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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
I didn't even finish this because I was so mad. I skimmed to the end just to confirm that this book has the worst conclusion to a love square (?) that I can recall reading. The author kills the childhood best friend, makes the enemies to lovers guy abusive, then KILLS him, and then in like the last page of the epilogue, re-shoe horns in a different guy that we basically only read about in book 1. Because he's the only one left alive. Girl, wtf.
The best of the three, IMHO. I loved every minute of it, especially since it ended up on MY version of happy. These were lovely books to disappear with and into...just lovely. ♥
I really enjoyed this one. By the end we had an interesting plot, decent representation, and a love story (I can’t call it a square bc it’s not a square! Like a fan? Fork?) anyway a love story that was unpredictable. I am so tired of books with love triangles that are totally predictable blah blah blah. If you’re going to bother, keep me guessing! So that was a huge appreciation point. To conclude I really liked where this series went and am excited to try other books by this author!
While I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, I feel like this one fell flat. The main character was obnoxious 60% of the time. I’m still confused as to how multiple boys are in love with her.
I loved the magic system in this series. So interesting and fun.
The ending was predictable, at best. She “ended up” with the guy best suited for her.
Overall, I had high hopes for this one and I think it could have been a bit better.
I loved the magic system in this series. So interesting and fun.
The ending was predictable, at best. She “ended up” with the guy best suited for her.
Overall, I had high hopes for this one and I think it could have been a bit better.
Oh man... The series started out so good. I was hooked. But then this happened... Man I'm bummed this book kind of ruined this series. Howell started it as a badass and then she turned into a fickle minded damsel.
**spoilery**
It may be because I’m really easy to please combined with my love for romance themes in novels, but I really did like this – I know there have been some mixed reviews. I appreciate that the story wrapped up, but it wasn’t too neat or perfect – kind of like real life. I didn’t mind that Henrietta had 3 different loves, people are dynamic (usually) and change over time. Those 3 boys all represent something she needed in life. Granted most of us learn and change over a lifetime, Henrietta managed it all in a year or so. The pacing still moved at a breakneck pace, I definitely stayed up past my bedtime reading because I was waiting for a lull in the momentum.
There were 3 things I didn’t love - which in no way takes away from my rating: The Kindly Emperor didn’t feel like a big enough or evil enough “big bad.” He was mentioned a few times previously, but I never realized that the Kindly Emperor was an actual entity that was a potential threat to our heroes and England. All their focus was on the Ancients and R’hlem and he was enough of a villain that the author could have left him as the final boss fight. I also didn’t love his “redemption” it was so half-hearted and really felt like an afterthought. And why did NO ONE think to try to rid Maria of Willoughby? She was such a HUGE liability, yet she was an integral part in all their plans. And why did Maria have to chop off her hand to get rid of Willoughby? I get she did the hand-closing-into-a-fist thing when she felt Willoughby coming on her…. But why?
If you’ve read book one and two, definitely finish the series. This is a solid book: I gasped, I cried, I felt my cold-dead heart swell with love. Overall, I recommend this book.
It may be because I’m really easy to please combined with my love for romance themes in novels, but I really did like this – I know there have been some mixed reviews. I appreciate that the story wrapped up, but it wasn’t too neat or perfect – kind of like real life. I didn’t mind that Henrietta had 3 different loves, people are dynamic (usually) and change over time. Those 3 boys all represent something she needed in life. Granted most of us learn and change over a lifetime, Henrietta managed it all in a year or so. The pacing still moved at a breakneck pace, I definitely stayed up past my bedtime reading because I was waiting for a lull in the momentum.
There were 3 things I didn’t love - which in no way takes away from my rating: The Kindly Emperor didn’t feel like a big enough or evil enough “big bad.” He was mentioned a few times previously, but I never realized that the Kindly Emperor was an actual entity that was a potential threat to our heroes and England. All their focus was on the Ancients and R’hlem and he was enough of a villain that the author could have left him as the final boss fight. I also didn’t love his “redemption” it was so half-hearted and really felt like an afterthought. And why did NO ONE think to try to rid Maria of Willoughby? She was such a HUGE liability, yet she was an integral part in all their plans. And why did Maria have to chop off her hand to get rid of Willoughby? I get she did the hand-closing-into-a-fist thing when she felt Willoughby coming on her…. But why?
If you’ve read book one and two, definitely finish the series. This is a solid book: I gasped, I cried, I felt my cold-dead heart swell with love. Overall, I recommend this book.
This wasn't a terrible finale, but it wasn't great either.
