The Forests of Dru by Jeffe Kennedy

The Forests of Dru (Sorcerous Moons, #4)

by Jeffe Kennedy

An Enemy Land

Once Princess Oria spun wicked daydreams from the legends of sorceresses kidnapped by the barbarian Destrye. Now, though she’s come willingly, she finds herself in a mirror of the old tales: the king’s foreign trophy of war, starved of magic, surrounded by snowy forest and hostile strangers. But this place has secrets, too—and Oria must learn them quickly if she is to survive.

A Treacherous Court

Instead of the refuge he sought, King Lonen finds his homeland desperate and angry, simmering with distrust of his wife. With open challenge to his rule, he knows he and Oria—the warrior wounded and weak, the sorceress wrung dry of power—must somehow make a display of might. And despite the desire that threatens to undo them both, he still cannot so much as brush her skin.

A Fight for the Future

With war looming and nowhere left to run, Lonen and Oria must use every intrigue and instinct they can devise: to plumb Dru’s mysteries, to protect their people—and to hold fast to each other. Because they know better than any what terrifying trial awaits…

Reviewed by Melanie on

4 of 5 stars

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Review originally posted at RabidReads.com.

So, this is the fourth books in the Sorcerous Moons series. It picks up right where The Tides of the Bara left us. Lonen wakes up back in Dru. He’s surprised by one of the people there with him. Someone that Lonen was sure was dead. He is also separated from Oria.

This story doesn’t move the plot along as much as I would’ve liked. This story we get to see the Destrye’s reactions to their king coming back with a “witch” and he’s calling her queen. This does not go over well with the Destrye to say the least. Lonen’s family isn’t any happier than the rest of the Destrye. They could even be taking it worse. Most believe that Oria has ensorceled him.

Oria doesn’t have a good time in Dru. She does make the best of it. She and Chuffta just go with the flow to try to fit in as much as possible. She does find some magic that she’s able to absorb, but not at the levels that she’s used to back in Bara.

We also meet a healer, Baeltya, who has some magic of her own. The young healer that helps Lonen and Oria was a bright light among the Destrye. She’s nice to Oria. She’s very curious to learn about things instead of just shunning things she doesn’t understand.

Pilaryh was another kind girl in the Destrye. She takes Oria to the aswae to get clean. It sounded wonderful. It was like a sauna and they would pour oil on the skin and the sweat out the grime. Then with a wooden scraper, scrape of all the dirt. As someone who has dry skin, this sounded amazing to me. Chuffta was even treated with the oil and he loved the heat of the aswae.

While this story was slower than I’m used to from Kennedy, I did enjoy getting to know the Destrye a little better, even if I wasn’t happy with how several of them acted to Oria. We did see that there were people who were kind, even as they were surrounded by people who hated Oria. The end of the story picks up quite a bit. We continue to learn more about Oria, Destrye’s past and more. I’m really interested to see what happens in the next book. I’m expecting it to be pretty exciting.

“And I am the Bringer of Fire! Chuffta added an evil cackle.
“I worry about you. I truly do.”
“I love you, too.” he replied


“I’m not going to lie about it. That’s our past. Yes, an abomination of one, but pretending things weren’t that way won’t magically make it as if it never happened. The Destry have a saying that a man who flinches from the shames of the past will never recognze the dark paths that lead back to them.”


**Book was provided to me by the author. This review is my opinion and was not requested or provoked in anyway by the author.

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  • Started reading
  • 29 January, 2017: Finished reading
  • 29 January, 2017: Reviewed