Gorgeous photo by @tranquilreads!
Happy Friday, fairies!
I hope you’ve all had a wonderful week! Do you have any weekend plans? Mine will involve Dreamlight Valley and hopefully many books!
We’re heading into not only our final section of the book, but the last section for our final YA readalong. Grab your copy of The Dagger and the Flame and let’s dive in – we’re reading from chapter 40 until the end of the book.
Once you’ve finished this final section, join me in the comments for all your final thoughts. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this book as much as I have!
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle from chapter 40 to the end of the book. Please only read on if you have finished reading The Dagger and the Flame!
–!SPOILERS!–
Hmm, Sera’s still keeping secrets. She didn’t tell her fellow cloaks about her plans for Du Fort.
So far though, her plan’s working, the monsters follow her.
Ransom meets her but he’s alone. He tells her he needs another week, two at most. He tells her she can’t kill Du Fort.
I’m with Sera on this, I think Ransom’s a bit naïve to truly believe Du Fort is finding his family.
Despite their plan going awry, they share a special moment. Her pleasure somehow obliterated every single shadow mark Ransom bore, so I guess it was worthwhile just for that!
He asks her to run away with him, and she wants to… but she needs to finish all of this first.
Oopsie. Ransom’s been caught! Lark has hit Sera over the head.
He convinces them to get to safety and promises to explain everything.
Oh boy, has Ransom gained a backbone? When they get Sera into the catacombs and Du Fort asks if she’s dead, he says no AND refuses to kill her. Ransom urges Du Fort to look at Sera. Before he can continue pushing him though, there’s calls of a monster in the passage.
Sera’s awake, but cleverly pretends she’s still out for the count. She lets them know she’s come around when it’s only Du Fort and Ransom left. I’m really glad we get to see this moment where she absolutely LAYS into Du Fort for being a bad father! And she draws first blood!
This timing couldn’t have worked out better. Just as Sera throws the lightfire around herself and Ransom, the monsters have breached the cavern entrance.
This is kind of a weird development. The daggers are known for their brutality and yet its Ransom convincing Sera to be safe and to stop thinking with such anger.
She doesn’t even manage to make a start on her plans though because before she’s reached the doorway Lark is on her, and he doesn’t harbour the same feelings of protection Ransom does…
I don’t think he actually wants to kill her but in this scenario, it’s her or Ransom, and Ransom is like a brother to him.
I swear every time Sera manages to escape there’s someone or something else RIGHT THERE waiting for her!!!
Du Fort is on her but this time instead of escaping, Sera is done playing. Gaspard Du Fort, Seraphine’s father, has died at her hand.
Ransom isn’t mad, maybe he realised Du Fort was probably lying about finding his family after all. Even now, all he wants to do is run away with Sera.
Sera is his chance for a better life. He’d all but given up before she came along and showed him hope. Oh god, I’m sobbing!!!
They agree, tomorrow, they’ll run away from the city – together.
When she reaches the Aurore, her friends are waiting for her. Their plan from there goes off without a hitch. It’s just like her mama predicted.
They might have done what they set out too, but they’re not quite safe yet. Lark is back and the outline of him in the dark has everything clicking into place. Lark killed her mother.
This time though, he doesn’t prevail. Sera has too much power. When she touched his chest she branded him and it quite literally kills him. Twice now she’s killed the head of the Daggers. Damn Sera!
Ransom finds out that Lark went after Sera and heads to the Aurore after them. He’s initially astonished to see Sera’s plan worked, and then he sees Nadia cradling Lark. Nadia tells him that Sera murdered Lark. I don’t like where this is going… The grief mixed with everything Nadia is saying about how he let him do it, how dangerous she is… I’m worried about what this will do.
Nadia gives him Du Fort’s ring, and tells him to make things right. If he doesn’t – Nadia will. These are some heavy threats she’s throwing out there too…
Well, thank the Saints Bibi, Theo and Val want to go with her… because Ransom isn’t.
He meets her to give her a final message. He’s not going. He’s wearing Du Fort’s ring, officially the head of the Order of Daggers. Ransom tells her that he’s letting her go. Explains that if he didn’t take up this spot, the Daggers will hunt her. Even now he’s protecting her but this hurts sooo bad.
Before he leaves, she tells him he wasn’t the only one praying to Saint Oriel, she wished for him as well. I can’t. I’m in pain. 😭😭😭😭😭
They decide to come up with a plan, Sera, Val, Bibi, Theo and, obviously, Pippin. They’ll make a new order. The Order of Flames… and they’ll be back.
We’re left with one more mic drop moment… For all of you who said you felt Theo was hiding something – WASN’T HE JUST????
He’s a Versini.
Oh my gosh I loved this story SO MUCH but that ending had me in tears.
What did you think of The Dagger and the Flame overall?
What did you think of the ending?
Did you guess that Theo is a Versini?
And that’s a wrap on our September YA readalong!
As a reminder, we recently announced our September readalongs will be our last. We can’t thank you all enough for joining in with all of our monthly readalongs over the years – we hope you had as much fun as we did!
We have one more readalong to go – next week we’ll be starting The Half King by Melissa Landers – we’d love to see you there for a final readalong farewell! 🥰
Love,
Shannon
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Omg I did not guess that Theo is a Versini! I need book 2 now 😭 And Ransom and Sera broke my heart! When they started talking about running away, I had such a bad gut feeling. That never ends well in books or movies! But Ransom doing it to protect her is so precious. This part from his POV had me in tears: “No longer his spitfire, but a ghost like Mama and Anouk.”. I hope he gets to reunite with the three of them in the next book!
Overall, I really enjoyed this, it feels like the pages flew by. I loved all the characters and the banter between Sera and Ransom. Definitely keeping an eye out for the sequel.
Thanks for hosting the readalongs, it’s been so much fun! 🫶
So excited for the next book! I love an enemies to lovers to enemies. I thought Lark was going to be such a great character, I didn’t expect him to end up so cruel. I already can’t wait so see when the daggers go up against the Order of the Flames, especially with all the tension that will be between Sera and Ransom. Thank you for hosting this read along, I’ve really enjoyed it <3
What did you think of The Dagger and the Flame overall? I really like the concept of both, where they use the shade for different things, its gave me jets and sharks vibes from west side story, with the two who fall in love, i felt like it had a great vibe with the magic.
What did you think of the ending? I really enjoyed the ending did i guess it with the new order yep, guessed that a while back, but man it hurts them not being together but hes dong it to protect her because he loves her and what not heart breaking about that, but who knows new book? they work together may be a good thing?
Did you guess that Theo is a Versini? Lets be honest we all knew he was hiding something so was no surprise when he announced something like this.
I have absolutely loved this book and I really hope there is more to come with it all, its feels like it shouldn’t end now they are putting a new order together.
1. OMG, I loved this book from start to finish! 😍And yes, definitely need more enemies-to-lovers books.🥹
2. The ending was so heartbreaking, but I respect and love Ransom for choosing to save and let Sera go at the same time.😭
3. I didn’t think Theo was a member of the famous Versini family, but I have a feeling the story is getting more and more interesting from here on (if you know what I mean 😏).
I thought we knew about Theo for some reason?? I maybe misread something early on and accidentally had the right conclusion? At any rate, I was shocked no one betrayed anyone on either side. I don’t count Lark since Ransom knew Lark had been assigned the mission too. Or Nadia who was justifiably angry. I didn’t love this book, but I did like it and I think the ending with the Order of Flames is so cool!
Also HANG ON no more readalongs??? I JUST finally got my triple combo sub! Because readalongs! 😭😭😭 Who will I read with now? I’m actually devastated to learn this.
i’m so thankful for this readalong because i feel like i would have put this off otherwise but i had such a good time with it! 4.5 stars!
i loved the ending! a bit of a cliffhanger but not painfully so, which is good because obviously the sequel isn’t out yet haha
i felt like Theo was hiding something but i wouldn’t have guessed this! although the signs were definitely there on reflection. i’m excited to meet the rest of his family properly (and maybe he’ll give some insider information…?)
thank you for this (last) readalong! <3
What did you think of The Dagger and the Flame overall?
– I really enjoyed it! It was a five star read for me!
What did you think of the ending?
– See, I had a good feeling pretty early on that Sera and Ransom would be parting ways at the end, but I hate how they left things! Also, the Versini reveal rattled me!!
Did you guess that Theo is a Versini?
– I did not! I’m excited to see how this will play out in book two.
Daily Q&A:
Q:
1.) What did you think of The Dagger and the Flame overall?
2.) What did you think of the ending?
3.) Did you guess that Theo is a Versini?
A:
1.) I really enjoyed reading it. I had favorite characters, characters that I need to know more in-depth (hopefully in subsequent books), & characters that were easy to loathe, but also characters that surprised me. I liked the magic system, world-building, & history of it all.
2.) The ending makes me nervous about what’s to come, & I’m hoping a bit crazy that I can’t just start reading Book 2 yet.
3.) I knew there was something more to him, but although it might’ve been a fleeting consideration when he mentioned his hometown being around there, I hadn’t put much thought into it since, so it did surprise me.