Scan barcode
tessisreading2's review
3.0
I skipped two books when a library hold came in. The thing is... it didn't really matter, and I think that's the major flaw with this series. All seven books cover perhaps a year in the book world, and Alex and her friends basically just keep going around and around in circles. The Big Ultimate Villain is someone we met in previous books... who got more villainous in some of those books... and I guess got more so in the two I haven't read yet, but somehow escaped any consequent detainment/punishment... and who develops yet more superpowers, ancestry, and goals which seem to have come out of nowhere, because that's how things work in this series.
It feels sloppy, unfortunately; the more urban fantasy I read, the more I understand how Ilona Andrews is the behemoth of the urban fantasy genre - because the authors had an overarching world setup and plot from book one, and while they never played their hand too early, on re-reading early books in their series, you can see the hints and clues that the readers and often the characters missed at the time. Price clearly wasn't doing that; most of this comes out of nowhere, and Alex, as usual, doesn't pay attention to anything until it becomes plot-necessary for her to do so. Remember that Alex has a missing brother? Neither do I, because except for a few brief mentions in previous books she didn't seem particularly worried about it. Remember her traumatized younger sister? Yeah, remains totally irrelevant to basically everything always. When the heavy drama begins early in the book, Alex seems about as worried as she is when she's dealing with a run-of-the-mill grave witch case with a jerk client, which is nowhere near proportional to the scale of the crisis she's confronting. It makes it hard to find the books particularly stressful, because nothing feels real.
That said, there's something to be said for that. The series is pleasant and engaging, there are plenty of bad guys and dramatic fight scenes, lots of endearing secondary characters, and while Alex is something of a Mary Sue (boy is she ever) she's not unpleasant. There's no sexualized violence, which is a pleasant change from many urban fantasy series. The whole series is wrapped up with a neat little bow - and if the bow is a little too neat and the series is a little too wrapped up in, basically, the very last chapter of the book, well, that's consistent with the rest of the series, and it's nice to have a thorough conclusive ending to things.
It feels sloppy, unfortunately; the more urban fantasy I read, the more I understand how Ilona Andrews is the behemoth of the urban fantasy genre - because the authors had an overarching world setup and plot from book one, and while they never played their hand too early, on re-reading early books in their series, you can see the hints and clues that the readers and often the characters missed at the time. Price clearly wasn't doing that; most of this comes out of nowhere, and Alex, as usual, doesn't pay attention to anything until it becomes plot-necessary for her to do so. Remember that Alex has a missing brother? Neither do I, because except for a few brief mentions in previous books she didn't seem particularly worried about it. Remember her traumatized younger sister? Yeah, remains totally irrelevant to basically everything always. When the heavy drama begins early in the book, Alex seems about as worried as she is when she's dealing with a run-of-the-mill grave witch case with a jerk client, which is nowhere near proportional to the scale of the crisis she's confronting. It makes it hard to find the books particularly stressful, because nothing feels real.
That said, there's something to be said for that. The series is pleasant and engaging, there are plenty of bad guys and dramatic fight scenes, lots of endearing secondary characters, and while Alex is something of a Mary Sue (boy is she ever) she's not unpleasant. There's no sexualized violence, which is a pleasant change from many urban fantasy series. The whole series is wrapped up with a neat little bow - and if the bow is a little too neat and the series is a little too wrapped up in, basically, the very last chapter of the book, well, that's consistent with the rest of the series, and it's nice to have a thorough conclusive ending to things.
blodeuedd's review against another edition
3.0
The end? Oh no, I had not realised it before the actual epilogue. But it was a perfect ending and I was happy.
Alex in in charge of FIB, and is unsure. Faelan is Winter King, and well issues there too (I still want her with Death though, alas no, I can't even remember what happened. Anyway, this is not a book to jump in too, like all UF it has to be read in order. A lot has happened. Grave Witch stuff, evil queens, ghosts and much more. And in this final installment a bomb ruins a gateway and all of Faerie suffers.
