captainpaws 's review for:

Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat

5.0

---

Kings Rising absolutely blew me away. WOW, what a way to end a series. I was absolutely engrossed in every aspect of this book. Laurent is a mastermind of a character with so many layers and each time it was revealed he knew something all along had me gasping. His past experiences with his uncle revealed that the “captive prince” had more than one meaning and the ending was beautiful and heart wrenching in a way I didn’t think this book would hit me. And seeing Damen shift back into his role as king with a new lens on the world and what his nation has done to others?? Both Laurent and Damen are complex characters who have done fucked up things but their actions continue to haunt them and allow them to grow while not forgetting their wrongdoings. I think it was incredibly respectable to see the MCs recognizing that they are perpetuating a cycle of abuse and then trying to dismantle those systems going forward. This book was genuinely spectacular, I adore when little details from a random sentence in book one end up having a huge impact on the last page of the story and this was one of those series. Again, WOW.