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Morning Star (Red Rising Saga #3) by Pierce Brown

"The third installment in Pierce Brown's epic Space opera skips ahead by just a year. After the jaw-dropping gut punch of an ending that was Golden Son, Morning Star gives the reader a friendly hand up but throws them right back into the fray. There's deception, dishonor, bravery, love, drama and, of course, gut-wrenching deaths. Brown brings the first installment to a satisfactory end but of course, leaves room for more👍."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pros: I absolutely adore Sevro/Ragnar 💖/This trilogy was wrapped up in a nice tidy and yet open-ended bow thus allowing room for more 🙌

Cons: Again with the large number of characters and having to try and prioritize whom to remember, got tricky keeping them all organized. 

Full Review: ***Disclaimer - If you have not read Golden Son by Pierce Brown, please do so and then feel free to read this post at your leisure. That way, you'll know what I'm talking about 🙌.***

With the throat-punch that was the ending of Golden Son , the reader is left trying to remember how to breathe as we learn dimly of what happened. The Sovereign is busy attempting to keep off Mustang's fleet. Mustang's twin brother, the seriously sadistic and twisted Jackal, Adrius Au Augustus, has spent the last year torturing and then entombing Darrow, letting him rot away to nothing. One day, the darkness abates and Darrow is lifted out of his prison.

The Jackal has had his fun and now he's giving Darrow over to the Sovereign. As he's prepped for departure to the laboratories on Luna, he's rescued by two Grays. Holiday and Trigg. Brother and Sister Earthers, they joined the 13th Legion, the Ash Lord's fleet, but now they're Sons of Ares and they have precious little time to get everyone out and safe. All in the span of about 5 minutes, Darrow learns that Sevro has taken up the mantle of Ares, that Victra is still alive and that Cassius and Aja, the Sovereign's deadliest bodyguard are still here, on the Jackals estates. And as the alarm goes off, he knows now they're hunting for him. 

Trigg dies in the rescue, Holiday's wounded and Victra's unconscious, so Darrow does the only sensible thing left. He drags his friends to the edge of the landing pad, even as Cassisus pleads with him to see reason, and then throws himself off the edge. And he is spectacularly rescued by the Sons of Ares. In the same way Golden Son smacked you across the face for daring to have hope for Darrow, Morning Star gives you a crisp high-five of a beginning, reminding you why you love this series so much.  

What follows is Darrow taking up the mantle of Ares and becoming a myth. The Reaper of Mars. The always loyal Sevro and Ragnar, the Obsidian that swore himself to Darrow after he boarded the Pax, are Generals along with Dancer, who recruited Darrow in the first place and a few others. At first, Darrow and Sevro are a bit at odds as to how to lead the Sons in the Rising but they get it out of their system. And once they do Brown continues with the always evolving storyline/world that he's built.

There's drama, betrayal, distrust, unrequited love, dramatic, teary-eyed deaths, gentle heroes, delightfully creepy villains, Brown's story has it all. Characters that you love to hate and hate to love and also a storyline that just keeps growing but hopefully, if I keep up with my lore (look to the beginning of the book for handy and needed reference material), I can keep everything straight. 

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