Summary -- I found this series intriguing enough at the outset to follow it along but recommend stopping at book 1.

The primary character weirdly devolved through the three books from a kick-ass female protagonist to some kind of really lame romantic heroine. In this, the last of the trilogy, she and others frequently comment or refer to the fact that she's not the one for thinking (she has her men for that!); far from having a will of her own, as she did in the first book, she is routinely tricked into things for her own good; far from being a strong military leader as she was in the first book, by the third book she has to be rescued psychologically, and she is portrayed as having no fighting skills. To the extent her personality is described at all, it's really annoying. wtf? Well, none of the other characters fare much better -- a couple of the male characters are fleshed out a bit more in this book than in the preceding two, but in general the reader gets very little sense in this book why one might care about any of the characters.

Another complaint -- the same-sex erotics that would logically follow from the group marriage, as described in these books are downplayed to the point that one suspects homophobia. The publisher (Luna) is the paranormal romance line of Harlequin, so maybe it's a publisher issue, or maybe just the heteronormativity of the author. Either way the very few nods that Dayton makes to same-sex erotics simply highlight the disparity in treatment.

The plot starts to really wear thin after the same elements are repeated over and over--an attractive man? Who is somehow unacceptable to the group? Why, he must be the next iliasti, and Kallista will have mindblowing sex with him, and then everyone will be happily married. Someone is a jerk? Either they are possessed by demons (that Kallista will get rid of by "pushing" and "shaping" magic) or they're not really a jerk; they just seem that way because of their pride, and really they would make a great co-spouse.

The worldbuilding is indeed interesting, and definitely my favorite part of the books. Although it's a bit depressing to see societies created & then left hanging: "Oh, well, the demons were chased out, so all the bad caste-stuff disappeared, so who knows, maybe our bordering nation's society is better now." What? Doesn't she have spies, or traders, or news, or something? And the iliasti wedding ceremony is somehow logically Not Right. If you marry in, you hand out anklets, but receive bracelets. And that applies to everyone -- everyone hands out anklets. Everyone receives bracelets. Spot the logical problem.

So, in summary, I don't regret reading these books, but can't recommend any beyond the first. ( )

This is a review of a later book in a series. Spoilers for earlier books will follow.

After publisher drama and publication dates that are, as Dayton put it, kind of like the Pirate's Code, the last book of the One Rose Trilogy is finally here. In it, Kallista, now the Renine of Adara for the past six years, and her ilian receive word that their lost ilias Merinda and her son may be in Obed's homeland. When the ilian goes to retrieve him, one of the Godmarked is killed. Not only is Kallista devestated to lose an ilias, moreover one connected to her by magic, but her powers are weakened by having one less Godmarked to draw on. On top of there still being a child to recover, it turns out that Adarans are being held in slavery and demons have been corrupting the working of the country.

This is the best of the books in the trilogy, and it is primarily about grief and love. The fact that one of the Godmarked dies is given away in the cover blurb, and I will not spoil which one, but I will say that it is not Leyja or Keldrey, who married the others only at the end of The Barbed Rose. Their deaths would still have been hard on their iliasti, but they might have been easier on the readers, who did not get to know them like the others. Dayton does not go easy on us. There are several scenes in this book to make readers uncomfortable, but they are handled well, and they are what makes the book great.

I am also glad to finally see Obed's home country. I have been wanting to learn more about it since the first book.

A heroine given powers by God to destroy demons can be difficult, primarily because if she keeps being given enough power for the job, the ending of the story can never be in doubt, and Kallista does sprout new powers about as often as Superman. What makes this series work in spite of that is that Kallista's powers, though varied enough to supply anything she needs, do not always work, and she and her ilian are not invulnerable. We know that her magic is capable of destroying any demon, if it answers properly. What we don't know is if her magic will always answer, or if she and her whole family will survive. ( )

Poly,significant death