What do you think?
Rate this book
Caraval #3 - 16 pages sampler
Excerpt: Finale
Welcome, welcome to Finale, the third and final book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Caraval series!
Welcome, welcome to Caraval...all games must come to an end.
It’s been two months since the last Caraval concluded, two months since the Fates have been freed from an enchanted deck of cards, two months since Tella has seen Legend, and two months since Legend claimed the empire’s throne as his own. Now, Legend is preparing for his official coronation and Tella is determined to stop it. She believes her own mother, who still remains in an enchanted sleep, is the rightful heir to the throne.
Meanwhile, Scarlett has started a game of her own. She’s challenged Julian and her former fiancé, Count Nicolas d’Arcy, to a competition where the winner will receive her hand in marriage. Finaly, Scarlett feels as if she is in complete control over her life and future. She is unaware that her mother’s past has put her in the greatest danger of all.
Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun―with lives, empires, and hearts all at stake. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win...and those who will lose everything.
Welcome, welcome to Caraval...all games must come to an end.
It’s been two months since the last Caraval concluded, two months since the Fates have been freed from an enchanted deck of cards, two months since Tella has seen Legend, and two months since Legend claimed the empire’s throne as his own. Now, Legend is preparing for his official coronation and Tella is determined to stop it. She believes her own mother, who still remains in an enchanted sleep, is the rightful heir to the throne.
Meanwhile, Scarlett has started a game of her own. She’s challenged Julian and her former fiancé, Count Nicolas d’Arcy, to a competition where the winner will receive her hand in marriage. Finaly, Scarlett feels as if she is in complete control over her life and future. She is unaware that her mother’s past has put her in the greatest danger of all.
Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun―with lives, empires, and hearts all at stake. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win...and those who will lose everything.
16 pages, Unknown Binding
8 people are currently reading
2172 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Garber
20 books83k followersStephanie Garber is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the Caraval and Once Upon a Broken Heart series. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages. Alchemy of Secrets is her debut novel for adults and will be published around the world.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 23, 2022
Umm, that wholesome ending ❤️
But the predicable plot ??? 💔
But the predicable plot ??? 💔
May 13, 2019
Finale, the final book of this Caraval trilogy.
Wow, it's an interesting ride from the first book to this one. I say Caraval can be read as a stand-alone and it gives the teaser of the whole picture and it is not wholesome. But Legendary and Finale books should be read as two peas in a pod.
This book concludes with a beautiful ending to the whole plot with so many twists and turns at every end. In Legendary we follow a new different path of plot beside Tella and her journey and we saw how she wins the Caraval and the whole Legend revelations.Here in this one we follow both Scarlett and Tella's journeys which were set on different paths to a solo outcome and how they come out as winners in this whole fiasco. Author kept me very busy with so much plot development alongside her writing style which is very amazing to read.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book so much. Hopefully I wish to read more of her works in the future.
Wow, it's an interesting ride from the first book to this one. I say Caraval can be read as a stand-alone and it gives the teaser of the whole picture and it is not wholesome. But Legendary and Finale books should be read as two peas in a pod.
This book concludes with a beautiful ending to the whole plot with so many twists and turns at every end. In Legendary we follow a new different path of plot beside Tella and her journey and we saw how she wins the Caraval and the whole Legend revelations.Here in this one we follow both Scarlett and Tella's journeys which were set on different paths to a solo outcome and how they come out as winners in this whole fiasco. Author kept me very busy with so much plot development alongside her writing style which is very amazing to read.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book so much. Hopefully I wish to read more of her works in the future.
June 1, 2020
| Reader Fox Blog |
A part of me, a very small part, wanted to be a little generous and give this book two stars. I very nearly did, initially, as credit is deserved when credit is due and Finale definitely improved over the disasters that the first two novels were. Unfortunately, when I look back at all my notes while reading this novel, it becomes pretty clear that despite improvements, this book retains a great number of the problems that arose in previous novels of the series. And while the villain of this particular novel was a nice change of pace from the prior books, various decisions that Garber made on his end were incredibly ridiculous, predictable, and even manipulative on her end.
Ultimately, I am still left wondering what on earth possesses Garber to believe that I, as a reader, should have any sort of positive feeling toward a single one of these characters. It all comes down to, I think, the image that Garber has in her head and the poor portrayal of the characters. She tells us regularly who each of these characters are and then proceeds to write them in a manner that does not match those previous statements.
Lets begin with the characters; they're all generally awful people. Not a single one, literally aside from Legend who is purported as one of the most selfish, comes across as unselfish. Scarlet is selfish, Julian is selfish, and Tella is the most selfish. Worse, she is petty to the point of instantly hating another woman for simply being pretty and knowing Legend somewhat intimately.
Yet, somehow I am supposed to believe that these characters are loving and self-sacrificing. They're just not. Of all the characters, ironically the only one I could ever bring myself to like a tiny amount, surprisingly enough as I hated him in the past two novels, was Legend if only for his few moments of sacrifice. And then the single moment where I actually felt anything for what was happening in this novel came from a heart-wrenching moment with a dog who really never deserved to be made part of the disaster that is the lives of these characters.
