#thetruthtellersbargain

4 Stars!!

Thank you to Camille Wolfewood for a complimentary copy of this book for review. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a start!

I liked the epigraph's in-between the chapters. They told their own story that helped with the world building! I'd be interested to see more on some of them (especially that one letter...someone knows things aren't going their way and I'm curious what other strings they're attempting to pull). The overall world building is intriguing and I liked how Alethea was able to start learning more about things; you kind of got to see aspects through her eyes because she'd been so sheltered.

Alethea was intriguing on her own. I felt so bad for her when you realized how far Zenobia was willing to go, and what she was willing to do to hold onto her power. I do think that everyone blaming Alethea (even herself) for that one prophecy at the beginning is wrong. Alethea just thinks it because she's never been told otherwise, but Zenobia is just terrified and used it to control her. I did like that underneath things, while she admitted a few times that she was scared, she still stepped into the unknown when she decided to stay with Nakir. And again when she basically announced it to the kingdom. The end, I understand where she was coming from, but I do agree she made a mistake. I get she wanted to help but she didn't consider things. You'd think that being an Oracle, she might have seen that, but I wonder if she can't see her own path? Not sure if that was explained and I missed it or not...

Nakir! Oh how I loved him! Man was gone for Alethea the minute he saved her from running off that cliff, even if he was trying not to give in. I liked that the people he has with him aren't afraid to call him out on his crap. Even as hard as it was, I liked Balthasar telling him that if he took used the Truth-Teller, he'd walk. Then he admitted things to Alethea and I'm kind of hoping she doesn't run away when they have that conversation again.

There is a cliffhanger, in the fact that there's people separated and you're not 100% on how close the danger physically is. But hopefully people are fairly close on other's tails and we don't have to worry about that for too long!

Book releases July 7th, 2026

Other reviews:

Storygraph