{"id":3655,"date":"2025-07-24T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T09:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3655"},"modified":"2025-07-24T09:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T09:05:00","slug":"starred-book-review-the-campaign-by-evette-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3655","title":{"rendered":"STARRED Book Review: The Campaign by Evette Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Campaign<\/em><\/strong> (The Council Trilogy, 3)<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Evette Davis<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Fantasy \/ Urban Fantasy<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9781684633326<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 354 pages<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Lauren Hayataka<\/em><\/p>\n

This campaign trail comes with curses, ghosts, and a demon or two.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In The Campaign<\/em>, the final book in The Council Trilogy, Evette Davis delivers a smart, fast-paced urban fantasy that\u2019s as much about political warfare as it is about personal reckoning. Returning to the series is like settling into familiar territory\u2014only this time, the stakes have gone global, and the monsters wear suits.<\/p>\n

Olivia Shepherd, political consultant and reluctant witch, barely has time to regroup after her last mission before she\u2019s rerouted to Idaho on a favor she can\u2019t ignore. Diana Chambers, a Secretary of State with her eye on the presidency, is assembling a campaign\u2014and she wants Olivia by her side. The job would be complicated enough without Stoner Halbert in the mix. He\u2019s not just a campaign rival\u2014he\u2019s the very real face of supernatural chaos, backed by dark magic and a trail of destruction no press cycle can explain away.<\/p>\n

With her circle\u2014William, Josef, Elsa, Lily\u2014back at her side, Olivia\u2019s pulled into something much larger than an election. Strange weather, unexplained violence, and ominous visions point to a world increasingly out of balance. And for once, it\u2019s not just the Council calling the shots. It\u2019s the gods. The dead. Her family. Everyone, it seems, wants Olivia to become something more.<\/p>\n

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The chapters move briskly, and Davis has sharpened the pacing since The Gift<\/em>. The writing is confident but relaxed, letting the emotional stakes rise without drawing too much attention to them. There\u2019s the expected fantasy flare\u2014werewolf attacks, spectral messengers, cursed amulets\u2014but none of it overwhelms what makes the story work: Olivia herself.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a heroine who still doesn\u2019t quite want the job, still doubts herself, still wishes things could be simpler. But this time, she stops running. Her relationships with William and Josef remain tangled and intimate, especially as she begins to question what love looks like after betrayal\u2014and what it means to be chosen by someone versus choosing them in return. It\u2019s messy, but grounded. Davis never plays the romance for drama. She lets it sit in the background where it belongs, textured but never overpowering.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a heaviness here that wasn\u2019t present in earlier books\u2014grief, inheritance, exhaustion. Olivia\u2019s late mother and grandmother are constant shadows, not just in spirit but in memory, reminding her that power often comes from pain. Her father, once a steady hand at the head of the Council, begins to falter. The prophecy following her for two books now presses closer, demanding more than strategy or magic. It demands commitment; commitment that Olivia isn\u2019t sure she\u2019s capable of living up to.<\/p>\n

And still, Davis never forgets to make room for sharp dialogue, dry humor, or the surreal nature of blending campaign stops with ancient rituals. A demon hiding behind a press secretary. A livestreamed witch hunt. A political opponent whose very presence warps the laws of nature. It all works because it isn\u2019t overwrought. It\u2019s just Olivia\u2019s life now\u2014and like her, we\u2019re not surprised anymore.<\/p>\n

The book\u2019s final third pivots toward deeper revelations, but Davis keeps her focus where it belongs: on Olivia. The resolution isn\u2019t about fireworks or final battles. It\u2019s about acceptance. What makes The Campaign<\/em> satisfying isn\u2019t how it wraps up the plot\u2014it\u2019s how Olivia begins to take ownership of herself. The work she does isn\u2019t just in the field. It\u2019s in her relationships. In her family home. In the way she finally stops hiding from the life that\u2019s been waiting for her.<\/p>\n

There are still enemies. Still sacrifices. But by the end, Olivia understands the cost of leading\u2014and chooses it anyway.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Lauren Hayataka\u2019s book review of The Campaign <\/em>by Evette Davis! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post STARRED Book Review: The Campaign by Evette Davis<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Campaign (The Council Trilogy, 3) by Evette Davis Genre: Fantasy \/ Urban Fantasy ISBN: 9781684633326 Print Length: 354 pages Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Lauren Hayataka This campaign trail comes with curses, ghosts, and a demon or two. In The Campaign, the final book in The Council Trilogy, Evette Davis delivers a smart, fast-paced urban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}