What a way to end a series. It was seven books in the making and finally know how it all came together. Aelin and her friends have been on a quite a journey. From the beginning when Aelin was just an assassin and Dorian was a spoiled Prince. It was expanded so far beyond that now. To other continents and other worlds. What I liked about this was that every character had a role to play in the ending and that is quite a feat as there are a lot of characters. I mean we are talking about Game of Thrones level of characters. They are all flawed people but have one goal to defeat Erawan and Maeve and create a better world. It wasn’t easy and there were many twists and turns along the way. It started off slow as the characters were spread far and wide. It also took me awhile to reacquaint myself with some of the characters as for most of them it’s been two years since the last time we have seen them but once they started to come together that it really started to pick up and get going. So many story arcs to wrap up and most of them were. I think a few left open a bit that we could go back and revisit Erilea. Let’s get back to Aelin as she is really the heroine here. Of all the characters she has been through the most. She started out as a assassin and ended up a Queen. She has endured enough trauma for several lifetimes and would have been forgiven if she gave up and she had plenty of chances to do just that but she doesn’t. She gave everything she had for her country and her friends. She used her intelligence and skills to outwit and defeat her enemies as much as she used her power. I’ll miss reading about her because she was fun, smart and spunky. If you haven’t read this series you should and lucky you, you can now read it in it’s entirety without wearing years between books.
If are more then a casual fan of this blog then you know that I am a huge Rick Riordan fan. I know he writes for kids but I find his writing to be so clever and charming. He has introduced to stories and myths that I didn’t know before or had forgotten. He has widen his universe to be the most inclusive in children’s literature. 
I really don’t know the best way to describe this book or this series as it’s so lush and unique. It’s also kind of a hard read because pretty much every character is a victim of terrible abuse and trauma and the events of the book are the direct result of all the trauma. The people of Weep spent years under the threat of kidnapping and rape and even 15 years after they killed the “Gods” responsible the citadel where it all took place still stood as a reminder of what they endured. The Godspawn lived in fear of being discovered for fear of what happened to their fellow children would happen to them. This all came to a crashing half when our hero Lazlo discovered who he really was and brought them together. Even the villains of this piece were acting on their own traumas. You knew what they were doing was wrong at times you couldn’t really blame them either. In the end it was an act of compassion that saved them all. Sarai used her power to listen and understand what was the issue and finally talk them down. I highly recommend that everyone read Strange the Dreamer and the Muse of Nightmares because they are so lush in descriptions of Weep and the other strange lands. It’s truly beautiful story that is also timely to today’s me too movement.
2 Women, So Many Books 