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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A Gripping Blend of Magic, Legacy, and Love – A Near Perfect Finale
4.5 stars
The Journal of a Thousand Years delivers a thrilling and heartfelt conclusion to CJ Archer’s enchanting series. With an ancient family diary at its center and a prophecy that seems to pulse with urgency, this final installment weaves past and present into an epic story of fate, love, and legacy.
Sylvia’s world is already complicated enough as she prepares to meet Gabe’s parents—an emotional milestone—but the sudden reappearance of her long-lost father adds a new layer of mystery and danger. His long-awaited answers are both satisfying and ominous, especially when he gifts her a journal steeped in history, magic, and secrets. The prophecy within its pages is both haunting and hopeful, drawing Sylvia and Gabe into a destiny neither fully understands—but cannot ignore.
Archer masterfully balances the emotional tension between Sylvia and Gabe with the escalating external threat that shadows them. Gabe’s miraculous survival has made him a target, and when those threats turn toward Sylvia, the stakes soar. Their bond is tested, deepened, and ultimately forged stronger through adversity.
The pacing is tight, the writing lush, and the world-building just as rich as ever. The only reason this isn’t a full 5 stars is a minor wish for a deeper dive into the prophecy’s origins—but even so, the resolution is satisfying and true to the heart of the story.
If you’ve followed this journey from the beginning, The Journal of a Thousand Years is the magical, emotionally-charged finale you’ve been waiting for.
The perfect ending to the series and I think my favorite one!!
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
A great end to the series- I enjoyed not having the love interest plot line drug out over the course of 10+ books
So I enjoyed the series and read through it quickly but I had a couple of issues which got worse as the series progressed:
1. Too many characters. I think this is probably a function of its being a sequel series - we have the parent generation and the kid generation and Archer assumes we want to know all about both. I did not. Similarly, towards the end of the series,villains from the parent generation popped up for basically no reason to continue their villainy .
2. It’s great that a female character is openly bisexual, but all of the gay men (or men who sleep with men) whom we meet in the series are either easily-manipulated weaklings, villains, or both, and their sexuality is totally irrelevant to their role in the book(s). There should not be multiple instances where the revelation is that the mildly-villainous idiot couldn’t actually have committed some piece of villainy because he was having gay sex with unnamed married men. Multiple. Different idiots. (While there is a very close relationship between male friends described, Archer explicitly tells us that it is not romantic and implies that one man is aromantic.)
3. I did not like how Archer dealt with shell shock and for that matter neuroatypical people. I don’t think she did enough research or wrote in enough depth about it, and it turned into “childlike autistic-coded person can’t function without someone talking to him like he’s three” and “people with PTSD either can’t function or go completely off the rails because they’re so traumatized.”
4. The pacing of this, the final book in the series, was messy. Things happen, and then other unrelated things happen, and all of the romances introduced or hinted at in earlier books have to get wrapped up, and it’s very much a “wrap up” book rather than a standalone and as such I found it unsatisfying.
1. Too many characters. I think this is probably a function of its being a sequel series - we have the parent generation and the kid generation and Archer assumes we want to know all about both. I did not. Similarly, towards the end of the series,
2. It’s great that a female character is openly bisexual, but all of the gay men (or men who sleep with men) whom we meet in the series are either easily-manipulated weaklings, villains, or both, and their sexuality is totally irrelevant to their role in the book(s). There should not be multiple instances where the revelation is that the mildly-villainous idiot couldn’t actually have committed some piece of villainy because he was having gay sex with unnamed married men. Multiple. Different idiots. (While there is a very close relationship between male friends described, Archer explicitly tells us that it is not romantic and implies that one man is aromantic.)
3. I did not like how Archer dealt with shell shock and for that matter neuroatypical people. I don’t think she did enough research or wrote in enough depth about it, and it turned into “childlike autistic-coded person can’t function without someone talking to him like he’s three” and “people with PTSD either can’t function or go completely off the rails because they’re so traumatized.”
4. The pacing of this, the final book in the series, was messy. Things happen, and then other unrelated things happen, and all of the romances introduced or hinted at in earlier books have to get wrapped up, and it’s very much a “wrap up” book rather than a standalone and as such I found it unsatisfying.
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes