ARC Review: Valley (The Glacian Trilogy #3) by Stacey McEwan

The final instalment in the bestselling Glacian Trilogy from TikTok darling Stacey McEwan sees the conclusion to Dawsyn Sabar's epic romantasy quest to free her people... great for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Danielle L. Jensen and Raven Kennedy. With a contingent of hundreds, Dawsyn must lead her people home, but she has no way of knowing what will lie ahead, or what might follow behind…

"All things find a way back home."

At the bottom of the Chasm, Dawsyn and her followers traipse through the darkness to find their long-awaited home. But there are whispers all around them and safety is never guaranteed. With her powers much depleted, and food supplies running low, will they even survive the journey?

Above, the Queen and the new King of Glacia still bay for Dawsyn's blood, and they will not stop in their quest to destroy her. And with the help of someone Dawsyn thought her friend, they creep ever closer. Long-buried secrets will be revealed, hearts will be broken and a new day will dawn. Who will reign in this climactic conclusion to the epic Glacian Trilogy?

Title: Valley (The Glacian Trilogy #3)

Author: Stacey McEwan

Publisher: Angry Robot

Expected Publication Date: September 10, 2024

Review:

Thank you to Angry Robot and Edelweiss for providing me with an egalley and a print copy of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

To say I've been hooked on this trilogy from the beginning would be an understatement. It has been a rollercoaster of a ride and I was excited to see the ends (hoping for an HEA, of course). But I knew this book would bring some bumps to get where this story needed to go and I dug in and held on for the ride.

This story picks up where the previous book left off. If you have not read books 1 and 2, stop reading here and go back and do so. There may be some spoiler (though I'll try not to do that) but also you will not understand this book without reading the first two in the trilogy.

The story continues to follow Dawsyn and Ryon on their journey to freeing the people of the Ledge as well as the people of Terrasaw.

What I liked most about this book was all the back story and reveals. We get the Queen's consort's story as well as Yennes's story. I enjoyed both but especially Yennes's story as she morphs into someone you didn't think she would be. I feel like the Queen consort's story probably could have been left out for the most part. Though, given what happened towards the end of the book, I can see why McEwan chose to include it since we truly needed to see what was going on. In all honesty, I feel like Ruby's POV would have been the better choice, since she could have given us the Queen Consort's story. And I really wanted to see more of Ruby in this book.

Ryon and Dawsyn continue their love story. She does some dumb stuff that makes him mad, he forgives her, they make up, etc. Dawsyn sure loves to put herself at risk, though. There were many times in the book I wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her, then give her a little slap on the face to say, "snap out of it!" 

Ezra and Salem, though, will always be my favorite characters. Their banter is above and beyond and really gave some lightheartedness to a very heavy story. I would have liked to see more of them in this book. 

While I did love this book, I found it dragged a bit. This was something I mentioned when I read the first book, as well. But that one I chocked up to world building. By this book we already have that world building down. The trek through the Chasm was more drawn out for me than I felt it had to be.

As for plot, I enjoyed all the back story, as I stated, and saw the importance of it for the story but the transitions were a bit choppy for me. It took so long for anything to happen. The pacing was super slow and I didn't feel like the story was going anywhere. I had a hard time paying attention to what was happening with the characters. All the trekking and backtracking and stopping and eating and sickness. It was just dragged out too much in the beginning. It made me not want to pick up the book to read it, to be honest. Which makes me sad because the overall trilogy is truly amazing. And, while it did get better at about 50%, I still felt a bit of a disconnect with the story because of being pulled out by the slowness of the first half.

I was expecting more of an epic battle at the end and, while there was action and fighting, it just seemed to easy and felt a bit rushed. Like perhaps McEwan wasn't quite sure how to bring it all together

McEwan's writing is great, though. I enjoyed how she wrote this trilogy in third person but still gave voice to the characters. I truly enjoyed the world she has built. It is unique; totally different from any other fantasy world I've read about before.

Overall I enjoyed this book but it honestly fell short of the epic conclusion I expected. Chasm was by far my favorite book of this series. I would still recommend people read this trilogy though, as it's unique and the story is quite interesting.

Author:

Stacey McEwan is the best-selling author of the Glacian Trilogy. Her debut fantasy romance novel - Ledge, has been translated into three languages. Not to brag, but her high school English teacher once called her writing "above year level standard." Stacey received a bachelor's degree in education in 2012 and remains a school teacher by day. She is a book reviewer and content creator on multiple platforms, including Tiktok and Instagram. Stacey first published after book lovers of the internet encouraged her to share her story ideas. She was born and raised on the Gold Coast, Australia, and still resides in her hometown with her husband, two children and one questionable dog.