Review: Secrets of the Sword III by Lindsay Buroker

Posted December 13, 2023 by Lola in Fantasy / 2 Comments

Secrets of the Sword III (Death Before Dragons #9)
by Lindsay Buroker
narrated by Vivienne Leheny

My Rating:

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Age Category:
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Blurb:
I’m Val Thorvald, tough butt-kicking assassin and soon-to-be wife of Lord Zavryd’nokquetal. He’s a dragon from another world, and he’s haughty, arrogant, and has horrible taste in footwear, but I love him. Our wedding is going to be amazing.

At least… I’d like to think so. But when the coffee shop I’m a co-owner of gets bombed, our youngest employee goes missing, and the entire elven family I didn’t know I had shows up for a visit, my wedding preparations take an alarming turn.

Oh, and did I mention that Zav’s clan is coming to the wedding? Dozens of dragons flying into the Seattle area. What could possibly go wrong?

My Review

Secrets of the Sword 3 is the last book in the 9 books long Death Before Dragons series and I really enjoyed the conclusion to this series. This book wraps up all the open plot lines and provides a satisfying and happy ending for the characters. I loved listening to this series and will probably get most of Lindsay Buroker’s future books in audio now where possible as the narrator Vivienne Leheny is just such a good fit for Lindsay Buroker’s books.

Lindsay Buroker is one of those authors where I think you either like her writing style or not and I definitely fall into the camp of liking her writing style. Her books are comfort reads to me, I know exactly what to expect and always enjoy them. This series has been a lot of fun to read with plenty of action, banter, some romance and interesting characters.

So Secrets of the Sword 3 starts off with about a week before Val and Zav’s wedding. Ofcourse nothign ever goes smoothly and Val has to deal with someone damaging her shop, trolls who are causing troubles, a missing employee, sword training and then there is the actual wedding planning and visiting relatives in preparation for the wedding. Luckily she has her friends and family to help her out and her employer Willard handles most of the wedding planning. I liked the vibe of this book with it all building up toward the wedding, which is every bit as strange and fitting for the characters as I had hoped it would be. Then there is an epilogue and it just left me feeling happy and satisfied with the conclusion to this series. As well as eager to dive into the spin-off series next.

All the side characters make plenty of appearances in this book and there’s plenty of banter between Val and Zav, as well as snark and banter with other characters. Ongoing plot lines and character related plot lines get wrapped up and it just made me happy to see how everything got resolved and ended for the characters.

I also really liked seeing Val learn more about her sword in this book, as fitting for these last three books with the Secrets of the Sword titles. There are some cool new powers she learns about it and actually out some of them to use in battles too. I am really happy the author decided to write these last 3 books as I think this book works as a much better ending to the series and the latest story arc about the sword was a fun one.

To summarize: This is an awesome conclusion to the series! It starts a week or so before Val and Zav’s wedding and there’s plenty of things going on with some trolls who are after Val, sword training, wedding planning and visiting relatives. This book wraps everything up well and I liked seeing how everything got resolved. It’s also just another fun read about these characters and there’s plenty of the side characters from previous books. As well as fun banter and character interactions. The narrator for this series is awesome and fits Lindsay Buroker’s style so well. I look forward to the spin-off series!