While I'm enjoying the series, Ms. Bishop really needs to kick the progress of the story down the road a bit more than she did with this one. Not much happened in this one. Not that it felt like half a book like some do, it was an entire book that didn't tell me anything. At the end, I had the feeling that I could have skipped the whole thing and not missed out.

I will wait for reviews instead of pre-ordering the next one. ( )

The conclusion of the Others series. It felt realistic in that there are happy possibilities rather than conclusive solutions.
library book read 1/2/2023 ( )

Enjoyed it quite a lot. Easy to sink into with engaging characters. ( )

Sigh... I'm both happy and sad at the moment. Happy because (of course) it was such a great book but also sad since it was the last we see of our friends.

Worldbuilding:
As far as I know, this is the last book about the Lakeside Courtyard (*sniff*) so it was nice that we pretty much stayed here the whole instalment.
As always, all scenes and environments were very well written, letting my mind remain fully immersed in the story.

Character development:
Meg has come such a long way from when we first met her, trying to escape the Controllers. It feels with this book, she has come full circle. She has grown and learned so so much. I love how she used her prophecy cards instead of making cuts, even though it was still very tempting. She and Meri Lee are getting really good at deciphering their meaning and I hope we will see other blood prophets use her method in later books.
Simon steps up for his people in this instalment, trying to keep the worst of some really bad influence out of the different packs living in Lakeside Courtyard, even if his hands are partially tied by the Elders. Meg and Simon are confused about their feelings for each other, which made me roll my eyes on numerous occasions, seriously :)
In this instalment, I really felt how tight the different packs are, to their own and to the other packs living in the Courtyard. They have their home, and they will defend it in any way possible.
As we have come to expect from the author, all the characters feel vibrant and alive. Very well written!

Pacing and flow:
The whole book you just know bad stuff is going to happen, and every time you're like 'is this it?' (it wasn't :p). It kept me on my toes and I had so many problems putting the book down, but I really needed some sleep (in my defence, it was 4.30 in the morning). Great balance between action and conversation.

The book:
The book was well written with no (noticeable) errors. There is no sex described (if that is important to you.
The book is 397 pages long, spread over 33 chapters and written from multiple point of views (mainly Meg and Simon and Vlad).

Final thoughts:
It seems this is the last book for Meg and Simon (so far) and that makes me freaking sad. Hope we will get to see how they are doing in the spinoff though! (I mean, that ending can't be the only thing we get, right?)
This series has been one of my favourites from book 1 onwards and I can't recommend it enough! ( )

Even though I felt very annoyed by one particular character (and found the POV almost unbearable to read) I enjoyed the last book in the Lakeside story arc. These books are definitely rereadable. ( )