Book Review: Cinderella, Necromancer

Release Date: September 5, 2017
Author: F. M. Boughan
Publisher: Month9Books
Length: 324 pages
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

Cinderella, Necromancer is Chime meets Anna Dressed in Blood and was inspired by a real medieval grimoire of necromancy from 15th-century Germany.

Ellison lost her mother at an early age. But since then, her father has found love again. He's happy and doesn't quite notice that Ellison does not get along with his new wife or her mean daughters. When Ellison discovers a necromantic tome while traveling the secret passages of her father's mansion, she wonders if it could be the key to her freedom. Until then, she must master her dark new power, even as her stepmother makes her a servant in her own home. And when her younger brother falls incurably ill, Ellison will do anything to ease his pain, including falling prey to her stepmother and stepsisters' every whim and fancy.

Stumbling into a chance meeting of Prince William during a secret visit to her mother's grave feels like a trick of fate when her stepmother refuses to allow Ellison to attend a palace festival. But what if Ellison could see the kind and handsome prince once more? What if she could attend the festival? What if she could have everything she ever wanted and deserved by conjuring spirits to take revenge on her cruel stepmother?

As Ellison's power grows, she loses control over the evil spirits meant to do her bidding. And as they begin to exert their own power over Ellison, she will have to decide whether it is she or her stepmother who is the true monster.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Ellison (sometimes referred to as Ella) has lived a charmed life, that is until her mother falls in and passes away, leaving her the lady of the house. Her father showed no interest in marrying again, but one day he brings home a new bride, much to Ella's dismay and aggravation. After he father leaves on a business trip Ella soon learns just how cruel and manipulative her new stepmother and stepsisters can be, and just how far they'll go to get what they want. It isn't too long before Ella discovers her houses secret passageways and a mysterious book of magic tucked within. A book that could lead to her freedom, or her undoing. I really loved the character of Ellison, well for the most part. There are times in this book where, even faced with nearly undeniable proof about what is happening, she doesn't quite comprehend it, which can be frustrating, but doesn't really detract from my enjoyment of her character or the story.

Romance: I wasn't quite sure what I'd think of the romance in this book, particularly when in the original Cinderella tale there isn't much more than insta-love between Cinderella and her prince, but like most retellings of Cinderella nowadays there's more than love at first sight between Ella and Prince William. In fact, they have a fun and witty rapport the fuels the annoyed but endearing quality to their romance. They are as open and honest as they can be with each other while still keeping their own secrets and while I wouldn't call this romance in any way "swoon-worthy" it's still a light and solidly defined romance that I couldn't help but root for.

World Building: It's really hard to write about the world building in this book, because most of the time Ella's in her house, the church graveyard, or the Palace, on top of that this story seems to be at least in some part historical fiction, but I'm not completely sure where this story takes place. That being said, the author's writing still breathes life into these pages and it's almost impossible not to understand how everything in this story looks and feels. The descriptions are rich and beautiful and the world comes to life on the page. This book is dark and captivating with moments that truly sent chills down my spine as Ella practices her necromancy and brings forth horrifying spirits to do her bidding. The way the author mixes aspects and elements from a real 15th-century grimoire into this novel is incredible and only serves to more fully bring this book to life... pardon the pun.

Predictability: The foreshadowing in this book is pretty strong. There are many twists in this book that I either predicted or at the very least guessed at. That being said this story isn't without it's captivating and intense twists that I wasn't able to predict. There's far more to this story than a simple Cinderella retelling and it's those aspects that hold a great many twists and turns as this story unfolds.

Ending: This story has one of those false beginnings that tells a bit about the ending without a lot of detail and a lot of vague intrigue, and I couldn't wait to get to that part of the book, but I would say the ending begins a little before that scene and while there were a couple of climaxes toward the end, I was far more entraced with the first one, the one that led up to that false beginning and it was so fantastic, the imagery in my head during that part was just indescribable. Then there's the true final climax which was awesome but in a very different way. There wasn't a huge cooldown in this book, in fact, this book ends almost right after the final climax which was a tad disappointing as I had hoped for a much more neatly tied up ending, but honestly after the amazingness of this book, I didn't mind too much.

Rating:

If you couldn't tell, I LOVED this book. It's haunting and spellbinding and if you're looking for a dark and atmospheric novel to read around Halloween time, pick this up! I urge you!

