One thing I wanted to do this year was keep better track of my reading, so I joined GoodReads. I’ll post my reviews here, although it does kind of feel weird to be starting off with the final book of a fantasy trilogy to start! Well, the next book on my list is Blake Nelson’s Recovery Road, so that should feel less “out of nowhere.” I hope.
The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a thrilling conclusion to a great fantasy trilogy, centered around a headstrong, flawed but fascinating character. I admit that I cried at the end the first time I read it — that’s how invested I was in the characters. Magic, romance, tragedy, fantasy, period detail — all the things I’ve come to love about these books. I did find the conclusions satisfying for the main characters — I had that feeling of being eager to read about them again about ten years later, like revisiting old friends.
However, I have to say that this is not my favorite book in the trilogy, which is weird, because I usually love conclusions (Return of the Jedi, Return of the King, The Amber Spyglass.) I get the feeling that the author must have just CRANKED this baby out and the publisher rushed to get it to market — it could use some editing and is a bit long. While I found the story pacing taut in the earlier books, here I felt in some parts like there was a lot happening again and again and again, but I wasn’t clear on what the stakes were, what was being added to the story with each incident, or how the story advanced. For the first time, I wasn’t as compelled to simply “turn the page.” Most of the time I wanted to stop and catch my breath!
Still, it doesn’t matter if a book has flaws to me — if I come to love the characters and world, I’d gladly wade through it. All three novels captured my imagination enough to completely supersede my Inner Critic and evoked what I love about the rush of storytelling in general — the sheer need to know what happens next, and to get to know interesting, rich, compelling characters.
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I am a writer, secret hippie and subversive romantic. I write 
