It took me a while to rate this because I had to really process how I felt about the ending. The book is very fast paced and filled with non-stop action right from the beginning, which I usually like though there were some things that I had issues with. For one thing, this felt way cheesier than the first 2 books, though it's been a while since I read the first 2 so maybe I just don't remember them that much but it felt cheesier and some things happened way too easily, like in the beginning when Nat escapes the iron chains. But my major disappointment with this book was the very end. Now I love happy endings but I did not like the way this one occurred, which I'll explain more in the spoiler section. The end felt kind of like a cop out, which is why I can't give it more than 3 stars. The book had a lot of potential but for the conclusion of the series I wish it would have ended better.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

So in the end pretty much every single character dies, except for Nat and no this isn't an exaggeration, literally every character dies. However, everything seems to turn out ok because in an alternate universe the world isn't destroyed by ice, everyone is alive and happy and they all remember what their lives was like in the other world. What?! First off, did everyone really need to die in the first place? I feel like some deaths were unnecessary and could have been avoided. Second, I feel like by creating the alternate universe where everything is all rainbows and butterflies and they never had to go through any of the hardships they went through, just negates all the sacrifices they had to make. Also if this is an alternate universe that isn't destroyed by ice then why are they remembering their lives from the other world? It's like the characters died and they were plucked from death and dropped into this perfect world but kept all their memories so they would still know how they felt about each other. It's ridiculous and the only reason this is a 3 stars is because I was actually enjoying the book until the end, despite some of the issues I had that I mentioned above. ( )

There were some really interesting ideas scattered through this book/trilogy but OMG a decent editor should have taken the time to fix the dialogue, and delete whole sections of romantic paranoia. I don't know if thanking the editors for helping them meet deadlines was sarcastic. I only kept reading because I'm stubborn, and also I was on holiday without many books. It's not terrible, but it's not great - and there are too many great books out there waiting to make this worthwhile. ( )