A review by anthonybanthony
A Reign of Rose by Kate Golden

3.0

Rating: B-
Part 1 and 2 = Yeeeessss
Part 3 = Ehhh
The good parts of Part 4 = Yesss

The final battle was great. Dagan's death and Arewen transforming into a dragon to take out Lazarus were awesome.

The bad parts of Part 4 = Noooooo

Them not sensing Lazarus coming during the wedding is pretty bad judgement on Kane and Arwen's part since they're packing everyone together when they know he's coming for them. An easy solution would be to have a private ceremony with all the main/secondary characters and then having the final fight take place as described. Briar's death didn't land nearly as hard as Dagan's. They try to tie it into Arwen's mother dying, but she wasn't nearly as significant in the story and characters' overall development. Why the heck do they introduce and then drop the 'we can't kill Lazarus because his death will drown the Fae realm in darkness' plot?

Some really excellent action and visuals. The romance between Kane and Arwen is great, but what is up with all the unsatisfying resolutions and lingering plot threads? It's really not in the 'and the adventure continues' kind of way. I expect that in these types of stories.

The Fae realm is supposed to collapse into darkness upon Lazarus's death, and yet the characters barely mention what's going on there in the epilogue. Despite that magic spell being a major reason why they were afraid to kill Lazarus in the first place. They also wrap up all the political drama in a few paragraphs and all the other stuff that was introduced in Promise of Peridot. The Griffin and Mari drama really got on my nerves, and it's still not resolved! Even after the aging conundrum is patched up! It was like the bizzaro universe version of Oscar and Ruby from the Renegades trilogy.  I think she caught on the Frederik plotline was dumb and only addressed it in the most vestigial manner possible. It felt like there could've been at least half a book's worth of stuff to properly wrap things up.