The men in this story are disturbingly predatory in a great many ways and fortunately Garber does call this behavior out as problematic. But even so, there was a moment within the story in which one of the characters is forced, unknowingly, into doing something that she would never willingly do and then later made to feel bad for hurting the character who'd forced her out of a desire to reverse it, though reversal was impossible. This entire side plot made me extremely uncomfortable and made the implication that one should feel bad for hurting the person who took away your ability to consent.
And, to cherry top the novel is the inclusion of not one but two ridiculous love triangles. The love triangles only exist to further show the selfishness of the main characters, though I suppose Garber's desire for them was to make readers doubt and guess at her ultimate goal for the ships. It doesn't work, of course, and predicting the relationship outcome for the novel takes no time or work at all. Not only do we already know who both Tella and Scarlett will end up with, but we spend a ridiculous amount of time on Tella's runabout between the two immortal men in her life who supposedly only want to possess her. Tella regularly questions which man actually "loves" her, despite the answer being painstakingly obvious in every way aside from the character in question actually making the statement, "I love you." Scarlett's love triangle is blessedly short-lived in comparison, though it lasted much longer than necessary and also served as a plot point to further the rest of the story. It was all rather painful to read.
The main villain of the story had potential. In fact, it was the work that went into the fates that made me almost appreciate the story. They were interesting and, had the main characters been better, might have served for decent adversaries. But not only were all their efforts to defeat these villains somewhat paltry and silly, following the previous novels by having everything relevant simply land in the laps of the characters trying to defeat the monsters the fates were, the moment in which they finally win was incredibly anti-climactic. Add in the fact that Garber goes as far as she can to make us feel bad for the villain as he's defeated and I was left more annoyed than before. The backstory of the villain doesn't make me care about him, though it is made clear that Garber wants me to care. It was a poor attempt at manipulating the emotions of her readers and later resulted in one of the most ridiculous endings I've read in quite some time.
As a small aside, I couldn't help noticing some very uncanny similarities between one of the villains in this novel, Jacks, and the character Jac from Amanda Foody's Ace of Shades series. Their abilities to take away pain, mainly, and the fact that it hurts them in the process as they feel all the pain of the person for whom they are taking it. This alone was somewhat fascinating to me as I went and checked the publication dates of these books and noticed that they were fairly similar and so I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that anything was borrowed from the others' novels, but it does seem as though Jacks has far too many similarities and Jac did come first.
I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
| Instagram | Twitter | Reader Fox Blog | Bloglovin’ | Facebook |
A part of me, a very small part, wanted to be a little generous and give this book two stars. I very nearly did, initially, as credit is deserved when credit is due and Finale definitely improved over the disasters that the first two novels were. Unfortunately, when I look back at all my notes while reading this novel, it becomes pretty clear that despite improvements, this book retains a great number of the problems that arose in previous novels of the series. And while the villain of this particular novel was a nice change of pace from the prior books, various decisions that Garber made on his end were incredibly ridiculous, predictable, and even manipulative on her end.
Ultimately, I am still left wondering what on earth possesses Garber to believe that I, as a reader, should have any sort of positive feeling toward a single one of these characters. It all comes down to, I think, the image that Garber has in her head and the poor portrayal of the characters. She tells us regularly who each of these characters are and then proceeds to write them in a manner that does not match those previous statements.
Lets begin with the characters; they're all generally awful people. Not a single one, literally aside from Legend who is purported as one of the most selfish, comes across as unselfish. Scarlet is selfish, Julian is selfish, and Tella is the most selfish. Worse, she is petty to the point of instantly hating another woman for simply being pretty and knowing Legend somewhat intimately.
Yet, somehow I am supposed to believe that these characters are loving and self-sacrificing. They're just not. Of all the characters, ironically the only one I could ever bring myself to like a tiny amount, surprisingly enough as I hated him in the past two novels, was Legend if only for his few moments of sacrifice. And then the single moment where I actually felt anything for what was happening in this novel came from a heart-wrenching moment with a dog who really never deserved to be made part of the disaster that is the lives of these characters.
The men in this story are disturbingly predatory in a great many ways and fortunately Garber does call this behavior out as problematic. But even so, there was a moment within the story in which one of the characters is forced, unknowingly, into doing something that she would never willingly do and then later made to feel bad for hurting the character who'd forced her out of a desire to reverse it, though reversal was impossible. This entire side plot made me extremely uncomfortable and made the implication that one should feel bad for hurting the person who took away your ability to consent.
