Hey my lovelies, this weeks review is The Beauty of Darkness, and god was it a beauty. I honestly loved this book, and could not put it down. And I believe it took me about 6 and a 1/2 hours to read this ( and yes I read it in one go). Emma now has no sleep. This book review does include spoilers of the last two books and ff you haven't already I suggest you read my reviews of the previous books in the series, which you can find here (Book 1: The Kiss of Deception and Book 2: The Heart of Betrayal). Please note that all spoilers are in italics, so if you do not want to be spoiled, don't read the italics if you don't want to be spoiled.
Title: The Beauty of Darkness
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Publisher: Henry Holt
Pub. Date: August 2nd 2015
Date Read: Thursday 20th October 2016
Pages: 679
Rating:4.75/5 stars
Summary: 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.
Overview
Sometimes when I sit down after reading to write these reviews, I hit a brick wall and cannot think about what I want to write at all, as sometimes some of the books are not worth talking about or are that amazing that I have no words. Each book in the Remnant Chronicles have been that amazing, that I officially felt the need to tell you guys on how amazing these books are.
When I first picked this book up, I have to say I was very intimidated especially with there being 679 pages, as recently if I notice a book is over 400 pages, I tend to put it down, as I get bored quickly. However this was completely the opposite. This was so action packed, I could not put it down.
It kicks of where the Heart of Betrayal finishes, with Lia being with Rafe, and Kaden completely seperate left in Venda. All of this leading upto Lia facing all of the decisions she has made to get to where she currently is, including; running away from her wedding and her empathy for the people of Venda. Although I have to say the biggest dissapointment to me was the big bad, they hovered around sending onminous threats throughout the book and then appeared for a couple of pages before whatever happens, happens. (I am terrible at the non-spoilery stuff)
Characters
Lia is amazing. Straight up. She has grown into herself so much from the past two novels, and is now a true hero, as the passages said she would be. I really like the way that Lia's story played out with her sacrifices and facing some of the things that have been chasing her since book 1. As well as finally accepting herself with all of her new changes. Overall, Lia really developed as a character over the trilogy, from running away from her problems to actually running towards them. #TeamLia
Rafe kind of irritated me. He became so possessive when he got to Dalbreck, expecting Lia to just become this perfect princess that she never was. Which was why she ran away in the first place. And then locking her in a tent, when she wanted to help her people? Rafe would have hit the roof if the shoe was on the other foot. However, I recently read that there are two types of annoying characters, type 1 is where they are not written well, causing them to be bland and appear to be out of character alot. Type 2 is where the characters are written well with faults, Rafe is type 2, which is his only saviour. However if I was in Lia's position I would have done the exact same as her too.
Kaden, bless him, he finally faced his father and was a hell of a lot more supportive of Lia, than Rafe was through most of the novel. However, for me, he wasn't what I would class as a main character, not in the same way as the previous books anyway. Instead, more of a very forfront side character.
Paulines chapters really confused me, because in one of them (can't remember which, of the top of my head right now) Pauline was going from believing that Lia really had betrayed them, to straight away speaking to Lias brothers saying she hoped they believed in Lia. Like seriously, make your mind up Pauline. Although Pauline finally had her baby.
Relationships
The relationships between the characters is probably one of my favourite things about this book series, and all of the relationships don't just revolve around romance. There is also a lot of powerful friendships.
Lia and Rafe, the pairs dynamic changed quite a bit in this book, mainly because this was the first time that we met Prince King Jaxon and King Jaxon is not her Rafe. And appears to have a few control issues with Lia not doing what she's told. So now Rafe has a lot more to deal with than just keeping Lia safe. All of this leading Lia to realise that she can't stay and play Princess Arabella when her kingdom is in ruins and she has greater responsibilities. The pairs ending was an open one leaving a large part of me being unsatisfied. I understood everything leading upto what happened, but I still wanted them to get their happy ending ya'know?
The awesome foursome aka Lia, Gris, Kaden and little guy (that I can never remember the name off...sorry), I love these guys, their dynamics are just great from the little guys reaction to seeing Lia again, even if we didn't get to see as much as them as I would have liked. To me these guys were definitely a replacement to the brothers she was obviously missing, causing her to develop a deeper brotherly bond with each of them.
Lia and Kaden, to me these have always been a bromance (no matter what I said in my Heart of Betrayal review), they have such a great sibling bond, from when she just needs someone to help her whilst in Delbreck and turning up in Morrighan after dealing with some of his own problems.
Pauline and Lia, in the first book I really liked the two, however afterwards in book 2, when Pauline was doubting Lia, it really aggravated me, especially considering Pauline saw Kaden kidnap Lia. Paulne also appeared to have a lot of doubts in this book too, even though Lia always fully trusted her.
Pauline and Kaden - I knew it! From the first book a apart of me thought this would happen and it did. Woop woop. Maybe I'm secretly one of the daughters of Morrighan (not really). From the moment he helped her give birth to her son, we knew they would grow closer.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this book was amazing, i'm not sure if I could sing this series praises any more. The entire book was action packed and I honestly really liked the ending (surprisingly) and kind off wished that maybe a short story could be released, so we could further learn about the dynamics between Rafe and Lia after that ending.
Would I recommend this? 100%
Seriously, if I could afford it I would be sending this book (series) through everybody's letter box, so they could feel the truly amazingness of this book. Read this. READ THIS NOW. I would also recommend reading all of the series in one go, or if you haven't read the first two in awhile, I would suggest rereading them first. As although I believe the last time I read this series was March, I couldn't remember who certain minor characters were, who then developed into a more important role.
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