Kingdom of the feared

By Karri Maniscalco

If you are hoping for a fierce ending for a great series, well, do not look here.

The Ugly Truth:

I was looking forward to this series's third installment only to be seriously let down. The main characters in the previous two books were beautifully built out, and the love story was cleverly crafted with an air of mystery surrounding it, keeping me entertained and guessing. The relationships between our protagonists and side characters were also unique, and I enjoyed learning more about each as the tale progressed.

However, this last book was a cop-out, an easy way to end the story without much fuss. There was no actual conflict- yes, sure, we had some disputes that were solved in a day or two- but no great battle or fight. This leads me to believe that Maniscalco got bored with her own novel, or was not prepared to write a great battle scene like the book deserved. This is not me trying to discredit her work; as I said, the other two novels were fantastic, but to lose it in the file lap left me deeply dissatisfied.

Lastly, one of the leading points of the series was the romance and it fell... flat. In the last few chapters of the book, while waiting for the final telling of an epic love story, we instead were given scraps of a history lesson that just so casually tied them together? Feels like an easy way to tell us they were "meant to be" rather than showing us.

Overall, I did enjoy the series; I just wanted a little more at the end.