Series Name: The Witches of Thistle Grove #5
As soon as that initial sense of terrible dislocation passed, a flood of shimmering euphoria rushed in to take its place.
In a land of death, of a vast, flat nothing, I was stunningly alive. The only truly living thing. And this awareness felt wonderful, like a river of warm honey crashing through my veins. An all-encompassing ecstasy that surpassed any human high I’d ever felt.
The final book in the Witches of Thistle Grove wraps up the series with demons and death.
To save both her town and the woman who loves her against all odds, a witch haunted by loss must reckon with her turbulent past.
Even in a family of chaotic necromancers, Daria ‘Dasha’ Avramov has always been an outlier. An event planner at the Arcane Emporium occult megastore, Dasha is also a devil eater: a rare witch with a natural affinity for banishing demons and traversing the veil.
Still grieving the loss of her parents and plagued by a dangerous obsession with what lies beyond the other side of the veil, Dasha is both fiery and guarded, an expert at dodging commitment. Her one real regret is a devastating breakup with Ivy Thorn.
When they are forced to work together to plan a festival, Dasha hopes that sparks might fly once again. But as they confront the fault lines and passion lingering between them, Dasha and Ivy must also stand against an otherworldly threat unlike anything Thistle Grove has faced before.
I have been a fan of this series since book one (Payback is a Witch). I love the town of Thistle Grove and the vast variety of characters we’ve met over five books. Saying that, I still wanted the series to keep going – there was more closure I wanted from the characters. But that’s probably because I just wanted to stay in Thistle Grove for longer!
This final book focuses on Dasha and Ivy, both characters we’ve met in other books previously. We know Dasha broke Ivy’s heart and in Rise and Divine, we learn what happened. I will say, although the steamy parts of this book are so good, the actual romance seemed very easy. I really wanted Dasha to have to work harder on this second/ third chance love story. However, the romance is very satisfying, and it’s lovely to see Ivy and Dasha together and see how hard they work on their relationship when they get there. Because, Dasha has some pretty big demons to wrestle with. Literally.
The story focuses more on Dasha and her experiences more so than on Dasha and Ivy. I would say the romance is almost secondary here to Dasha’s quest for survival. She’s a demon eater who can go to the underworld and fight demons. The problem is, that since her parents passed away, she’s longing to stay in the underworld more and more and reject the living world. There’s a lot of exploration about death, and Dasha’s desire to not exist anymore. This is probably the darkest book in the series. It’s heavy, but handled extremely well. Dasha’s community helps and supports her without pandering and this is just an excellent representation of the kind of support someone battling depression should have in their life.
I loved learning more about Dasha’s magic and seeing the culmination of the long-running adventure that ties the books in the series together. There’s some mysterious events that happen in this book that tie to previous books, but there are some new characters introduced including one amnesia-riddled human who doesn’t know what’s happening or why Dasha found her wandering by the town’s lake after a magical festival. The mystery put Dasha on the path to face demons that are encroaching on her beloved town as well as the literal and figurative demons she’s dealing with in her life.
If you’re in need of a witchy, cozy and steamy read this fall, you should read Rise and Divine. Even better, go back to book one and binge yourself in Thistle Grove.
Thank you to Berkley for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.
