3.5 stars.
This trilogy may have suffered from the dreaded Second Book Slump, but the final installment was just as fun and entertaining as the first. Since this is the last book in the trilogy and I haven’t reviewed the first two books, I’m not going to get much into the plot in this review. Overall, this series was entertaining to listen to, but it wasn’t much more than that. The story and writing for the most part were good but not spectacular, but I will give credit where credit is due: the reason I added a half star to my rating and rounded that to a 4 in Goodreads is because this book does something I never see in YA: (SPOILERS in white) the female protagonist chooses her friends over her love interest. Not only that, she kills the boy she loves in order to protect them. There are so many YA books I’ve read where the female protagonists puts her friends/family/the world in jeopardy because she loves a boy and would ultimately rather be with him and have the world burn than be parted from him. Of course, because writers have full control, there’s usually a deux ex machina that saves everyone and lets the love interest live happily ever after. Granted, something similar happens here, but that happens after Harper kills David, and she has no knowledge of a possible resurrection at the time she yields the sword. She puts her own personal feelings aside and does what needs to be done.
Not only that, but this book passes the Bechdel test with FLYING colors. The girls are absolutely front and center in this book, with the boys either way in the background or needing rescuing from the ladies.
To sum up: well worth listening to while multitasking, but probably not something I’m going to pick up again.
Book Conversion 