• Love, Honor and Sacrifice
4.5
Night's Reckoning Book Cover Night's Reckoning
Elemental Legacy
Elizabeth Hunter
paranormal romance
Recurve Press, LLC
November 26. 2019
368

For over a thousand years, the legendary sword Laylat al Hisab--the Night's Reckoning--has been lost in the waters of the East China Sea. Forged as a peace offering between two ancient vampires, the sword has eluded treasure hunters, human and immortal alike.

But in time, even the deep gives up its secrets.

When Tenzin's sire hears about the ninth century shipwreck found off the coast of southern China, Zhang Guo realizes he'll need the help of an upstart pirate from Shanghai to retrieve it. And since that pirate has no desire to be in the middle of an ancient war, Cheng calls the only allies who might be able to help him avoid it.

Unfortunately, Tenzin is on one side of the globe and Ben is on the other.

Tenzin knows she'll need Ben's keen mind and political skills to complete the job. She also knows gaining Ben's cooperation won't be an easy task. She'll have to drag him back into the darkness he's been avoiding. 
Whether Ben knows it or not, his fate is balanced on the edge of a thousand-year-old blade, and one stumble could break everything Tenzin has worked toward.

Night's Reckoning is the third novel in the Elemental Legacy series, a paranormal mystery by Elizabeth Hunter, USA Today bestselling author of the Elemental Mysteries.

What would you sacrifice for the one you love?

In Night’s Reckoning by Elizabeth Hunter, the next novel in the sweeping Elemental Legacy series,  we see how, even when two people love one another, it can go horribly sideways.

It took Tenzin at least two millennia to find Benjamin Vecchio.  She watched him grow into a strong and intelligent human, and while she has lived a very long time and has wisdom one can only fathom, she’s also immature and often self-centered. She’s prone to moodiness and is exceptionally greedy.

But when it comes to Ben, she shows uncharacteristic patience. True, a decade or two is the blink of an eye for her, but considering she has such a short fuse, the way Hunter has hinted at her waiting for Ben, waiting for Benzin, is endearing.

And then we get to this book.

In the last installment, Blood Apprentice, Ben and Tenzin took risks and they had catastrophic results. Ben can be stubborn and Tenzin callous, and the two left things in a negative place. A few short minutes in a cave in Puerto Rico could (and did) undo all the patience Tenzin showed.

A few short minutes changed everything.

In this book, we find two people who are clearly in love with one another. But Tenzin, with thousands of years of logic and patient expectation, cannot relate to Ben’s strong, hot passion and emotion. Instead of coming together, helping each other and communicating, Tenzin remains in Penglai, and Ben spends months lost and angry.

So what’s Night’s Reckoning about, you ask?

Night's Reckoning by Elizabeth HunterWell, on the surface it’s about a sword of peace, lost to history and the sea. It’s about the balance of political powers in the vampire world, and who is really good versus evil, if that’s even a thing amongst beings so old.

It’s about choices.

We have many players making impactful decisions. They can sway the entirety of the vampire community, but in the microcosm of humans at-work and at-play in this world, choices can mean everything. Free will? Does it really exist for even the strongest human in a world of beings that consider you a meal?

We knew Ben’s humanity would be tested in this vampire world he’s called home for the better part of his life.

This book is the test. This book is the breaking point we’ve been expecting, but in ways we never could have imagined.  We are forced to face the reality that what we expect isn’t always what will happen. We are given no happy endings here, but there is still hope. We hold on to hope.

When faced with losing the one person you love, the one person who completes you, what would you sacrifice for them? Would you sacrifice your freedom? Your humanity? Would you give it all up? Would you make the ultimate choice for love, even when doing so leaves you without them?

This book is a test of the reader’s resolve, their heart, their expectations. This book is a test of Hunter’s ability to push and pull in a storyline and to drag the reader along, kicking and screaming and begging.

Night’s Reckoning is the book we’ve been waiting to read in the Elemental universe. This is the book that breaks us all down; let’s hope we can be put back together again.

This book is about the Night’s Reckoning; whether that’s a sword or the aftermath of a few minutes in a cave? You decide.