Book Review: Geekerella

Release Date: April 4, 2017
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Quirk Books
Length: 320 pages
Source: Purchased Book

Anything can happen once upon a con…

When geek girl Elle Wittimer sees a cosplay contest sponsored by the producers of Starfield, she has to enter. First prize is an invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. Elle’s been scraping together tips from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck behind her stepmother’s back, and winning this contest could be her ticket out once and for all—not to mention a fangirl’s dream come true.

Teen actor Darien Freeman is less than thrilled about this year’s ExcelsiCon. He used to live for conventions, but now they’re nothing but jaw-aching photo sessions and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Federation Prince Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but the diehard Starfield fandom has already dismissed him as just another heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, closet nerd Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.

    

Review:

Protagonists: Elle is living a Cinderella life (pre-ball), evil stepmother, two stepsisters, orphaned, the works, but as long as she has Starfield, her parents' favorite show she can make it through. However, it was just announced that the reboot movie will star teen heartthrob and teen soap star, Darien Freeman, the last person Elle wants playing Prince Carmindor. Darien is secretly a HUGE Starfield fan, and to play a character like Carmindor, a character he connects with on multiple levels is his dream. However, due to his father's insistence on keeping his heartthrob image alive, he can't show off his nerdy side and fans of Starfield are calling him a disgrace. When a twist of fate finds Darien and Elle anonymously texting each other, they may be just what the other needs to help them overcome their obstacles. I love both of these characters so much. The funny thing is that while there are definitely parts of their characters that I can relate to, the things I can't personally relate to, make them no less compelling of characters. Their drive to overcome the challenges life throws at them, and persevering when all seems hopeless is inspiring and I just couldn't get enough of these characters.

Romance: The romance is phenomenal. I mean, I can't even put into words how it made me feel. The romance starts off friendly which is hilariously juxtaposed with their hatred of each other's alter egos, but then a shift happens and things turn romantic and it's just super sweet. The way they bond over their mutual love for a nerdy show and then as they discover more about each other slowly they begin to fall, it's beautiful. Some of the texts between them made me smile and tear up, some made me laugh hysterically. It wasn't even the Cinderella aspects of this relationship that I liked because let's be honest, there are no real romantic moments between Cinderella and the Prince except for a dance or two. The way these two connect and get each other, the way that it sort of parallel's Elle's own parents' romance just made this book explode with wonder.

World Building: So, the big hook for this book is that it's a contemporary Cinderella retelling with a Nerd Culture twist, and I think this book handed both elements beautifully. So, for those who've read my reviews for a while, you know I LOVE a good fairy tale retelling and this is a GREAT fairy tale retelling. I loved how the author mixed all of these fairy tale elements into a story that is truly a love letter to nerd culture. This retelling was pretty standard, but there were twists to some of the classic elements, little changes here and there, that made this retelling truly shine. So, I like to call myself a nerd, and I do get swept away by nerdy things such as comics, mythology, and of course books, but I'm not an "Issue X is the first appearance of villain Y" type of nerd that's super hardcore about one or two specific things. I dabble, but still, this book touched my heart in so many ways. I may not have experienced things like these characters do in this book, but I've heard about them from friends and I'm sure we can all relate to Elle when Darien was cast in the Starfield movie, because I'm sure we've all had that one book to movie or tv series adaptation where we felt a character was miscast. Again, this is a huge love letter to nerd culture and even if you're a dabbler like me I'm sure you'll love it!

Predictability: So.... this is a fairy tale retelling and with that territory comes a lot of predictable moments, but I didn't care. Look, in general, this story had a lot of predictable moments, not all tied to the retelling aspect, or even the "it's a book" aspect, but I just didn't care because this story was fantastic. The writing and everything made me not care, and honestly, there were quite a few amazing and unpredictable twists in this book. One twist in particular, which I can't even remember what it was now, but I do remember predicting the twist, but the how of it all was unknown to me until it happened and I remember really enjoying how the author presented that twist.

Ending: The ENTIRE third part of this book (this book is broken into three parts f.y.i.) was spectacular, and I may or may not have shed quite a few tears. They were both sad and happy tears because this book is just that emotionally moving. Honestly, I'm not sure what the final climax of this book even was because there were so many moments when our intrepid heroes had to over come great obstacles in the end. Every climactic moment was pure gold, and while this is most definitely a stand alone, I was still left wanting more in the end. Nothing specific, just... more.

Rating:

This book is everything I ever wanted it to be and more! This was one of those books for me that I went in knowing I was going to love but came out thinking that love isn't a strong enough word for how I feel about this book. Even with a doozy of a plot hole that I picked up on toward the end that I'll chalk up to human error on the part of one of our protagonists. I can't wait to see what this author will write next!!!

