Well it's been quite awhile since I have posted a book review. I took a break from reviewing due to burnout and then things in life just kept rolling and a lot of changes took place, the two biggest being my marriage and the death of my father.

I will be easing back into this with reviews of some of the books I read during my hiatus along with books I am currently reading. By easing, I mean that the reviews of books I read during my hiatus will be brief but let you know how I felt about them. This blog was originally meant as a fun outlet for my favorite hobby and it's a plus when I can bring others along with me on my adventure!

One of the best books that I read during my hiatus was Django Wexler's The Guns of Empire which was the fourth installment in The Shadow Campaigns series. This one has gone on my favorites shelf.

Book Blurb:
As the roar of the guns subsides and the smoke of battle clears, the country of Vordan is offered a fragile peace…

After their shattering defeats at the hands of brilliant General Janus bet Vhalnich, the opposing powers have called all sides to the negotiating table in hopes of securing an end to the war. Queen Raesinia of Vordan is anxious to see the return of peace, but Janus insists that any peace with the implacable Sworn Church of Elysium is doomed to fail. For their Priests of the Black, there can be no truce with heretics and demons they seek to destroy, and the war is to the death.

Soldiers Marcus d’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass find themselves caught between their general and their queen. Now, each must decide which leader truly commands their loyalty—and what price they might pay for final victory.

And in the depths of Elysium, a malign force is rising—and defeating it might mean making sacrifices beyond anything they have ever imagined.

I love this series and I became an instant fan of Django Wexler after reading the first book! No one writes military tactics like this author. You feel like you're right there in the middle of each campaign. Every single character is a dynamic force in their own right! In this book, we're really gearing up for Book 5 and it definitely leaves you with a high degree of anticipation!

I want to thank the publisher (Berkley Publishing Group) for providing me with the ARC through NetGalley for an honest review. ( )

There were slightly too many battles in this installment for me. Wexler does them very well but they are not my favourite aspect of these books, so TBH I tend to skip quite a lot of the battle description. It's the characters and the mystery that I like in this series. But that end - I was like nooooooooooooo.......... ( )

I don't care it's the 4th book in the series... LOOK AT THAT COVER

I had been really looking forward to this book since last year. The reasons for my eagerness were both because of the characters and story the author was writing so well as well as the historical analogues he was employing. To put it in a nutshell I was extremely interested to see how far he was going to carry the Napoleon archetype.

The book not only answered these questions very well, it made for a riveting read and left me gasping for more.

One of the great strengths of this series are the great characters Wexler has sketched out. Winter Ihernglass is one of my favourite protagonists and I was very interested in character growth arcs in this book, for Winter as well as Marcus.

Winter's story was a fascinating read - how she struggles with losing Jade, the problems of accelerated promotion and leadership, and of course how she stands to the near Godlike Janus. I think the book did a very good job in showing how Winter isn't perfect, was never perfect and is in fact a little broken inside. Also the question of whether Winter can actually lead an entire army column in combat is raised and I think that given her rapid ascent and lack of formal training this was a very necessary topic for scrutiny.

Marcus' development left me very happy. Initially in the series Marcus was my favourite PoV. He was simply, straightforward, brave, moderately skilled and honest. But as the series progressed his lack of growth compared to Winter or the dynamic Raesina made him an irritating character. I confess to eyerolling when he thinks yet again about the suitability of women in combat even when the Girl's Own had fought admirable a number of times. So the room he gets to grow and develop in the second half of the book, to spread his wings and step out of shadows was very welcome.

The story itself was well done. Heavy on military detail, its a nice twist on Napoleon's doomed invasion of 1812 and it details the continues progress of the enigmatic Janus. The inevitable cracks in his facade were coupled very nicely with some necessary details about the enemy. The true nature of the enemy came as a bit of a surprise and has in my opinion upped the stakes considerably.

Overall it was an extremely enjoyable book. And what an ending! Can't wait for the next one. ( )

I'm going to do something different this time. I'm going to refrain from giving this book a score or longer review until I read the next and last book, The Infernal Battallion. Some paranoid part of me thinks a whole lot about my opinion's gonna change.

“I think, if you want thousands, you have to fight for one.” - Fucking Jane, Probably.

EDIT: Yuuuuup. 4 stars. ( )