Week Forty-Five -  November 5th - November 11th

Title: Morana The Cursed

Author: -DeeIsDead-

Genre: Fantasy

Number of Chapters: 31

Completed? Yes

Link (Added as an in-line comment):

Blurb:

Morana has mastered death, making her able to control the remains of the dead whenever she pleases. It has allowed her to become one of the most notoriously feared assassins and thieves in all of the Kingdom of Wyrith. However, her great power hasn't been able to stop her from failing every mission she takes on for her boss.

With her reputation and home on the line, she is given one last job - one last chance to prove that she is worthy of the title she claims - before she will lose everything she's ever known.

This mission will tear past memories from where they've been hiding and prove to be a lot more difficult than the assassin ever thought. With the forced help of a Fireborn, will Morana achieve what she hopes for? Or will she lose everything she's ever worked towards?

Goose's Thoughts:

It's Week 45 and we're diving head-first into a fantasy story featuring a chaotic necromancer and an overly charming Fireborn!

I don't think I've read a story as stressful as this one since I started this challenge in January, which is saying something. The final few chapters of this story were full of so many twists and turns that it made my head spin, but somehow they all made sense. Dee is the master at using foreshadowing and laying the bases of these plot twists early on in the story without us noticing until the very end. It is so well done despite how stressful it was and how I spent the latter half of the story with my laptop caps lock turned on. 

Morana made for an interesting main character to follow throughout this story and I loved seeing her progression throughout. One of my favourite things is that despite being a renown assassin and thief, almost immediately we're shown the opposite. Despite her reputation, she's not the perfect thief she should be and it creates such a strong juxtaposition to her inner thoughts and confidence in her abilities. 

Her growth throughout the story is so good and I loved seeing her come into her own, but also have a little bit of fun along the way. Seeing her grow as a person and come to the realisation that Silas, the stories villian, didn't have her best interests at heart was such a powerful moment. She goes on such a journey throughout the story alongside Damian. 

The two of them have such an interesting dynamic and I loved seeing them work together and pushing each other. Damian really helps Morana through this transition but also goes on quite the journey himself. He really takes hold of his past and the mistakes he made which goes along way to helping Morana deal with her own past and the life she found herself in. I loved how he was almost the voice of reason that Morana needed and I felt myself agreeing with him at pretty much every turn.

If your looking for a high-intensity fantasy story that will leave you yelling at the screen -- still haven't forgiven Dee for one of those moments -- then this is the story for you. The twists, the foreshadowing, the world-building are all so well done and play out so beautifully throughout the story. 

Thank you for writing such an amazing story, Dee!

-Goose