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A review by whatsmacksaid
The Girl of Fire and Thorns Complete Collection by Rae Carson
5.0
4 stars for The Bitter Kingdom, which was a good ending to the trilogy that was genuinely fun with some excellent writing, but there's a whole thing where they go into a bunch of abandoned caves which honestly should have been struck from the book. It had no emotion resonance or tension.
And honestly I'm still a little unclear on why, exactly, Elisa had to strong arm her sister and Cosme into declaring fealty. Because they would waste too much time arguing about what to do? That still seems like such a flimsy excuse to make yourself empress.
Anyway: 5 stars for the overall series. My least favorite book is still the first one, but the other two books are great and the novellas as equally wonderful. In my experience it's incredibly rare to come across auxiliary shorts—in this case, three novellas from three different characters that are not the series's main protagonist—that build both the world and the cast of the series up and out in such a way that couldn't be accomplished within the main series. They honestly enriched my reading experience. I definitely recommend this series.
And honestly I'm still a little unclear on why, exactly, Elisa had to strong arm her sister and Cosme into declaring fealty. Because they would waste too much time arguing about what to do? That still seems like such a flimsy excuse to make yourself empress.
Anyway: 5 stars for the overall series. My least favorite book is still the first one, but the other two books are great and the novellas as equally wonderful. In my experience it's incredibly rare to come across auxiliary shorts—in this case, three novellas from three different characters that are not the series's main protagonist—that build both the world and the cast of the series up and out in such a way that couldn't be accomplished within the main series. They honestly enriched my reading experience. I definitely recommend this series.