Elaine White's Life in Books

Book – The Hollow Living (The Age of Waking Death #3)
Author – C.N. Faust
Star rating – ★★★★★
Would I read it again – Yes
Plot – as brilliant as the first two.
Characters – even better than before.
Movie Potential – ★★★★★
Ease of reading – very easy to read.

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** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **

I have been in love with this series since Book 1: The Dragon’s Disciples. Book 3 is even better than the ones before. I am so happy to see Pharun back, not only as mean and as clever as ever, but showing his true colours more openly. I have a feel this won’t be good news for Felix, but I will just have to wait and see. I have my fingers crossed, however impossible it might be, that the pair stay together. They’re my golden couple of this series.

I also have to admit that I really enjoyed meeting the new characters, such as the Ercole family. I find Adriel to be a little like Pharun, only less brutal and in a much tamer way. Narissa is very much like Encarz’s mother, the belated Queen, though I have a feeling she doesn’t have the same weaknesses that the Queen had, which led to her death. She may just be the formidable character the Queen aspired to be.

It’s also very nice to see Nisroch back again. I do love him and if Felix has to love Pharun for anyone, I want it to be him. Just call me a FanGirl and get it over with. Lol. I FanGirl for this series so bad it’s just not right. It’s that lovely kind of wrong that we all love so much.

I do have to admit that I think Shrukian could be a surprise dark horse in this book. He’s been gone for a while, hiding in shadows and so on and I really think he could just creep into the story and change everything. He’s unpredictable that way. I’m very excited to see what the rest of the book holds. (I’m only 25% through just yet.)

Now that I’m 50% through let me just take back when I said about Adriel being tamer than Pharun. I was wrong. Lol. You’ll know what I mean when you read it. Total moment of ‘he-did-not-just-do-that!’.

I do admit that I feel bad for Felix. He’s so lonely and ignored by Pharun in this book, and when he’s not ignored he’s not treated the best by Pharun, who says he loves him. I believe he does, but I also think he pushes Felix away so he can focus on his politics. It’s a shame because they are the most incredible couple when he allows them to be. But at least Felix has Sterling now. On the other hand I’m worried Pharun is going to kill him or send him and Felix away. He’s either going to get jealous or not care and either way it’s going to hurt Felix. He would never think of cheating on Pharun, but Jhauril will make it look that way if it suits him.

I really want Jhauril to die. It sounds cruel, but you’d feel the same if you read it. What does he offer Pharun that Felix can’t? Pharun should have killed him when he hid Felix’s letter last time.
I think Domenico and Austric together will be very dangerous and formidable, but very interesting to watch develop. Already they could sneak in and change everything.
The ‘Atlas’ story in Malhii’s history definitely puts things in perspective. It’s sad and it makes a lot of other things make so much more sense.

I do have to say though that as much as I love Pharun, I have to give it up for Morre. Dude, you seriously know how to stand up for your kid. :) What he did for Felix was just amazing. No-one else would dare mess with Pharun and although it could have hurt Felix, he knew that it would have more benefits than downsides for his son. Saldon never did anything that selfless before, for either of his kids. But it does make me wonder, since I’ve not read much more after this event, yet, how this will impact on Felix and just what Pharun is going to do about it. If he hurts Felix…well, let’s just say that I won’t be loving him any more and I’ll be doing a Morre on his ass.

The court audience with Meridith and Encarz was just a piece of pure Pharun genius. I have to say. It was classic and had me giggling like a fangirl at Pharun’s sneaky plan. Unfortunately, there isn’t much I can say about the last 20-30% of the book, without giving the game away. And I don’t want to do that. I want you to read it and be sitting reading it at 2am in the morning, covering your mouth at the Holy Crap! Moments, unable to make a sound, the way I did. I’m nice that way. So get to an online store, or bookstore, buy the book or the series and then you can find out exactly what I’m talking about.

I will say this: turning that last page and seeing 100% on my Kindle was a very conflicting moment for me. On one hand I was silently screaming “Nooooo! It can’t be over!”, because I don’t want it to end. Book or series. And then I realised how utterly perfect an ending it was.

Maybe the story isn’t wrapped up with a nice pink ribbon, telling us what happens to absolutely every character. But it’s certainly implied, and I think I like not knowing. That way my imagination does the rest. I imagine everyone eventually getting the happily ever after the book deserves, but I can’t tell you what that means without giving away spoilers, so let’s move on. ;)

* Favourite scene – Felix and Pharun in the snow.

* Favourite bad guy – Adriel – for the WTF moment.

* Favourite character of all time – Felix and Pharun. You didn’t think I’d choose between them, did you?

* Most adorable moment – Pharun’s last words to Meridith and their meaning. Because I remember very clearly what he promised about the vessel for Ravenel’s soul – “He will be the most beautiful in the world. Aside from myself.” And that perfect explanatory moment at the end, where you realise what that means. (Again, I’m not telling you. GO READ THE BOOK!)

* Favourite good guy – Morre. I know, not a good guy really, but this is for the Pharun ‘incident’, because he loves Felix so much. And a guy who loves Felix as I do, can’t be all that bad.

Overall, this book and series were perfection. One of the best stories, individually for each book and as a whole for the series, that I’ve read in a long time. There was nothing I didn’t like about this series, except maybe Jhauril. Okay, except for Jhauril, who I hated. I couldn’t stand to have him between Pharun and Felix. I mean, seriously? Even the Gods wanted them together. *sigh* But I get my happy ending. Why? Because Jhauril doesn’t appear in the last 20% of the book. I choose to believe that the most perfect thing happened. I choose to believe that Pharun killed Jhauril, for threatening Felix after the Pharun ‘incident’ with Morre. And I don’t want anyone to tell me otherwise. I’m quite happy believing that, thank you!

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Sidenote:

Please, Please, Please…someone has to make this series into a TV series or a Movie. I want to see this on the big screen, or any screen. And I really, really want to see this cast in action: Cillian Murphy as Meridith, Chris Hemsworth as Shrukian, Jesse Williams as Pharun, Bill Nighy as Encarz, Amy Lee as Olympia, Jared Leto as Felix, Tom Hiddleston as Raul, and Rooney Mara as Brisha. Can you say ‘lush’?