A review by anna4
One Last Rainy Day by Kate Stewart

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The only reason it’s a 3 star and not a 2.5 is because of the ending.

I’m not really sure what to make of this book.

I went into “One Last Rainy Day” shortly after finishing “The Finish Line”. I knew how this book would end. I knew what to expect and I was prepared for an emotional damage kind of experience.

I didn’t really get that, except with like the last two chapters, which were really good.

If you haven’t read The Ravenhood series yet, or maybe at the very least “Flock”  & “Exodus”, other than it being spoilery, this book won’t make any sense to you.

The pacing is also kind of weird and while this book covers about 80% of Flock told from Dominic’s perspective, I had to use the scenes and moments I knew from Flock to understand where I’m at timeline wise.

I cannot say I enjoyed reading from Dominic’s perspective.

I really had trouble connecting the Dominic I met in Flock & Exodus with the Dominic from this book. There were moments where he almost became unlikable to me. Sean got only worse.

Cecilia though, was at times annoying and at other times you could really see how young she is.

Honestly, the only character that stayed true to himself was Tyler.

I was mainly interested in the book, because of what happened in Exodus, because duh, and also to see Dominc’s relationship with all of the other important characters: Sean, Cecilia, Tyler, Tobias and those moments that Cecilia couldn’t have witnessed.

There was one really lovely moment with Delphine.

Generally speaking: The writing was exhausting and maybe worse than the previous books. And repetitive to no end. A lot of the chapters and monologues felt really dragged out.

The chapter where Dominic & Sean were in France for 10months ? Omg, that could have been cut because I don’t know why this was so long and boring. 

If you plan on doing a reread, I can see the potential for a tandem read of One Last Rainy Day + Flock + Exodus.

This book was overall way too long and I contemplated to DNF several times. If you felt a certain type of way about "The Finish Line", I'm not sure if this book is something you will enjoy.

I feel like if this would have been more of a collection of novellas type of book rather than a full novel, this might have worked better.

However, I cannot wait for Tyler’s book. He was throughout The Ravenhood series and One Last Rainy Day one of my favourites!

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.