3.5 stars 🌟
As a whole, I enjoyed this series. As for the last book, not so much. Well, let me rephrase that. I did like this book, but it also annoyed me quite a bit. So to me, that took away from the experience.
Why? Well, as a character, Jess did annoy me at times (in all the books) but for some reason, in this book it drove me crazy. She came across a rude, snippy, condescending....getting a picture? Especially towards Finn. And that bothered me more than anything. Of course, as the reader, we were given clues that Finn had feelings for her, but apparently this just flew right over Jess' head. Apparently, she was so annoyed with EVERYTHING the whole protector role entailed that she never ever gave a decent or courteous word towards Finn. Granted, he sometimes or maybe even oftentimes gave her reasons by being short with her, but for the most part, he was frustrated because it was his job to protect her and all she did was try EXTREMELY hard to do the opposite of whatever he suggested. I really do not blame him for leaving. Other than that, when you look at the big picture, she had antagonistic relationships with a lot of people - Lucida, Finn, Milo, Finvarra and Peyton and her crew. Then, even Carrick at the end. Obviously, most of those people ended up being bad guys and it was then apparent that she had pretty good discernment when it came to people, but Milo? Really? It just made it hard to be rooting for her when she was so prickly. ESPECIALLY when she has that conversation in the car where someone is basically opening up their heart and she can not even come up with a reply. Not even one word. So yep, that bothered me.
Also, the ending of this was just a bit too far out of my believability purview. I am more than willing to put reality somewhat aside in this genre of books, but the way it all came down just ended up being way too convenient. And then everyone was okay with a certain persons actions after the fact? The certain person (I'm trying not to give out any spoilers..) that ended up doing so much destruction and enabled the takeover of a certain property? I didn't want that person sent to the gallows or anything, it just seemed like a HUGE betrayal that would have had world shattering consequences and we never heard one person even mention anything. Yep, that one was hard to swallow.
Bottom line, book one was the best. Book 2 was not too far behind that and there was lots of intrigue and interesting drama in it. Book 3 though, while I'm glad that certain answers were finally given, I spent more time being pulled out of the story than I was comfortable with.
Will I continue onwards with the next spin off series? I'm not sure yet. I think I may just jump into a different genre for a bit and then maybe come back. We'll see.....