I'm happy with who Henrietta ended up with in the end, but there's a lot of stuff that happened throughout that muddled and complicated things, so it ultimately wasn't the most satisfying ending for me. It wasn't just that they save the world and Henrietta with the guy I personally liked best finally being together and going off to have a peaceful, happy life, no, the author just made it all mucked up with lots of extra complications and I'm like sigh because they sort of felt... unneeded, and made me feel sort of melancholy after all the death and loss and suffering throughout the series. It didn't have the right happily ever after vibes that I wanted and needed after all the strife.
So, uh, spoilers. I recommend reading only if your reading experience is impacted negatively by certain plot devices in romantic subplots.
1) She does end up with Magnus in the end, which I'm glad for. He was offered the best redemption and was overall the most agreeable and likeable of all three possible love interests.
2) However, she loses her virginity to Blackwood. The book is real good about that not mattering to Magnus in the least, but as a reader, it's always sort of eh when a character sleeps with a character you don't like and know they're not ending up with. Also, Blackwood weaponizes this; he calls Henrietta a slut after he goes all crazy with power and turns on her and then again when she's left him and rekindled her affections with Magnus he's like "well, she fucked me, so, she's ruined for anyone else but me." and I'm like, god, I knew I fucking hated you from the moment I found out your name was Georgie.
3) Henrietta also gets pregnant with Blackwood's child and ends up marrying him on his deathbed. I'm really not super keen on pregnancies and babies, but it's, again, just kind of sad that Henrietta ends up so mired with Blackwood after he was actually kind of horrible.
4) Again, I hate Blackwood. He didn't deserve a kid to be better than his forefathers. He didn't even deserve his martyrdom, since it was just him going "I NEED TO BE THE ONE WHO SAVES ENGLAND" because he's got some weird thing about needing to be at the top of everything. It wasn't even him realizing his mistakes it was like he felt owed the prestige of being the one who threw away his life to help end the war. God, what an unlikable fuckface.
5) Then, after this, Magnus and Henrietta are parted because Magnus is send to the continent for official business and they get all "oh I thought you no longer loved me that way anymore" through their letters and there's this dump period of them being all in doubt and I'm like you fucking endured war and battle together to reunite, you withstood engagements and Henrietta being engaged to and then married for a short time to someone else, are y'all really going to play a game of doubting each other's feelings at this point???????????? Like, god, after all that I had to sit through that gambit for some extra tension that was completely pointless.
So, uh, in terms of this being a romance, I'm sad because while it has the final ending I wanted and had enough development to feel natural and believable (no instalove, thankfully), it came with a lot of the baggage that I don't like seeing spring up in romances. It just... wasn't all that satisfying.
I read through the book pretty quickly, about four hours, because the overall plot was pretty engaging with this being the final stand against the Ancients and what not. Not terrible, the whole series was a fun, easy read but, I'm sad the romance wasn't more satisfactory overall.
Merged review:
This wasn't a terrible finale, but it wasn't great either.
I'm happy with who Henrietta ended up with in the end, but there's a lot of stuff that happened throughout that muddled and complicated things, so it ultimately wasn't the most satisfying ending for me. It wasn't just that they save the world and Henrietta with the guy I personally liked best finally being together and going off to have a peaceful, happy life, no, the author just made it all mucked up with lots of extra complications and I'm like sigh because they sort of felt... unneeded, and made me feel sort of melancholy after all the death and loss and suffering throughout the series. It didn't have the right happily ever after vibes that I wanted and needed after all the strife.
So, uh, spoilers. I recommend reading only if your reading experience is impacted negatively by certain plot devices in romantic subplots.
1) She does end up with Magnus in the end, which I'm glad for. He was offered the best redemption and was overall the most agreeable and likeable of all three possible love interests.
2) However, she loses her virginity to Blackwood. The book is real good about that not mattering to Magnus in the least, but as a reader, it's always sort of eh when a character sleeps with a character you don't like and know they're not ending up with. Also, Blackwood weaponizes this; he calls Henrietta a slut after he goes all crazy with power and turns on her and then again when she's left him and rekindled her affections with Magnus he's like "well, she fucked me, so, she's ruined for anyone else but me." and I'm like, god, I knew I fucking hated you from the moment I found out your name was Georgie.
3) Henrietta also gets pregnant with Blackwood's child and ends up marrying him on his deathbed. I'm really not super keen on pregnancies and babies, but it's, again, just kind of sad that Henrietta ends up so mired with Blackwood after he was actually kind of horrible.
