A review by paragraphsandpages
The Sky Weaver by Kristen Ciccarelli

4.0

This was such a good story to end the trilogy on!

I already really liked Safire from the previous two books, and I was really glad to see that this story was hers! While she stumbled a lot for me in the story, it ended up making me like her more. While she did hold on to her ideals a little longer than I expected, she did question them for most of the book, and I liked that. I also like where the story ended up taking her, in terms of her dreams and wishes and the fact
Spoiler she felt like she was allowed to seek out a life for herself, to find happiness, not just safety
. I also really liked Eris, from the very beginning. I caught on quickly that there was something special about her, and while I had guessed early on what it was, I liked watching her figure it out and then struggle with it. I liked how kind she remained even after everything she was forced to do, and how much she cared about the people around her, even if she felt they didn't care about her at all. Her story was also just heartbreaking, and I loved how it connected with the lore of the entire series.

The focus of this book was on the stories, just like the past few, but I felt like The Sky Weaver was once again fully focused on it like The Last Namsara was. I loved reading the snippets in between the chapters once again, and sometimes they were even my favorite aspect. I loved even more that the gods were even more connected to the story this time around, and that
Spoiler we got to directly meet the people who survived the stories, not just hear about them. I loved getting to meet the Sky Weaver and the Shadow God, and it added a lot to the story for me, seeing them humanized (or not, in the case of the God of Tides).
. I also liked the setting of the Star Isles, and the extra layers of magic that those islands possessed. It was wholly different from the dragons of Firgaard, yet still connected through stories.

One of my only issues with this book is that it was a little too predictable for me, and while I normally don't mind that, I definitely felt myself just waiting for the characters to realize the twists at some point. I felt like there were moments where the characters didn't question things enough (from the paintings in the hallway to Eris's power). Logically, it probably makes sense it took them longer because they didn't have access to both POVs and didn't know any of the stories, as the actual events of the stories were hidden and manipulated to hide the truth from the actual characters of the story. It didn't stop it from being a smidge frustrating at times.

The other issue has to do with what I also had an issue with in the previous book, a character having an entirely false perception of another character and it driving a lot of the plot and decisions of the character. It didn't last as long in this book, but there were moments where I was so tired of how Safire judged Eris and how cruel she could be. Once again, logically Safire's actions made sense, she didn't have the insight we did, but it didn't make it easier to read at times.

Overall, I'm really happy with the direction of this series and I can overall say I quite enjoyed it! The Last Namsara will always be my favorite though, there's just something special about it for me!