pro tip for reading this series: read them all at once!! because picking this final installment up after about a year since reading book three with absolutely no recap… had me flailing 😩🤔🫨 I truly had no idea what was happening for about 75% of this book

as much as I’m happy that romeria and zander’s stories have come to a conclusion, it felt very anticlimactic to me. yes, there was a final battle of good versus evil, but I just feel that the purpose of books two and three were to keep building to this point and … it didn’t live up to the hype, I fear 🫥

while the story is solely romeria’s, I grew so attached to the side characters throughout and felt that many of them didn’t get as fleshed out of an ending as they deserved… justice for atticus and grace, that’s all okay 🫠 

and then there’s jarek, my lovely lil pining guard who… didn’t have a single backbone or thought in this one… I was ready for a big confession or love triangle moment in this one, but instead it remained the zander and romeria show with jarek firmly in a background role 🫠🫠

while I did enjoy the action and seeing the end of this series, I just felt that more could have happened, as the final battle lasted only a few chapters and had the “good guys” absolutely dominating when a lot of the book spent time talking about how doomed they were…

overall, a fun series but ultimately not one I’d recommend always! 

rating: 3 stars
wine pairing: california sparkling rosé