Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Last Legacy

Adrienne Young has become my favourite author over the last year. She writes wonderfully and has woven so many intricate characters together. Bryn and Ezra are another example of an amazing pairing who aren't sickeningly soppy yet an extremely powerful and inspirational couple. Her character development is always spot on and she builds so many layers to her worlds. If you haven't read any of her books yet you're missing out!

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nicolelovesbooks's review

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

4.5

What a captivating story. Bryn is the epitome of a female character on a journey to figure out who she is and take hold of her own agency and destiny and I really loved that about her. And Ezra, all quiet and brooding and handsome and talented… and then there’s the Roths. A mafia-like family in a timeless world of gems, traders, and ships. I loved dipping back into the world of Fable/Namesake again and getting to know this infamous family of Bastian.

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bookforthought's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I loved Fable and Namesake, so I was really excited to return to this universe and learn more about the Roth family in The Last Legacy. While I didn't love it quite as much as I did the previous two, this was still a very enjoyable read and confirmation that I will read pretty much anything Adrienne Young writes.

The Last Legacy starts shortly after the events in Namesake have taken place. Although it is meant as a standalone and can easily be read as one (some references are made to the previous book's events but they are marginal to the plot), the worldbuilding might prove confusing to readers who are not already familiar with it as a lot of knowledge of how things work in Bastian is taken for granted.

The Roths had definitely intrigued me in the previous book and I looked forward to learning more about this crime family. The characters were definitely the best thing about this, even though the focus was on only a few of them. Bryn was an interesting main character to follow and I loved seeing a lot of Ezra and Murrow, but I wish we could spend more time with the rest of the family as well.

Sadly, I wasn't all that sold on the romance. I love a forbidden romance/enemy-to-lovers as much as the next person, but its development here just didn't convince me as it just felt rushed and lacking in build-up. Bryn's feelings just seemed to change almost overnight and I couldn't feel the chemistry almost at all until towards the very end of the book.

The plot is also quite thin, as nothing much seems to happen for large portions of the book. However, we do get a fair bit of scheming on all sides and I was all there for it! The descriptions are also gorgeous and I ended up not minding too much about the lack of action as I just enjoyed being in Bastian.

The Last Legacy is a cosy, easy read that Fable fans will definitely enjoy. This kind of book was exactly what I needed when I read it, a quick and comfortable book to take me back to a world I had enjoyed, so I still liked it despite all its flaws but I'm not sure it would hold up on a re-read.

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aspoonfuloflanguage's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

I know a lot of people are comparing this book to the Fable duology, and while they’re set in the same universe I really dont think it’s fair to try and compare them. They’re both good in their own right, and they are quite different from each other. I actually really appreciated how the tone of the book was darker and helped plunge me into a world I had grown to know and love in a completely new way. This book almost felt more like a psychological mystery than a story of adventure, which was really refreshing. I will say that if you’ve read Fable and are familiar with how Young sets up reveals in her writing, it does take away some of the suspense. It would have been nice if her unpredictability was a little less… predictable. It also felt like the relationship and ending of the book was super rushed. All of that should have been revealed more slowly I think… or at least shouldn’t have happened right at the end. It was good don’t get me wrong but I finished the last chapter and was like ‘epilogue?’ ‘another 100 pages maybe?’ but nope. Overall I enjoyed this a lot and I’m excited that she’s publishing another book in this universe later this year!

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