Review Detail

Warrior of Legend starts nearly a year from the events in Champions of Fate by Kendare Blake. Reed is now the Aristene of Glorious Death and fulfilling her duties at an alarming rate to bury her heartbreak of how things ended with Prince Hestion. Hestion has spent the year drunk and bedding anyone willing to forget the loss of his brother, avoid becoming king, and bury his feelings for Reed. All the while the priests of the shadow god have been using the jawbone of the prophet to use twisted magic to create monsters powerful enough to decimate the Aristene.
I enjoyed how the supporting characters from the first book take on more depth in this book. Lyonene should have left her hero, Alsander, to bring glory to another hero. However, she has stayed by his side in her hubris to twist events to create glory as she sees fit. This leads to a seemingly light-hearted plot for Reed to switch places with her and become the matchmaker in Cassor for Princess Yngarue to facilitate a glorious marriage.
What ensues is so much fun to read. Reed is a tough and serious warrior, but bungling through trying to act as a matchmaker in ridiculous hats with bells on them and acting like she knows anything about dainty etiquette. Then Hestion comes to court Princess Yngarue and Reed is trying to keep them apart. Lynonene makes terrible choices and gets Alsander deposed and so he comes to court Yngarue. Lyonene must also appear to be helping Alsander and Yngarue, but is thwarting the will of the goddess in this match.
While we were enjoying this jaunty tale of bumbling matchmaking with our heroes back together and holding everything together from one perceived disaster a brilliant turn of events leads the plot in a dark direction. Without creating spoilers, we end up with betrayal, deaths, unresolved plot twists, and a completely different outcome from anticipated. I assume this will lead to a book three with a happier ending than this one. Overall, this book masterfully unfolds with richly developed characters and an intriguing magical system that leaves me hoping for a third book to come out soon.