Love and Memory by Kendra Ardnek {The Rizkaland Legends; 3}

Book Blurb:

When a Queen forgets,
Her enemies rejoice in her weakness.
But when the Queen remembers,
They tremble in fear.
When a King loves,
His country rejoices with him.
But when that love is broken.
The land is broken, too.
Can Water and Fire join again?
Can Love and Memory be restored?
They spent years in Rizkaland. They ruled the land, forged friendships, built families, and made it their home. But then it was time to return to Earth, and their former lives just don’t fit anymore. Clara and Andrew struggle to reevaluate their priorities when hundreds of miles separate them. Reuben and Petra are lost as they seek a balance between their old friendship and their Rizkan marriage. And Ashna and Noraeto never planned to return, so what live is there for them on Earth?
When the unthinkable happens and a new enemy arises, they’re all thrown back into Rizkaland, into a young prince’s rise to power and struggle to build alliances for his kingdom. But they no longer belong in their other world, either.
Are good memories too much to bear?

I received this book for free from the author. All comments and opinions are entirely my own, and I am writing a voluntary review.

AnnaScott’s Review

Just to create some context for this review, I read the first book in this series – Water Princess, Fire Prince – for the first time five years ago. Then the second book came out fairly soon after that, building on a separate plot, and they both ended on cliffhangers. So suffice it to say that I have been waiting for this book for years.

Let’s just start with the world building. Kendra has done an amazing job creating a unique fantasy world, with each book adding something new and different. This installment takes us to a new country within the world of Rizkaland and Klarand, one that resembles Aladdin and the Middle East more than the European fairy tale vibes of the previous two. Moving on to the characters, I loved that we got to see them again, and see how they’ve grown and adapted to the ‘real world’ after being royalty in Rizkaland. They are each unique and quirky in their own way, and they made me laugh so many times while reading this book.

I really only have two complaints. The first is that there were too many main characters involved. We have Clara, Andrew, Kath, Rich, and Stephen from the first book, and then Petra, Reuben, Sarah, Richard, Sylvia, Robert, Ashna, and Noraeto from the second book, plus new characters. The result was that there were a lot of plot lines to keep track of, and I didn’t get to spend as much time with my favorite characters as I would have liked.

Building on this, the combination of all of the main characters plus a new adventure meant that they were always in an action scene that was important to at least one of the plot lines. As a result, we get very little time just seeing them in the little, inconsequential moments that really flush them out and give them depth as people. Personally, I’m partial to Clara and Andrew, and so I honestly could have just read a whole book about them adapting back into our world and I would’ve been perfectly happy. This may or may not be biasing my opinion in this matter. 🙂

Overall, it was a exciting installment in this series, and I loved seeing all of my favorite characters from the first two books meet and interact with each other. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Add to Goodreads