ladygrey
In some ways, I'd say Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave are a duology with Once a King as a companion novel. It switches main characters to closure to Aodren along with bit of adventure along the way.
Mostly, it's a good story. Aodren is a likeable character and Lirra is more interesting than she was in previous books. The story, quite pleasantly, allows its characters to communicate with each other as the plot moves, even when a reader might expect conflict contrived out of a lack of communication.
That being said, I found keeping track of the names of kingdoms and the names of their corresponding ruler confusing. I wasn't sure who was friend and who was foe. I pretty much stopped trying and only paid attention to the main players moving the plot without any idea, really, of which kingdom they were from.
One plot point annoyed me. I got that Lirra was supposed to be the channeler hero of this story. But when the complication about having a channeler from they kingdom in the show the story didn't acknowledge that Malam had a powerful channeler in Britta. Not even including a quick, “Can we get Britta here fast enough? No, ok moving on to plan B” made it feel less isolated from the other stories.
I would have also enjoyed a bit firmer closure between Aodren and Lirra. It was apparent where it was heading, but as the last book in the “trilogy” I would have preferred a nice solid ending.
The series had good, old school fantasy vibes. I enjoyed the characters and am glad I bought the trilogy. I have no doubt I'll enjoy reading it again.