And, to cherry top the novel is the inclusion of not one but two ridiculous love triangles. The love triangles only exist to further show the selfishness of the main characters, though I suppose Garber's desire for them was to make readers doubt and guess at her ultimate goal for the ships. It doesn't work, of course, and predicting the relationship outcome for the novel takes no time or work at all. Not only do we already know who both Tella and Scarlett will end up with, but we spend a ridiculous amount of time on Tella's runabout between the two immortal men in her life who supposedly only want to possess her. Tella regularly questions which man actually "loves" her, despite the answer being painstakingly obvious in every way aside from the character in question actually making the statement, "I love you." Scarlett's love triangle is blessedly short-lived in comparison, though it lasted much longer than necessary and also served as a plot point to further the rest of the story. It was all rather painful to read.
The main villain of the story had potential. In fact, it was the work that went into the fates that made me almost appreciate the story. They were interesting and, had the main characters been better, might have served for decent adversaries. But not only were all their efforts to defeat these villains somewhat paltry and silly, following the previous novels by having everything relevant simply land in the laps of the characters trying to defeat the monsters the fates were, the moment in which they finally win was incredibly anti-climactic. Add in the fact that Garber goes as far as she can to make us feel bad for the villain as he's defeated and I was left more annoyed than before. The backstory of the villain doesn't make me care about him, though it is made clear that Garber wants me to care. It was a poor attempt at manipulating the emotions of her readers and later resulted in one of the most ridiculous endings I've read in quite some time.
As a small aside, I couldn't help noticing some very uncanny similarities between one of the villains in this novel, Jacks, and the character Jac from Amanda Foody's Ace of Shades series. Their abilities to take away pain, mainly, and the fact that it hurts them in the process as they feel all the pain of the person for whom they are taking it. This alone was somewhat fascinating to me as I went and checked the publication dates of these books and noticed that they were fairly similar and so I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that anything was borrowed from the others' novels, but it does seem as though Jacks has far too many similarities and Jac did come first.
I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
| Instagram | Twitter | Reader Fox Blog | Bloglovin’ | Facebook |
February 26, 2021
اسپويل داره !!!!!!
اسپويل داره !!!!
كاملا اسپويلهههههه!!!!!!
فقط براي خالي كردن هيجانم بايد اينارو مينوشتمممم
نخونيييييننننن اسپويلهههههه
واي واي واي
خيلي عالي بود بعد از تموم كردن اين كتاب فقط ميخواستم جيغ بزنم تا تمام هيجاني كه بهم وارد شده بود خالي شه اون تيكه كه اسطورع مرد😱 يا اونجا كه اسكارلت خواهر تلا نبود😱ديدين مادرشون دوباره رفت😱تلا قبول كرد جاودانه شه😱اسطوره عاشق شد😱تلا با جكس ازدواج كرد😱
اگر خونديش و گوش نكردي بهم متاسفم كه اسپويل شد
February 12, 2021
جیغغغغغغغغغغغغغغغغغغ
باورم نمیشه کاراوال تمام شد خدای من فوق العاده بود عمیقا باهاش زندگی کردم خیلییییی زیاد عاشقشم همه چیش عالیییی بود آه خداحافظی با دنیاش و شخصیتاش خیلی سخته کاراوال دنیایی پر از جادو بود کاراوال رفت جزو مورد علاقه هام هققققق شخصیت های مورد علاقم هم جکس و اسکارلت بودن
خدایا من بدون کاراوال نمی تونم زندگی کنم....
باورم نمیشه کاراوال تمام شد خدای من فوق العاده بود عمیقا باهاش زندگی کردم خیلییییی زیاد عاشقشم همه چیش عالیییی بود آه خداحافظی با دنیاش و شخصیتاش خیلی سخته کاراوال دنیایی پر از جادو بود کاراوال رفت جزو مورد علاقه هام هققققق شخصیت های مورد علاقم هم جکس و اسکارلت بودن
خدایا من بدون کاراوال نمی تونم زندگی کنم....
August 20, 2019
Will keep you reading till the end.
December 7, 2023
Me gusto que hayan estados los puntos de vista de ambas hermanas. Me gusto el libro pero siento que se fue de mambo con el tema principal que seria caraval. Tambien hubo muchas cosas que me quedaron inconclusas o con dudas pero elijo fingir demencia
March 13, 2025
Once again this is more like a 3.75 but I’m rounding up. Loved the story and dual POV. The ending felt a little rushed and I still feel like I have questions unanswered, but I can survive off of this ending.
May 8, 2021
Great way to end an amazing series!
March 21, 2022
Loved the trilogy - predictable ending but still a fantastic story 🖤
August 8, 2023
Splendid, sublime, wonderful are my few words about this book
August 11, 2023
Finale (reread)
April 17, 2024
The best ending ever I loved this series so much so easy to read and follow a lot happend in this book so I was gripping my seat the hole way through
Read
March 12, 2025DNF
December 13, 2025
amazing book, although i was not a huge fan of the love triangles and absolutely hated Jacks, but i cannot wait to read spectacular and OUABH
November 23, 2024
Reading Once upon a time a broken heart before Caraval was a mistake as it spoiled the ending for me in Finale.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews