The House of Always by Jenn Lyons || Hold On To Your Feels, Readers

The House of Always (A Chorus of Dragons, #4)

For fans of Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss, The House of Always is the fourth epic fantasy in Jenn Lyons' Chorus of Dragons series that began with The Ruin of Kings.
What if you were imprisoned for all eternity?
In the aftermath of the Ritual of Night, everything has changed.
The Eight Immortals have catastrophically failed to stop Kihrin's enemies, who are moving forward with their plans to free Vol Karoth, the King of Demons. Kihrin has his own ideas about how to fight back, but even if he's willing to sacrifice everything for victory, the cost may prove too high for his allies.
Now they face a choice: can they save the world while saving Kihrin, too? Or will they be forced to watch as he becomes the very evil they have all sworn to destroy.

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Characters that will make you both hurt for them and root for them.
• Plot twist upon plot twist that’ll keep you guessing.
• Anti-heroes that definitely do not want to work together, thanks.
• And yet … they really don’t have any choice in the matter if they don’t want the world to inconveniently end.
• Layers upon layers of interactions and plotting and scheming and conniving.
• A really sweet three-way romance.
• Lots of character growth and healing that will absolutely break your heart.

Many thanks to Tor and JeanBookNerd for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

We’re on book fouuuuur, y’all! Book. Four. It has been a journey, and I’m pretty sure I’ve aged about twenty years fretting over these characters. And we’re still not done yet, thank goodness. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book from pretty much the moment I set down book three. Thankfully, it has a really convenient recap in the beginning, so I didn’t feel like I had to go back and re-read the others, since that caught me up pretty nicely and I remembered what had happened and could jump right into it! And boy did I ever.

The House of Always is the hit to the feels I expected from book four of A Chorus of Dragons … but not in the way I imagined! It’s about betrayal and secrets and falling apart and coming together and realizing that, despite what the world told you, you matter.

I figured this book was going to break my heart, given what’s happened in the other books and that this is book four of the series, but … this is not what I was expecting. It didn’t break my heart in the ways I had thought, but in so much worse ways. It took these strong, beautiful, utterly broken characters and shattered them over and over again, forcing them to either heal or break entirely, and I absolutely loved it.

This review may contain spoilers for books 1 – 3 of this series.

The House of Always needs trigger warnings for just about everything, because this is a no-holds-barred psychological war between Vol Karoth and our main antiheroes where everything is on the table and no memory is sacrosanct.

In other words … fun! The story is actually told in a really unique way that, had you described it to me going in, I wouldn’t have thought it would work for a book. A film, sure, but not a book. The majority of the book is spent in one static location (the Lighthouse) with the rest of the story being told through the memories of the characters trapped there. The reader gets a flash of memory, then back to the lighthouse to see the reaction. Oh, and react they do, lovelies! In case you’ve forgotten, this world is all about secrets and betrayals, and these characters are the best of the best.

What I think worked especially well about this story structure is the fact that the main cast at this point is all connected in somewhat tenuous ways they don’t always realize … and almost all of them would rather be with anyone else than with each other.

It’s tense. It’s dramatic. Someone might get stabbed … or worse. Who knows?! That’s what makes it so thrilling! Enemies being forced to work together is one of my all-time favorite tropes, and it works so well here because there is so much between all these characters. Layers upon layers and lifetimes upon lifetimes of betrayal and heartache. The tragedy and drama this causes is just *chef’s kiss*

So Kihrin’s plan at the end of book three may not have gone quiiiite as he’d anticipated. Surprise? This leads to what I can only describe as psychological warfare.

You know, as opposed to the stabby, fiery, explody kind in the earlier books. Not quite in the way you might expect, though. I mean literal psychological warfare … as in they’re battling in Vol Karoth’s psyche. Sort of. It’s complicated. Also thrilling. How do you convince an ancient bundle of anger, regret, and vengeance that it’s wrong? That’s the trick, isn’t it?

While there are still fight scenes in this book, The House of Always slightly diverges from the previous books in that most of the fight is emotional, where everyone’s memories, mistakes, and betrayals become the weapons Vol Karoth wields.

Of course, they also become the ammo Kihrin uses to fight back, so there’s that. I absolutely loved this give and take. Okay, sure, stabbiness and magic and all-out war is thrilling, but there’s something even more satisfying about getting to see characters’ deepest, darkest memories and then watching how everyone reacts to them. Given how much I absolutely love these characters, I really enjoyed the chance to get to know them all better. This book delves so much more into each and every character. if I thought I was fretting over their well-being before? So much more now that I know them better.

Remember how I mentioned broken feels? Yeah, this book does that. A lot. Exceedingly well. These characters are forced to rehash painful moments and come to some really difficult realizations about themselves.

I know I’m probably not supposed to get so much pleasure out of these characters’ pain, but oh my gosh, you guys, this was just so perfect! We’ve spent three books seeing how strong and resourceful these characters are, how dedicated to survival through any means. Life has handed them shit, and they’ve thrown it right back. Well, now it’s time for that shit to hit the fan.

My heart broke over and over again for these poor, precious characters. A lot of much-needed healing takes place in this book, but a lot of hurt did, too. It’s this constant roller coaster ride that’s bumpy and rickety and only being held up with duct tape and a prayer, but the harrowing ride will be worth it if it can just make it to the end.

Don’t get me wrong, even though this book is more psychological than the others, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any action in it. There’s actually pretty much all the action, because the flashes of memory describe how the characters got to where they are and everything that’s happened in the interim. That’s part of what makes this structure work so well. There’s so much action in the memories and plotting and scheming that the reaction scenes in the “present” let the reader come up a little for air … while still utterly destroying their feels, of course. Can’t have readers getting too complacent, can we?

If you’ve been waiting for the will-they-won’t-they, three-way romance to heat up, the wait is over! The House of Always doubles down on this dynamic, while introducing another utterly adorable (and absolutely doomed) M/M romance.

If I’m honest, I was a little hesitant about the Janel-Teraeth-Kihrin thing going in. But I also couldn’t decide which one I wanted Kihrin to end up with because decisions are hard and ships are even harder. You know what, though? I prefer this. I no longer have to choose, and the dynamic between the three of them is utterly perfect. Yes. This is definitely the best solution. Of course, their past lives complicate things a bit, but what sort of book would this be if that weren’t the case?

There’s also the hint of a new romance brewing, one that is so freaking adorable and so tragically doomed and one I so desperately feel the need to root for that I don’t even know what to do with myself.

Relationships are complicated. You know, as if these characters weren’t complicated enough as it is, nor the situation they’re in messed up enough. But these two? Ugh. I’m intentionally avoiding names to avoid spoilers, but they so deserve a happy ending and the more things develop between the two, the more I want them to have it. Regardless of how unlikely a happy ending seems.

Favorite Quotes

As always with these books, I have more quotes than I know what to do with! And these aren’t even all of them, because I try not to share quotes from the last 50% of books in case there are spoilers. There were so many good lines and scenes in this book, and I couldn’t choose from them all for my review. So I decided to just share some of my favorites. Aren’t you lucky?

About Jenn Lyons

Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, three cats, and a lot of opinions on anything from the Sumerian creation myths to the correct way to make a martini. At various points in her life, she has wanted to be an archaeologist, anthropologist, architect, diamond cutter, fashion illustrator, graphic designer, or Batman. Turning from such obvious trades, she is now a video game producer by day, and spends her evenings writing science fiction and fantasy. When not writing, she can be founding debating the Oxford comma and Joss Whedon’s oeuvre at various local coffee shops.

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—Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

–  3 Winners will receive a Copy of THE HOUSE OF ALWAYS by Jenn Lyons.
– 1 Winner will receive THE HOUSE OF ALWAYS Storytellers BOX.

You can find the full tour schedule here.

WEEK ONE

MAY 10th MONDAY JeanBookNerd INTERVIEW
MAY 11th TUESDAY Kait Plus Books EXCERPT
MAY 12th WEDNESDAY Movies, Shows, & Books EXCERPT
MAY 12th WEDNESDAY TTC Books and More GUEST POST
MAY 13th THURSDAY BookHounds GUEST POST
MAY 13th THURSDAY Insane About Books REVIEW
May 14th FRIDAY Casia’s Corner EXCERPT
MAY 14th FRIDAY The Momma Spot REVIEW

WEEK TWO

MAY 17th MONDAY The Bookwyrm’s Den REVIEW
MAY 17th MONDAY I’m All About Books EXCERPT
MAY 18th TUESDAY Book Briefs REVIEW
MAY 19th WEDNESDAY Rajiv’s Reviews REVIEW
MAY 19th WEDNESDAY Books and Zebras REVIEW
MAY 20th THURSDAY Nay’s Pink Bookshelf REVIEW
MAY 20th THURSDAY Sarai’s Hidden Treasures REVIEW
MAY 21st FRIDAY Ya It’s Lit REVIEW

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