4) Again, I hate Blackwood. He didn't deserve a kid to be better than his forefathers. He didn't even deserve his martyrdom, since it was just him going "I NEED TO BE THE ONE WHO SAVES ENGLAND" because he's got some weird thing about needing to be at the top of everything. It wasn't even him realizing his mistakes it was like he felt owed the prestige of being the one who threw away his life to help end the war. God, what an unlikable fuckface.
5) Then, after this, Magnus and Henrietta are parted because Magnus is send to the continent for official business and they get all "oh I thought you no longer loved me that way anymore" through their letters and there's this dump period of them being all in doubt and I'm like you fucking endured war and battle together to reunite, you withstood engagements and Henrietta being engaged to and then married for a short time to someone else, are y'all really going to play a game of doubting each other's feelings at this point???????????? Like, god, after all that I had to sit through that gambit for some extra tension that was completely pointless.
So, uh, in terms of this being a romance, I'm sad because while it has the final ending I wanted and had enough development to feel natural and believable (no instalove, thankfully), it came with a lot of the baggage that I don't like seeing spring up in romances. It just... wasn't all that satisfying.
I read through the book pretty quickly, about four hours, because the overall plot was pretty engaging with this being the final stand against the Ancients and what not. Not terrible, the whole series was a fun, easy read but, I'm sad the romance wasn't more satisfactory overall.
I'm happy with who Henrietta ended up with in the end, but there's a lot of stuff that happened throughout that muddled and complicated things, so it ultimately wasn't the most satisfying ending for me. It wasn't just that they save the world and Henrietta with the guy I personally liked best finally being together and going off to have a peaceful, happy life, no, the author just made it all mucked up with lots of extra complications and I'm like sigh because they sort of felt... unneeded, and made me feel sort of melancholy after all the death and loss and suffering throughout the series. It didn't have the right happily ever after vibes that I wanted and needed after all the strife.
So, uh, spoilers. I recommend reading only if your reading experience is impacted negatively by certain plot devices in romantic subplots.
Spoiler
1) She does end up with Magnus in the end, which I'm glad for. He was offered the best redemption and was overall the most agreeable and likeable of all three possible love interests.
2) However, she loses her virginity to Blackwood. The book is real good about that not mattering to Magnus in the least, but as a reader, it's always sort of eh when a character sleeps with a character you don't like and know they're not ending up with. Also, Blackwood weaponizes this; he calls Henrietta a slut after he goes all crazy with power and turns on her and then again when she's left him and rekindled her affections with Magnus he's like "well, she fucked me, so, she's ruined for anyone else but me." and I'm like, god, I knew I fucking hated you from the moment I found out your name was Georgie.
3) Henrietta also gets pregnant with Blackwood's child and ends up marrying him on his deathbed. I'm really not super keen on pregnancies and babies, but it's, again, just kind of sad that Henrietta ends up so mired with Blackwood after he was actually kind of horrible.
4) Again, I hate Blackwood. He didn't deserve a kid to be better than his forefathers. He didn't even deserve his martyrdom, since it was just him going "I NEED TO BE THE ONE WHO SAVES ENGLAND" because he's got some weird thing about needing to be at the top of everything. It wasn't even him realizing his mistakes it was like he felt owed the prestige of being the one who threw away his life to help end the war. God, what an unlikable fuckface.
5) Then, after this, Magnus and Henrietta are parted because Magnus is send to the continent for official business and they get all "oh I thought you no longer loved me that way anymore" through their letters and there's this dump period of them being all in doubt and I'm like you fucking endured war and battle together to reunite, you withstood engagements and Henrietta being engaged to and then married for a short time to someone else, are y'all really going to play a game of doubting each other's feelings at this point???????????? Like, god, after all that I had to sit through that gambit for some extra tension that was completely pointless.
So, uh, in terms of this being a romance, I'm sad because while it has the final ending I wanted and had enough development to feel natural and believable (no instalove, thankfully), it came with a lot of the baggage that I don't like seeing spring up in romances. It just... wasn't all that satisfying.
I read through the book pretty quickly, about four hours, because the overall plot was pretty engaging with this being the final stand against the Ancients and what not. Not terrible, the whole series was a fun, easy read but, I'm sad the romance wasn't more satisfactory overall.
Merged review:
This wasn't a terrible finale, but it wasn't great either.
I'm happy with who Henrietta ended up with in the end, but there's a lot of stuff that happened throughout that muddled and complicated things, so it ultimately wasn't the most satisfying ending for me. It wasn't just that they save the world and Henrietta with the guy I personally liked best finally being together and going off to have a peaceful, happy life, no, the author just made it all mucked up with lots of extra complications and I'm like sigh because they sort of felt... unneeded, and made me feel sort of melancholy after all the death and loss and suffering throughout the series. It didn't have the right happily ever after vibes that I wanted and needed after all the strife.
So, uh, spoilers. I recommend reading only if your reading experience is impacted negatively by certain plot devices in romantic subplots.
Spoiler
1) She does end up with Magnus in the end, which I'm glad for. He was offered the best redemption and was overall the most agreeable and likeable of all three possible love interests.
2) However, she loses her virginity to Blackwood. The book is real good about that not mattering to Magnus in the least, but as a reader, it's always sort of eh when a character sleeps with a character you don't like and know they're not ending up with. Also, Blackwood weaponizes this; he calls Henrietta a slut after he goes all crazy with power and turns on her and then again when she's left him and rekindled her affections with Magnus he's like "well, she fucked me, so, she's ruined for anyone else but me." and I'm like, god, I knew I fucking hated you from the moment I found out your name was Georgie.
3) Henrietta also gets pregnant with Blackwood's child and ends up marrying him on his deathbed. I'm really not super keen on pregnancies and babies, but it's, again, just kind of sad that Henrietta ends up so mired with Blackwood after he was actually kind of horrible.
4) Again, I hate Blackwood. He didn't deserve a kid to be better than his forefathers. He didn't even deserve his martyrdom, since it was just him going "I NEED TO BE THE ONE WHO SAVES ENGLAND" because he's got some weird thing about needing to be at the top of everything. It wasn't even him realizing his mistakes it was like he felt owed the prestige of being the one who threw away his life to help end the war. God, what an unlikable fuckface.
5) Then, after this, Magnus and Henrietta are parted because Magnus is send to the continent for official business and they get all "oh I thought you no longer loved me that way anymore" through their letters and there's this dump period of them being all in doubt and I'm like you fucking endured war and battle together to reunite, you withstood engagements and Henrietta being engaged to and then married for a short time to someone else, are y'all really going to play a game of doubting each other's feelings at this point???????????? Like, god, after all that I had to sit through that gambit for some extra tension that was completely pointless.
So, uh, in terms of this being a romance, I'm sad because while it has the final ending I wanted and had enough development to feel natural and believable (no instalove, thankfully), it came with a lot of the baggage that I don't like seeing spring up in romances. It just... wasn't all that satisfying.
I read through the book pretty quickly, about four hours, because the overall plot was pretty engaging with this being the final stand against the Ancients and what not. Not terrible, the whole series was a fun, easy read but, I'm sad the romance wasn't more satisfactory overall.
2.5 stars ... Well I didn't hate it...honestly I was very ambivalent about the whole book. Which is SUCH a disappointment because I really enjoyed the first two books! I feel like more often than not I end up disappointed in a series.
There were so many good ideas in this series and honestly I think the hot mess that was the romantic square did the plot a huge disservice. I was ok with it in book 1 bc I assumed a direction would be taken but nope. As a result, I felt like character personalities were just yo-yo-ing all over the place and seemed inconsistent while making Henrietta seem wishy washy. I 100% thought blackwood was possessed or something at the end of book 2 bc of the way he was acting but HAHA no that's just the characters being inconsistent. The only arc I liked thru this series was Magnus so there's that. I wouldn't have made it thru this if it wasn't for Fiona Hardingham's narration.
This book isn't BAD and the writing is enjoyable I just had a hard time fitting it in with the rest of the series. And then I became ambivalent.
There were so many good ideas in this series and honestly I think the hot mess that was the romantic square did the plot a huge disservice. I was ok with it in book 1 bc I assumed a direction would be taken but nope. As a result, I felt like character personalities were just yo-yo-ing all over the place and seemed inconsistent while making Henrietta seem wishy washy. I 100% thought blackwood was possessed or something at the end of book 2 bc of the way he was acting but HAHA no that's just the characters being inconsistent. The only arc I liked thru this series was Magnus so there's that. I wouldn't have made it thru this if it wasn't for Fiona Hardingham's narration.
This book isn't BAD and the writing is enjoyable I just had a hard time fitting it in with the rest of the series. And then I became ambivalent.
There are a lot of monsters in this book and almost as many endings as “ The Return of the King.”
Felt like a slog after enjoying the previous books. Characters kept switching personalities to make plot points without me believing the transformation