| Genre | Gay / Post-Apocalyptic / Urban Fantasy / Magic / Shifters / Wizards/Witches/Sorcerers / Romance / Action/Adventure / Mystery/Suspense/Thriller |
| Reviewed by | Christy Duke on 12-June-2024 |
It’s time to fight back, and by the goddess, I will help free my people.
The Cloaked Freeway is finally in a position to effect real change, and I want so badly to be a part of it. Since I was a little kid, it’s been my dream to free my people from under the human’s rule. And now I have the chance to make that dream a reality.
But helping them means giving up so much. I have a family now—a pride—and I don’t want to put them at risk. Luckily for me, my mate wants to be a part of the revolution, too, but that still leaves everyone else.
The world is turning into chaos around us and our family is being pulled in different directions, but I know one thing for sure. The Ono-Nais are fighters, and we’ll do everything in our power to keep each other safe and help those around us.
The fight for freedom has begun and I was so excited to be along for the ride. ‘A Ruse to Unchain Us’ might just be the most thrilling of all of these installments to date and that is saying a lot. It’s time for the magi to break free of their shackles, and it’s way past time for the US government to get what’s coming to it for their years of abuse, neglect, and torture.
The People’s Liberation Union has finally figured out how to safely remove the magi trackers located inside their bodies, along with simply deactivating them, so as soon as they can Mads, Jude, Ash, and Logan all have theirs removed. This way they can start getting more magi out via the Cloaked Freeway. It doesn’t take the US government too long to realize that mass numbers of magi are disappearing and suddenly an order comes from the NHSO that all magi, regardless of where they’re currently housed, are to be remanded to the compound until further notice. The SWC is able to get the NHSO to back off on this order by threatening them with breaking the Great Peace Treaty, but everyone knows this is just the beginning.
“This had been the biggest attack on our own government since before the West split off into a different country over a hundred and twenty years ago. No one had fought back since the People’s Liberation Union had claimed their independence, and we’d basically just declared war.”
A nationwide coordinated effort has them liberating the magi from the compounds and sending them across the Great Divide to the People’s Liberation Union striking a huge hit against the US government. Of course, this sends the pride into a safehouse with other shifters and magi waiting while the Cloaked Freeway tries to get the government to begin talks about equality. Paperwork they liberate from the compounds gives them breeding records going back decades showing familial relationships—something magi have no knowledge of due to being removed from mothers so early to begin training. It was rather horrifying to see that Jude’s mom had been used in this manner since she was a teenager, and had birthed many, many children in the compound. It was just another example of widespread abuse against magi throughout the US. When a group of shifters and magi are surrounded at the border wall by tanks and heavy artillery (seriously, people?), Mads and crew go to help and the NHSO sends a missile firing at the wall leaving Cos, Logan, Haiden, and Ash stranded on the PLU side. It takes a few weeks before they can all be reunited on the US side and that’s a difficult time for everyone.
A coordinated effort by the Cloaked Freeway of releasing information from the compounds, including torture videos and records of “punishments”, into mainstream media begins to turn the tide in their favor. Although when the president of the US does a livestream emergency broadcast and they hang seven magi accused of treason on national television… well, let’s just say a lot of humans begin to see their government in a new way. It’s not until Red Cloth amps up their attacks and then goes after a large tech company that the government agrees to sit down and discuss magi and shifter rights and equality. Typical of all governments that it’s not until it hits their bottom line that it becomes something they want to address.
Whoa. As I said, I think this is the most exciting book in the series and that is truly saying a lot as every one of them has been a suspenseful, thrill ride. The non-humans get their equality agreement with the US government, but something tells me that isn’t going to be a simple one and done. No, my guess is there’s going to be more fighting of some kind as some humans aren’t going to want to step down from their “superior” position. Not to mention, the fight with Red Cloth is far from over, and I really want Mads to get his revenge on Anderson. So, I’m hanging in waiting for the final book, but until then there’s another companion love story to devour.
DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been purchased by the reviewer.
| Format | ebook and print |
| Length | Novel, 392 pages |
| Heat Level | |
| Publication Date | 28-September-2023 |
| Price | $5.99 ebook, $16.99 paperback |
| Buy Link | https://www.amazon.com/Ruse-Unchain-Us-Magi-Accounts-ebook/dp/B0BFGBXSCH |