Alex has a lot on her plate. Things go down, and yes I can't really say more about that. It has been a great series and I will miss it. There are too few new UF series that wow me these days. These from the golden days are always good reads.
I read the first few and then I have listened to Emily Durante narrate these last 3 and she has been great. I like her voices for everyone, her tone and feel of the book. I highly recommend listening to this series.
Alex in in charge of FIB, and is unsure. Faelan is Winter King, and well issues there too (I still want her with Death though, alas no, I can't even remember what happened. Anyway, this is not a book to jump in too, like all UF it has to be read in order. A lot has happened. Grave Witch stuff, evil queens, ghosts and much more. And in this final installment a bomb ruins a gateway and all of Faerie suffers.
Alex has a lot on her plate. Things go down, and yes I can't really say more about that. It has been a great series and I will miss it. There are too few new UF series that wow me these days. These from the golden days are always good reads.
I read the first few and then I have listened to Emily Durante narrate these last 3 and she has been great. I like her voices for everyone, her tone and feel of the book. I highly recommend listening to this series.
sarahdelucchi's review against another edition
3.0
Not the best book in the series but I enjoyed the ending
hollydoesstuff's review against another edition
4.0
I'm always sad when a series I love comes to an end but this was a fantastic series finale.
veronica87's review
4.0
And so I've come to the end of the Alex Craft series. The series has veered more towards fae plotlines in these last two books and that's suited me just fine since that's the aspect of Alex's life that interested me the most. In this book it seems that all of faerie is under attack so the stakes have never been higher. To make matters worse, Alex is on her own for about half of the book, cut off from those who could help her the most. It was a fast paced ride, probably more so because I get the feeling the author was trying to tie off as many plot threads as she could. I don't know if this series ended because the author ended it or if it was the publisher's decision but, to me, the series still had so much more potential. The places Alex finds herself in both in her personal and professional lives opened up whole new avenues to explore and I'm sad that that won't happen. Plus, though my theory about Alex's father was correct, I still have lots of questions about her family. There is no cliffhanger ending and I couldn't be more pleased with the way Alex's love life wrapped up (though technically that happened in the last book...this one just sealed the deal). Though this was an uneven series at times, it's mostly enjoyable and I'm sad that I've reached the end.
storytimewithlily's review
2.75
Defintiely not my favourite of the series, but still ended well.
Spoilers ahead for my view on the entire series:
(but if you're up to the last book I assume spoilers don't matter)
Although I liked each individual book (particularly the ones focused on witch magic instead of fae magic) the overall story for the series was a bit lacking. And because the overall story was a lacking it made the final book which was supposed to tie up all the loose ends feel a bit lackluster.
Things I didn't like:
- Why did we spend so much time on Alex's relationship with Death? We all knew Falin was end game and having her in a relationship with Death felt like stalling. And in the end Death didn't even play much of a role in the overall story. He became an ex machina for several books and then just disappeared in the final. Surely if we were going to spend so much time with him and even have Alex in a relationship, there must be some kind of payoff in the final book that cements their friendship over romantic relationship. And that scene in the car does not count.
- Why was her brother the planebender? Like I knew it was coming, it was fairly obvious since they kept mentioning how her brother had disappeared and then the planebender never took off his hood, but it didn't mean anything? He didn't play any big role in the last book. It was almost like the author had planted this in the beginning and then got to the end and went 'oh yeah I forgot about this, let's just wrap it up real quick and move on'
- The final battle was so short. Like Alex went on this cool journey meeting all these different people and making new friends/allies and then almost none of them come into play in the final book. Most of her friends are in the mortal world I guess just waiting to die, Nori just stops being involved less than half way through the book, what about all the independent fae Alex had met and helped and befriended on her journeys? Surely in the last book she could pool her resources and get the fae to help her?
Things I'm not sure I liked or not:
- Alex becoming the High Queen. Again it was fairly obvious that her dad was the High King, but why did she need to become the High Queen? I guess it makes sense, she goes on this journey and learns about her heritage and then inherits the position, but I don't know if I liked it. Honestly I thought she was going to become the Winter Queen and that was going to be how she saved Falin and I was pleasantly surprised that Falin became the Winter King instead.
- Merging with Faerie. This kinda ties in with my mixed feeling about Alex being the High Queen. I think maybe I would have liked it if she merged with Faerie or even, as a planeweaver, was able to interact with Faerie in a way no one else could, but she didn't become Queen or even merge with Faerie to do it.
Things I did like:
- The characters. Particularly Alex and Falin. I liked them and I liked them together. I just wish the other characters had been utilised better in the final book.
- The murder mysteries. I think this is where Kalayna Price really shined. She made interesting and creative murder mysteries tied in with her world and worldbuilding, like the body snatcher or the ghouls or the necromancer
- I really liked the witch magic and wished we could have explored it more (but with how the series was going I guess it made sense to explore fae magic more even though Alex never learns how to use fae magic by the end of the series??!!)
Okay so I think we can all agree that I liked the series but I have serious grievances with the last book.
Spoilers ahead for my view on the entire series:
(but if you're up to the last book I assume spoilers don't matter)
Although I liked each individual book (particularly the ones focused on witch magic instead of fae magic) the overall story for the series was a bit lacking. And because the overall story was a lacking it made the final book which was supposed to tie up all the loose ends feel a bit lackluster.
Things I didn't like:
- Why did we spend so much time on Alex's relationship with Death? We all knew Falin was end game and having her in a relationship with Death felt like stalling. And in the end Death didn't even play much of a role in the overall story. He became an ex machina for several books and then just disappeared in the final. Surely if we were going to spend so much time with him and even have Alex in a relationship, there must be some kind of payoff in the final book that cements their friendship over romantic relationship. And that scene in the car does not count.
- Why was her brother the planebender? Like I knew it was coming, it was fairly obvious since they kept mentioning how her brother had disappeared and then the planebender never took off his hood, but it didn't mean anything? He didn't play any big role in the last book. It was almost like the author had planted this in the beginning and then got to the end and went 'oh yeah I forgot about this, let's just wrap it up real quick and move on'
- The final battle was so short. Like Alex went on this cool journey meeting all these different people and making new friends/allies and then almost none of them come into play in the final book. Most of her friends are in the mortal world I guess just waiting to die, Nori just stops being involved less than half way through the book, what about all the independent fae Alex had met and helped and befriended on her journeys? Surely in the last book she could pool her resources and get the fae to help her?
Things I'm not sure I liked or not:
- Alex becoming the High Queen. Again it was fairly obvious that her dad was the High King, but why did she need to become the High Queen? I guess it makes sense, she goes on this journey and learns about her heritage and then inherits the position, but I don't know if I liked it. Honestly I thought she was going to become the Winter Queen and that was going to be how she saved Falin and I was pleasantly surprised that Falin became the Winter King instead.
- Merging with Faerie. This kinda ties in with my mixed feeling about Alex being the High Queen. I think maybe I would have liked it if she merged with Faerie or even, as a planeweaver, was able to interact with Faerie in a way no one else could, but she didn't become Queen or even merge with Faerie to do it.
Things I did like:
- The characters. Particularly Alex and Falin. I liked them and I liked them together. I just wish the other characters had been utilised better in the final book.
- The murder mysteries. I think this is where Kalayna Price really shined. She made interesting and creative murder mysteries tied in with her world and worldbuilding, like the body snatcher or the ghouls or the necromancer
- I really liked the witch magic and wished we could have explored it more (but with how the series was going I guess it made sense to explore fae magic more even though Alex never learns how to use fae magic by the end of the series??!!)
Okay so I think we can all agree that I liked the series but I have serious grievances with the last book.
saucyknits's review
4.0
Excellent end to the series! 4.5⭐️ and a solid overall 4 for the series. Will most likely reread at some point.
cancourtneyread's review
2.0
Great series ended with a whimper. What happened to the story line with Death? With The Mender? The ending felt completely rushed. Disappointed.
tsprengel's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5