Book Review: Cinderella Dressed In Ashes (The Grimm Diaries #2)

Release Date: August 15, 2013
Author: Cameron Jace
Publisher: J A W I G I (I Think)
Length: 253 pages
Source: Purchased eBook

Loki is controlled by the Queen through his Dreamhunter's Fleece, and he's now Snow White's enemy. No one's sure what the Queen of Sorrow wants to do next, and what her plans with Sorrow are.

In another Dreamory, they learn who Cinderella really is, where she came from, her relationship with Snow, and what historical period she'd affected with what she calls the Forbidden Art.

The Second installment of the Grimm Diaries.

This Diary continues the adventure, from Snow White's POV.

  

Review:

Protagonists: One of the things I really enjoyed about this story was that we really got to see from multiple perspectives, unfortunately, none of those were Loki, but honestly, in the end, I didn't care about not exploring his story further in this tale. The first main POV we get to see from is Snow/Shew who takes center stage in this story of her connection to the Cinderella character comes to light. I have to say that I did like Snow's character development better than Loki's. While Loki mostly glided through his story not really doing much and leaving the heavy lifting to everyone else until near the very end, Snow took less time to start to take control of her life. Granted it still took her longer than I wanted but when she did things really began to heat up. The other characters we see are Axle and Fable, stuck in the Waking World trying to help Snow and Loki. There still really isn't all that much character development with these two. I feel like the things they did by the end were things they would have done at the beginning of the series and Axle is a wealth of Deus Ex Machina information and theories that just so happen to be correct, and yet never feeling truly earned.

Writing: Much like with the first installment, my biggest criticism is the writing. This book has so much potential, and really this book feels like a fantastic first draft, but it's seriously unpolished and really needed to go through some critical beta readers and a professional editor. It's not just that there's bad grammar, spelling mistakes, and typing errors. While he's getting better, the author still does a lot of telling instead of showing in this story and sometimes he has way too many extraneous details. There are still characters who just show up and know things or remember every little detail of stories that they really shouldn't have perfect recall on, there are huge Deus Ex Machina moments, some that make sense, but others that just feel unnecessary. The author still feels like he doesn't quite know his target audience, though I think some of that is using more general words for much grander things and having things come off a bit basic and more aligned with a Middle-Grade story than a YA one, though he still uses cheesy terminology which definitely skews more MG.

World Building: Once again, the thing I feel holds the most promise in this story is how the author weaves history with fairy tales and classic stories. However, there were definitely a few times in this book that things got needlessly complicated and convoluted instead of the complexity that I'm sure the author was going for. The Cinderella in this story, Cyrenè, isn't just "Cinderella" I won't tell you all who she is, but there's a fairy tale that she's connected to that just doesn't quite seem to fit with the theme the author was try to ascribe to her. Also, classic stories got more involved in this world with explanations that, while interesting, just made the story feel cluttered. Since we're in Snow's Dreamory, we see things from her past and learn more about her background, but since she has control of her actions in the dream, it's hard to know what's really happened and what Snow changed from her story.

Predictability: Something I feel this author needs to understand is that foreshadowing is a great friend to an author. The thing is, you can make stuff up as you go along, but you need to be able to introduce it in some small way earlier in the story so that readers think you're playing by your own rules, and while you can break your own rules once or twice for special occasions, breaking them for next to no reason isn't a good idea. There were a few new concepts in this story that were introduced with no preamble and everything about them just felt chaotic and tacked on, as opposed to a living and breathing part of this world. There are for sure some fantastic moments in this story when the author gets the foreshadowing just right and brings everything together for an amazing twist or moment, but the times when he didn't, or couldn't in the cases of things that should have been teased in the first book, really didn't help the book.

Ending: So, as far as I can tell this is the second book in a four-book series. I know the prequels exist, but, again, as far as I can tell this plot that was started in the first book will only last two more books and that troubles me. As of the end of this book, I feel there is still so much to explore in this time and plot, and that's just with the story started in the first book, that's not even counting the story started in this one or the other stories that this book promised. Do I think the author can tie up all his loose ends in just two books, sure, but I'm afraid it would have to be extremely rushed and I don't know how effective it could be if he does. The climax to this book brings many new questions and theories and while the book ends with a startling cliffhanger and a puzzle for readers to solve, I feel like we're just at the beginning of a much larger and more expansive tale.

Rating:

Much like the first installment, this story holds so much promise and if things were polished up I bet this story could truly shine. The author's writing is marginally better in this installment, which only makes me hope more that he'll revisit and revise this series at some point because I feel that I can see this world's potential and I want it to reach that potential so badly.

Omnibus Review: The Grimm Diaries Prequels 10.5-14.5

Release Date: June 27, 2013
Author: Cameron Jace
Publisher: Independently Published
Length: 146 pages
Source: Borrowed eBook

10.5) Happy Valentine’s Slay by Wee Willy Winkie The real Sandman Grimm sheds a light on what happened in Jawigi, and tells about how some of the teens in Sorrow spend their Valentine’s Day.

11) Children of Hamlin by the Devil The Devil tells the story of the Piper of Hamlin, who he really is, the historical events he witnessed, and his relationship to Ladle Rat. Most of all, why they call him the Black Death.

12) Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale by Jack Madly Jack Madly stole a sack full of baby teeth from Bluebeard’s enchanted castle, which reminds him of when he first met the Tooth Fairy when he was a child; a memory he wishes to forget.

13) Ember in the Wind by the Little Match Girl All the Little Match Girl wants is to sell her matches so she uses the money to eat and find shelter from the cold. But no one in the cruel city of crowded London helps her. Eventually, she learns something about who she really is, and it changes her life forever.

14) Jar of Hearts by the Queen of Sorrow The Queen of Sorrow, still trapped in the Dreamworld summons Cassandra, the fortuneteller, to ask her about the identities of Lost Seven. The problem with Cassandra is that she’s cursed that her predictions will never be believed. The Queen is still determined to believe her, but it will cost more than she can bargain for.

14.5) Welcome to Sorrow, a bonus prequel

  

Reviews:

Happy Valentine's Slay: So this story was weird. It's told from the POV of Sandman Grimm... the REAL Sandman Grimm. However once we get some backstory on him, along with some really heavy handed foreshadowing he launches into a Valentine's Day story that features a lot of my favorite characters from this series. However, the third person point-of-view changes so much and the story goes on weird tangents so often that the story itself just sort of falls flat. The characters are great, and it's awesome to see them all interacting, it's just that things were kind of boring and with things moving around so often it took a while for the story to sort of meld into something enjoyable. However toward the end things really started to get interesting...

Rating:

So yeah, if this story was told differently or things had sort of come together quicker I may have enjoyed this story more, but in the end it just feels like a hodgepodge of random information that just sort of melts into a story by the end.

The Children of Hamlin: This story, in a sense, takes place right after the last one. It's told from the point of view of the Devil. In it he tells the story of the Piper, much the same as I've heard before, though with a few Grimm Diaries tweaks added here and there. The big thing though is how the Piper fits into the larger story and who he is, or will be, to Ladle. The story itself is richly described. I've come to terms with the voice of the Devil and that he won't be this purely evil being, and that he's more of this devilishly silly character. The way he tells this story adds a levity to the otherwise somber tale. And then at the end there is quite a bit of information that helps expand this world even further and points the origins of certain things.

Rating:

So for the most part I really liked this story it was a lot more entertaining and easier to keep up with than the previous prequel and it sort of combines the two types of prequels usually told, one more plot related and another that's a fun and twisted version of an old classic. My only point of contention is that there were just a few times when the story sort of lulled and the background information to the story felt a bit too heavy handed.

Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale: So... this tale is probably the weirdest in this set so far. In this tale we find Jack who has just stolen a bag of baby teeth from Bluebeard, and then goes into a tale about how Jack sort of stumbles onto three children in a school about to go to the dentist's. In this tale Jack helps them escape the demonic dentist and in the process runs into the Tooth Fairy. It's, like I said, a rather strange tale but it does a lot to foreshadow and build up to some really cool things  The story and mythology itself is actually pretty entertaining. There are a few twists here and there that I really loved and I like how this world keeps growing and we learn the backstories of certain characters.

Rating:

So this is another one that was a lot of fun, but just sort of lagged in a few areas. Overall I enjoyed it, I just wasn't swept away by it.

Ember in the Wind: So the story of The Little Match Girl is a tragic one, there are endings in which the girl has a happy ending, but it's usually because she dies and goes to heaven. This story however is a bit different. Going into this story I didn't know what to expect, I knew it was a story in which this young match girl discovers her destiny but I did't know much beyond that. It doesn't take long however to figure out who she really is and what her role in everything might be. What I really loved though was that it never felt like the author was trying to hide her destiny or pretend that the heavy handed foreshadowing was just supposed to be a teaser for the big reveal. It just all sort of made sense. This story got me very excited for the main series and this character's role in it.

Rating:

I was utterly entranced by this tale. It's enthralling, entertaining, and has a bit of a somberness to it. You feel sorry for the main character until everything is revealed and then I got a bit jealous of her.

Jar of Hearts: This story takes place a bit after Jawigi and tells the story of how the Queen of Sorrow enlists Cassandra to tell her who the Lost Seven are. The trick with Cassandra though is that while her predictions are always accurate, albeit sometimes vague, anyone who asks the question will never believe the prediction. Now, while this story got off to a bit of a rocky start, I was anxious and excited to learn who the Lost Seven are. However, since this is a series that thrives on the idea of the unreliable narrator, it's impossible to know for sure who the Lost Seven are, regardless though by the end it is fairly clear who five of the Seven are, though two remain very vague and their descriptions could apply to more than one person. I found the infusion of Greek mythology very fun and the character of Cassandra is very entertaining. I love how the Queen continues her deceit and how you never quite know what's up her sleeves.

Rating:

So if it wasn't for the bumpy start I would have really loved this tale. It answers a few burning questions and leaves some things left to be pondered.

Welcome to Sorrow: So this isn't so much a story as it is an expositional vehicle to begin to finally introduce the main series. In this tale we are greeted bu Igor who shows us around Sorrow as it is now, no longer a medieval kingdom full of fairy-tales now it's more of a modern day small town full of fairy-tale characters who will soon wake up from their one hundred year sleep. In it we learn more about the town and the dark mystery it keeps hidden. As a bonus prequel it did well, but honestly I didn't really need a tour around Sorrow, it was a fun little side thing, but for the most part it was pretty boring. Toward the end things started to speed up but that was more so Igor could tease a little for the first main series story Snow White Sorrow.

Rating:

So yeah, there's nothing particularly special about this book, but it's not awful either, and since it was a bonus shorter prequel I'm not going to do too much complaining.

Book Review: Charmed (Fairy Tale Reform School #2)

Release Date: March 1, 2016
Author: Jen Calonita
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Length: 288 pages
Source: eGalley via NetGalley

Charmed is the exciting sequel to the wildly popular Flunked -- second in the brand new Fairy Tale Reform School series where the teachers are (former) villains. "Charming fairy-tale fun." -Sarah Mlynowski, author of the New York Times bestselling Whatever After series.

It takes a (mostly) reformed thief to catch a spy. Which is why Gilly Cobbler, Enchantasia’s most notorious pickpocket, volunteers to stay locked up at Fairy Tale Reform School…indefinitely. Gilly and her friends may have defeated the Evil Queen and become reluctant heroes, but the battle for Enchantasia has just begun.

Alva, aka The Wicked One who cursed Sleeping Beauty, has declared war on the Princesses, and she wants the students of Fairy Tale Reform School to join her. As her criminal classmates give in to temptation, Gilly goes undercover as a Royal Lady in Waiting (don’t laugh) to unmask a spy…before the mole can hand Alva the keys to the kingdom.

Her parents think Gilly the Hero is completely reformed, but sometimes you have to get your hands dirty. Sometimes it’s good to be bad…

    

Review: 

Protagonist: Gillian Cobbler is back and is being heralded as a hero around Enchantasia. Although she remains at the Fairy Tale Reform School, for the most part Gilly is already reformed. She has no real desire to go back to thieving and with her father's business booming she doesn't really need to. Her character development in this book stems more from the fact that she doesn't know quite how to handle the praise she's been showered with and because of that it causes some tension with her and her friends. When this all comes to a head I have to admit I felt like things were resolved just a bit too quickly and easily but other than that I really enjoyed Gilly's character development in this book.

World-Building: So I will say that I was really impressed with the world-building in this installment. We get to see more about how the kingdom of Enchantasia is run, how things are decided and how the three princesses that rule it work together. While I am still a bit confused as to where their princes fit into all of this, mainly as they are never mentioned, but considering that I feel much less left in the dark as to the politics and government of this world I'll let it slide for now. In this book we do meet a new teacher to the reform school, I won't give anything away but I thought he was a great addition to the cast of former villains, though he wasn't the one I initially thought he would be. As for any possible romance in this book, well there's not enough to warrant a separate section, and it's not that I need a romance in this book or anything, but I do feel as though there were so many hints at a romance the previous installment that I had expected to see a bit more. Again, not a criticism, more of an observation.

Predictability: Much the previous installment in this series things were pretty predictable. While the foreshadowing may go over the heads of the younger audience that this series is intended for, it was really easy for me to pick up on where things in the story were going. However I was never annoyed or bored by that, probably because I knew it wasn't intended for a 22 year old, but I still found immense enjoyment out of both the story and the twists within.

Ending: So going into the final climax I began to wonder if this "series" was going to end up being a duology. Things were wrapping up rather well and I couldn't see enough content for more installments unless the author invented some after the dust had settled. However after the fabulous final climax, which unlike the previous book wasn't over to quickly or easily, I began to see the threads of where things might go from here, but it wasn't until after the final chapter, yes, I said "after," that I knew there was at least one more adventure in this series. The end is a cliffhanger and a doozy of one at that.

Rating:

So I knew in my gut once I finished this book that it deserved four stars. It's such an enjoyable adventure and if I was as young as the target audience (8-12) I think I would have loved this book all the more. I can't wait for another adventure in Entantasia!

Book Review: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4)

Release Date: November 10, 2015
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Length: 827 pages
Source: Library Audio Book

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

    

Review:

Protagonists: So with the introduction of this book there are SO MANY POVS, so instead of giving you a crazy run down I'll try to keep it short and sweet! First we have our ever resilient heroine Cinder, who has accepted who she is and is ready to not only begin a revolution but take her rightful place as Queen of Luna. Cinder is an amazing character, given the tragedies in her past she pushes forward to stop the injustices Levana has done to not only the people of Luna, but the people of Earth as well. Next have Winter, I loved Winter so much, She's a bit crazy from Lunar Sickness, not using her Lunar gift, but she's actually a lot sharper than she lets on. She doesn't let her mental illness stop her from doing good and helping others when she can. The rest of the protagonists are also still amazing, I love how diverse and different they are and how fleshed out and complex they either have become or become over the course of this book.

Romances: So there are a lot of romances in this book, and it took me until this book to really realize how undeveloped a lot of these romances really are. Unlike other YA novels each main romance wasn't solidified in one book where the characters are all dreaming about their futures by the very end of the book and have solid stable romances. In fact at the beginning of this book nobody is really quite sure where they stand with their love interests, except maybe Cinder and Kai, but there's that whole Levana engagement in their way so I count that too. Over the course of this book though there are great romantic scenes with each couple that strengthen their bonds without overshadowing the main story line.

World-Building: In this book we get our first real look at Luna, kind of, if you've read Fairest you also get a look at it there too, but there's a broad look at everything here as well. This book is all about Cinder's planned rebellion and bringing the fight with Levana to a head. This book is also, like the others, a fairy tale retelling. Even knowing that for some reason I didn't expect this book to be so on the nose with it's retelling of Snow White, I mean there aren't really seven dwarfs but still, I expected it to be more vague even symbolic in places, but I really enjoyed all the little Snow White plot points mixed with the main story and the sci-fi twists given to this classic tale.

Predictability: So I have to say I thought I knew what I was in for with this book, I knew there'd be some twists her and there maybe, but I was truly surprised with how many crazy and at times stressful twists there were. I have to say though I was disappointing by how one twist involving Wolf turned out. It was initially very tense and it felt like it was ramping up into something huge but kind of resolved itself before then. That being said though there were many times throughout this book that I was kind of in the dark about how things would turn out other than happily ever after... maybe.

Ending: So this book has a very large final confrontation, split up into stages. There is a final battle, but the real final climax involved members of our core group and Levana, I actually liked how it was handled, it was a very stressful climax and I wasn't quite sure how or if anyone would come out of it unscathed. There is a very long cooldown period after the climax, mainly because there are a lot of characters' story lines to wrap up. I didn't mind the long ending because I liked seeing how things turned out after the battle. I do have to say though it only felt really long when it came to the last section of the last chapter, I felt like the characters involved were tiptoeing around their words and being needlessly vague whereas an upfront conversation would have been much smoother. Did everything tie up neatly, not exactly and the ending isn't overly idealistic, but I will say that even though I do hope Meyer will write more sci-fi fairy tales set in this world, I don't have too many lingering questions.

Rating:

So I thought long and hard about this and while I loved this book and how it ended, and I'm sad to see this series that I love so much go, I was a bit disappointed with a few things so I can't quite give it five stars, nonetheless it's still a fantastic end to this epic series.