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4 stars! This review will contain no spoilers for Beauty of Darkness, but if you have not read the first two books, there will be spoilers for Kiss of Deception or Heart of Betrayal.
Summary:
Beauty of Darkness is the third and final book in the Remnant Chronicles, a trilogy by Mary E. Pearson. The end of the Heart of Betrayal definitely left us off at a huge cliffhanger. Lia and Rafe had just escaped Venda and not only were they separated from Rafe’s men, but Lia was struck with arrows and her life was hanging in the balance. This book takes off right from there and that’s really all I can say without any spoilers!
I gave this book 4 stars. I thought the writing was, again, done really well to the point where my emotions were fully invested in the book. There were some parts where I did find myself laughing out loud or even tearing up a bit. I love these characters dearly, we get to see into the inner workings of Morrighan and Dalbreck a bit, and this world has a subtle yet interesting form of magic added into it, but it’s not over the top. Now I love this series as a whole, but I have to say this third book was my least favorite of the trilogy. I barely had any problems with the first 550 pages. It’s possible that this book was unnecessarily long? I think maybe some things could have been taken out because they weren't really necessary for the plot to move along. And then there's the actual ending, and that did disappoint me. I know, I usually love endings the most in books, but this one really fell flat for me. I think I was expecting a lot out of this finale because it was one of my most anticipated releases of 2016, but it didn’t deliver. I was not completely swept away like when I read the Heart of Betrayal and even Kiss of Deception.
*Also, I read about half of this book using Audible! The narrator for this series, Emily Rankin, is wonderful. She does the greatest impression of Lia exactly how I imagine her. The only reason I only read half with Audible and half not is because I read faster than her on my own.
Plot:
I thought that Beauty of Darkness flowed really well from Heart of Betrayal. This series is probably one of the best series to be marathoned because there are no time gaps between books and the first two both end in major cliffhangers. I can tell you right off the bat that the introduction to this book pulls you right in! I was listening to the 5 minute sample Audible for it to see if I liked it and the whole time I was like OMG OMG OMG. My feels for Lia and Rafe came back immediately and my worry over there safety was constantly hanging over me for the whole first half of the book.
Mary E. Pearson was at it again with all the twists, turns, flips, and gallops. My heart was hurting sometimes because it was racing so hard while I was reading. She really makes you sweat when you’re worrying about your favorite characters. Some of the betrayals in this book were more predictable, but nonetheless added to the excitement. I also liked how we got to get so many answers to questions we’ve been asking ourselves since book one. That’s the satisfying part of this last book, finally knowing who were the REAL slimeballs and who turned out to be the good guys.
That’s about the most satisfying part of this finale considering the ending. Yes, I have been ragging on the ending of this book for the entire past two days since I’ve finished and I just can’t help it because it was just so… Anticlimactic. That word explains it all. Things that I wanted to happen, did not transpire. Some thing that did happen, I was like noooooo. And then the end was just also super abrupt on top of that. Agh, I’m just left really underwhelmed. I wanted a lot more out of that final battle than what I got.
Lastly, the side of me that lives for romance was also disappointed. I like me a good epilogue and if there isn’t one then I at least want a solid closure on the relationships. I didn’t get enough of that in this. Yes it was cute, yes I understand why things had to be the way they were, but agh again I wanted more.
Don't get me wrong though, I still enjoyed a majority of this book!
Characters: (there are so many!)
Lia had become a whole other person in this book (in a very good way), she’s strong, she’s commanding, she’s clever, strategic, SASSY. Like can I be Lia. I loved her so much in this book because she did not let go of her belief. She was true to herself and did not let any kingdoms or BOY getting the way of that.
Rafe is one character that made some interesting (for lack of a better word) decisions that I kinda question. I still think he’s a heartthrob and I totally will ALWAYS ship him with Lia, but he acted a lot different in this book than the previous ones. I do understand where the personality shift was coming from, but I think I like the old Rafe more, the reckless one (which we do get to see a bit of towards the end yay!).
Kaden has come a long way to this book as well. He was pretty quiet in this book and I don’t exactly remember if that’s super different from his personality in the last books, but I feel like there wasn’t a lot of Kaden happening in this book. I most definitely like where his romantic subplot went, I fully approve of that! Read it to find out!
Rafe’s men (aka Sven, Tavish, Orrin, Jeb etc.) I LOVE THESE GUYS. True loyalty is hard to find, but these guys are as loyal as they come. They make me so happy.
Griz get his own line because he’s special, I also like him a lot because of his loyalty to Lia the true Queen of Venda in his eyes.
The girls (aka Pauline, Gwenyth, and Berdi) are SO GREAT in this book too. I have big love for all the side characters in this book. These girls are such amazing support for Lia and they all have their own strengths that add to the group.
Overall:
As a whole trilogy, I'd rate the Remnant Chronicles as 4.5 stars! It's definitely still one of my favorite series and I will no doubt be reading any future works by Mary E. Pearson. I'd recommend this trilogy for anyone new to young adult fantasy because it's a good starter for the world and amazingness that is fantasy YA.
Thanks for reading! :)
