other facilities together so that they can put a plan into action – find a way to get all the powers pulled together to be united and strong and then take down the royalty.  So we see that as the means to introduce some of other powerful ladies that are also part of this historical land.

Once that’s all happened Violet makes the decision that she has to go back to the Jewel and Garnet gets her brought on as his wife’s Lady in waiting.  She’s used her powers to change her appearance and few know that she’s in there at all.  there are of course challenges there as well since Cora (the duchess’s lady in waiting) realizes who she is and gives Violet an ultimatum – to kill the duchess herself or to be outed.  so that’s one added layer of stress.  on top of that, Violet has learned that Ash has left the White Rose and that means that he’s open to be recognized and executed.  Then there’s all the fear of not knowing what’s at stake for Hazel and hoping that the Surrogates and the Black Keys are able to get together enough in numbers to make their plan work.

If we need an underlying lesson here, it’s one of love and friendship and family.  What we see over and over again that these folks really do have a deeper bond and that’s somewhat necessary to make their powers work ,but unexpected love comes along with it as well.  There are characters like Carnelia who are so underestimated throughout the story, and all she wants is to be loved  and then there are those like the Companions who are trained to be what girls want to see as love, but of course they have their own struggles because they are things only, not people.  So when we finally get to see these bonds form, it’s really heartwarming.

So where we net out at the end, this complex plot has a lot of elements that you know are going to fail, regardless of how well Lucien has orchestrated it.  We see that a lot of the characters that we love die in the line of fire, even some that we really didn’t expect.  At least i didn’t.  We see some step up and become more important players as well and i think that’s a nice twist to thing.  But the ending of course is what you want to see happen for a select few and you are left with hope and a sense of maybe there’s a way to make life bigger and better.  So on that note, have a great night all and i’ll be back soon.