Summary:

He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.

Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.

Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.

Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.

And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…

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Thoughts:

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2019 and it did a an okay job of living up to my expectations. Mostly. Also, I don’t know how to give my thoughts on this one without some spoilers so:

SPOILERS for this book and previous books may be ahead so if you haven’t read them yet you may want to skip this review.

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This final chapter of The Folk of the Air picks up not long after that crazy ending of the second book. Unlike the pace of the previous volume, which felt frantic at times with so much going on, things start off a little more sedately here. Jude is living in exile with her sister and brother in the human world. It’s not too long before things get going though with Jude re-entering the world of Faerie. I did enjoy the bit in the human world but I’m glad that they got back to Faery pretty quickly because that’s where all the fun stuff happens. That being said, I also felt like it was a bit too easy for her to get back to Faery? Like it was a big deal that she got kicked out but then she kind of just waltzes right back in (well, in disguise, but it’s neither clever nor unique since this has been done before). Making her way back so easily almost negated some of the tension left by the previous book in my opinion. Still, we needed a way back in so here we go.

I thought this one was good overall and it was a fairly satisfying conclusion, but it may be (for me at least) the weakest of the books. We get our conclusion and I can say that I’m happy with the way things turned out and yet also unsatisfied–I was left with a general feeling of wanting more somehow? I don’t know if it’s the bittersweet feeling that this series I’ve come to love is all over, or if the book was actually lacking a bit in some way. There are some very high stakes in this one, along with some great action and even a battle. There are also a few twists and turns but I didn’t feel the same wow factor when reading this one as the previous two books in the series.

It was great to be back in this world with these characters and that much I did enjoy, it was a bit like coming home in a way. I love Jude and Cardan together so I was really happy when they were finally reunited. I wish there had been a bit more push-pull in this one, but instead they resolve things between themselves pretty quickly. This book gives me what I want in regards to their relationship at the end of the day so why am I not 100% satisfied with it? Did I like it better when they were trying to kill each other all the time? What the hell does that say about me? I have no idea. I am happy though that they got a good ending, even though they had to go through a lot of stuff to get there. They deserve to be happy. But why does it also not feel right somehow?

Okay, so this book has left me feeling pretty conflicted and I know most of the above was ranting but it wasn’t a terrible book by any means. It was good. I liked it. But I think I wanted something more out of it. It’s hard to top book two though, because that one was nearly perfect as far as books go. This one at least gives our characters a resolution that I’m okay with at the end of the day. 3.5/5 stars.