The King Betrayed

I loved The Sword, The Ring, and The Chalice books, but was not too pleased with The Queen's Gambit. However, this series is back on track with The King Betrayed. Dain is always an enjoyable character, but I find Alexeika to be in many ways even more fascinating. Here is a heroine who is extraordinarily human, so strong that she is unable to be weak or to accept weakness in others. She insists on seeing Dain in a heroic light, and cannot accept him as being flawed. I find her always to be just about unlikable, and yet I do end up liking her. Like so many of us,her greatest strength is her greatest weakness. She is an original, so well created that she seems very real to me.For me, the strongest aspect of this series are the well-drawn characters and their affect on each other. Once again, I am excited by this series and am awaiting the next book impatiently.

Seven years ago the half Elden Dain took the throne away from the mad king that was slowly destroying the kingdom of Nether. Today the realm recovers, but King Dain, who is happily married to his soulmate Queen Alexeika, is unable to rest. His three children contain varying degrees of Edven blood but only his four year old son could be considered his proper heir. The powerful clandestine Killegya cabal wants the king to distance his warrior queen from affairs of the realm and Nether's neighbors may attack the still weakened kingdom at any time.After being away, Dain finds his son killed, his eldest daughter kidnapped and his youngest child catatonic. The guards and protectors were paid off to look the other way when Grethori guardsmen try to destroy the royal family. Dain rushes to find his daughter but a powerful mage ensorcelles him. Though many think the king is dead and demand a new monarch proclaimed, the queen refuses to believe her beloved husband is murdered. When he comes home, she cannot forgive him for his adultery with a powerful sorceress and for not returning their daughter to her. An elusive enemy orchestrating events wants the king of Nether to pay for past grievances.Deborah Chester has written a beautiful romantic fantasy that is filled with plenty of action and has characters that are easy to understand. It is not a country or a tribe that causes the royal family so much grief but one man who erroneously believes King Dain has destroyed the worked he accomplished. The ironic part is the king never gave him a second thought. THE KING BETRAYED is epic fantasy at its romantic best.Harriet Klausner