Scan barcode
A review by danibene
Circle of Fire by Michelle Zink
4.0
Having read and very much adored Prophecy of the Sisters and Guardian of the Gate, I was quite excited to see where Alica and Lia's tumultuous journey would end. It was quite bittersweet to read this last installment, since the end of a series is always sad, and I've been reading this one since the beginning. However, I did really like this book, and I'm happy to say that it left off in a great place.
I appreciated that, despite this being the last book in the series, there was still plenty of action because of all the things that Lia had to do before she reached her final confrontation. In fact, most of the book is made up of her search for the rest of the elements of the Prophecy. This did actually annoy me a bit, since I was waiting for a big showdown that would inevitably occur, and it took so long to get to that that it felt rushed in the end. However, the journey to that end was rather exciting. There was nice balance between Lia looking for the remaining keys, finding the rest of the Prophecy, dealing with Alice, and trying to deal with the friends she already has; because of all the different subplots going on, the book is constantly fun to read, made even better by the many twists included.
I also liked the few new characters introduced in this installment, as well as all the old ones. The new ones helped keep the story fresh and brought plenty of new information and help to the table, which was appreciated by both Lia and me. I wish that they had more time to be developed, though, because they got so little time to do much of anything that it was difficult to view them as people rather than just vessels to make ensure that the Prophecy would work. Luckily, I still loved the returning characters, for they definitely took their roles seriously and managed to use their personalities to shine. I loved seeing all the teamwork between Lia and her friends, as well as the issues they have in dealing with everyone else, especially Alice. Alice and Lia's relationship became even more intense in this book, which provided a whole new level of emotion that gave the ending a much bigger impact.
Circle of Fire is an exciting, action-packed conclusion to a fantastic series, and I'm sure fans of the first two installments won't be disappointed.
I appreciated that, despite this being the last book in the series, there was still plenty of action because of all the things that Lia had to do before she reached her final confrontation. In fact, most of the book is made up of her search for the rest of the elements of the Prophecy. This did actually annoy me a bit, since I was waiting for a big showdown that would inevitably occur, and it took so long to get to that that it felt rushed in the end. However, the journey to that end was rather exciting. There was nice balance between Lia looking for the remaining keys, finding the rest of the Prophecy, dealing with Alice, and trying to deal with the friends she already has; because of all the different subplots going on, the book is constantly fun to read, made even better by the many twists included.
I also liked the few new characters introduced in this installment, as well as all the old ones. The new ones helped keep the story fresh and brought plenty of new information and help to the table, which was appreciated by both Lia and me. I wish that they had more time to be developed, though, because they got so little time to do much of anything that it was difficult to view them as people rather than just vessels to make ensure that the Prophecy would work. Luckily, I still loved the returning characters, for they definitely took their roles seriously and managed to use their personalities to shine. I loved seeing all the teamwork between Lia and her friends, as well as the issues they have in dealing with everyone else, especially Alice. Alice and Lia's relationship became even more intense in this book, which provided a whole new level of emotion that gave the ending a much bigger impact.
Circle of Fire is an exciting, action-packed conclusion to a fantastic series, and I'm sure fans of the first two installments won't be disappointed.