Having escaped from the Nexus Institute and about to give birth to Lucifer’s child, Samara Daemonium has taken shelter in a cave in the Gnarly Forest. Lucifer’s daughter Lucinda knows that her position as heir to the throne of Hell will be jeopardized as soon as the baby is born. She is hunting for Samara and the baby. And she’s not the only one. Lucifer wants his child, and hordes of demonic creatures are ready to help him fulfill his wish. Meanwhile Damian, whose loyalty to Samara is driven by a seemingly unrequited love, is prepared to help protect her in whatever way he can.
Once Samara has given birth to the son she names Papillon, Kaylin McFarren’s REQUIEM FOR A QUEEN becomes a full throttle action fantasy in which strange creatures, including witches, sprites and fire-breathing dragons, are engaged in a war for the right to reign in Hell. Samara is on the run, nowhere is safe and her maternal instincts aid her character to evolve latent supernatural skills so that her narrative arc becomes a metaphorical one reflecting on the transformational power of motherhood. Samara nurtures while Lucinda seeks only to destroy. But it’s not as cut and dried as that. Samara is a Nephalem which makes her half angel and half demon. She needs to find the perfect balance. The yin and yang. Otherwise the duality of her nature will tear her apart.
REQUIEM FOR A QUEEN is the third volume of McFarren’s well received Gehenna series. As with the other books in her series, the author’s prose is solid and she has a flair for character, matching unique personality traits with intriguing non-human physiology. Regular readers will feel instantly at home in the world that the author has skillfully created in her earlier books. Though it does work as a stand-alone novel, and there is much to enjoy for the newcomer, some of the intricacies of the overarching plot and the sophisticated hierarchies established in previous books may not be instantly apparent for readers coming to the series for the first time.
Kaylin McFarren’s REQUIEM FOR A QUEEN is a well written and very pacy fantasy thriller with elements of dark romance and passages of explicit erotica.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader