I can’t believe that I’ve finished the series! This makes me so sad! I need a novella (or two… or three… I JUST NEED MORE OF THESE CHARACTERS AND THIS WORLD!)

Disclaimer: spoilers ahead since well… I found it very hard to write this review without spoilers, so I decided to put the spoilers back in and just warn you guys instead!

Lia has survived Venda—but so has a great evil bent on the destruction of Morrighan. And only Lia can stop it.

With war on the horizon, Lia has no choice but to assume her role as First Daughter, as soldier—as leader. While she struggles to reach Morrighan and warn them, she finds herself at cross-purposes with Rafe and suspicious of Kaden, who has hunted her down.

In this conclusion to the Remnant Chronicles trilogy, traitors must be rooted out, sacrifices must be made, and impossible odds must be overcome as the future of every kingdom hangs in the balance.

I love this world so much. I love the characters, their relationships, the towns/villages/cities… Everything about the world building of this series, I just adore and I know that it will always be one of my favourite fantasy series. Because I really enjoyed the first and the second book (I think I gave them both 4 stars (?) It was too long ago so I can’t remember), I did have very high expectations going into The Beauty of Darkness. The only thing that put me off, was that the audiobook was 18 HOURS LONG! THAT. IS. INTENSE. But you know what? It didn’t feel like 18 hours… (or 680 pages if you’re reading  the physical copy). I was completely hooked on the storyline and Mary E. Pearson’s writing style is so beautiful and lyrical. It flows so well and she uses certain words that are magical. And considering that the audiobook was 18 hours, I don’t think that it took me long to get through it at all!

 

 

“Love didn’t end all at once, no matter how much you needed it to or how inconvenient it was. You couldn’t command love to stop any more than a marriage document could order it to appear. Maybe love had to bleed away a drop at a time until your heart was numb and cold and mostly dead.”

― Mary E. Pearson, The Beauty of Darkness

 

 

We’ll get to how I felt about the ending in a minute. First off though, I want to talk about the characters… Lia’s character development through this book was phenomenal. I thought that she underwent a huge arc in the second book, but that was nothing compared to the third one! She turned from prisoner, to princess, to warrior/soldier, who hacked (literally) her way to the end. I loved seeing her warrior side. I knew that she was tough and a badass, but the way that she handled certain political situations amazed me. I know that you’ve got the whole trope of the ‘chosen one’ and everything but it never felt too cliché.

When it comes to Rafe, don’t even get me started. UGH. Ok, I didn’t dislike him THAT much, but he still annoyed the hell out of me. What you have to understand is that Lia and Kaden were my OTP. I loved those two together from the very beginning. Rafe didn’t enough me because he was in a relationship with Lia, he annoyed me because at the beginning (and sort of in the middle) of the book, HE WAS SO CONTROLLING and I felt like he held Lia back, which was something that I really didn’t like reading (or listening) about. He did get better towards the end of the book, but I never really warmed to his character, to be honest. I found him bland… Is that bad?

BUT KADEN! KADEN IS NOT BLAND AT ALL. That may be me being slightly biased, but I just think that’s he is a much more interesting character that Rafe. His character arc is so much better than Rafe’s and I just feel like he has way more chemistry with Lia because of all their banter. I do fell like Kaden was pushed to the side a little bit in this book, but I can kind of understand it because this book was all about Lia’s survival. Also, what is with Kaden getting into a relationship with Pauline? Nope. I do not ship this at all. And this time, this is me NOT being biased. I just don’t think that there’s any chemistry between them at all. Pauline hated Kaden. HATED. And yet, they end up in a relationship. Maybe if the relationship burned a little slower? I felt like Pearson really rushed the relationship and didn’t give the reader a chance to grow used to it and I felt like it was rushed just so Kaden could have a love interest that wasn’t Lia.

 

 

“I left and went to the roof, where it was only me, a thousand blinking stars, and the beauty of darkness stretched to the ends of the universe, snuffing out the endless games of courts and kingdoms.”

― Mary E. Pearson, The Beauty of Darkness

 

 

Right… the ending… I know that this review is long already, but bear with me; we’re almost at the end. I was fairly satisfied with the ending. I wasn’t majorly disappointed; there were definitely a few things that could have been improved, but there were also elements that I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the massive battle at the end (I think it could have come about 50/80 pages earlier, but let’s not get too picky!) but the thing that I REALLY DIDN’T LIKE was the VERY anticlimactic ending where Lia defeats the Komizar. Well… technically, Lia doesn’t kill the Komizar, Calantha does, by barrelling into him and knocking off the edge of the mountain. I TOLD YOU THERE WAS GOING TO BE SPOILERS! There has been this HUUUUUUUUGGGGEEEEEE build up towards Lia defeating the Komizar and it was over in the course of a page. It just wasn’t enough… It was too easy.

I know it sounds like I’ve moaned a lot about this book, but it’s always easier to moan about the little things, isn’t it? Overall, this was an amazing book and an amazing series. I definitely recommend that you listen to it on audiobook as there is a full cast narration and it makes the world really come to life. I know I’ve put it in the 4 star category, but it’s definitely a 4.5 star book (I really need to make half star categories UGH).

Like I said before, this is and always will be one of my favourite fantasy series.