Summary:

After the sickness known as the Doom destroyed civilization, magick has become commonplace, and Fallon Swift has spent her young years learning its ways. Fallon cannot live in peace until she frees those who have been preyed upon by the government or the fanatical Purity Warriors, endlessly hunted or locked up in laboratories, brutalized for years on end. She is determined to save even those who have been complicit with this evil out of fear or weakness—if, indeed, they can be saved.

Strengthened by the bond she shares with her fellow warrior, Duncan, Fallon has already succeeded in rescuing countless shifters and elves and ordinary humans. Now she must help them heal—and rediscover the light and faith within themselves. For although from the time of her birth, she has been The One, she is still only one. And as she faces down an old nemesis, sets her sights on the enemy’s stronghold, and pursues her destiny—to finally restore the mystical shield that once protected them all—she will need an army behind her…

Goodreads

Thoughts:

What a good way to end the series.

It’s probably no surprise that the characters are Nora Roberts strength here. She writes such wonderful characters that you can easily connect with and find yourself rooting for. Fallon has grown to be the leader she was fated to be, although sometimes that fate weighs on her. It’s honestly a lot to put on someone, but she’s got such a great family and friend base to support her so she’s lifted up by them and their belief in her. I loved watching her and Duncan’s relationship develop too. You know it’s Nora Roberts so she’s got to get a bit of romance in there, which I was happy to see of course. 🙂 I also continued to love the family dynamics with Fallon’s family. Her parents and brothers are all so wonderful and supportive. It’s nice to see that instead of a bunch of endless family drama.

As for the plot of this book, it’s basically the magick folks and their friends taking back the country from the dark mages and Purity Warriors (fanatical bigots). There is a ton of battle strategy and planning and then battles as they fight to reclaim major cities. There are alliances with other leaders so there’s some diplomacy too. The plot is fairly basic though, it’s the classic light vs dark, good vs evil. And you know what? It feels sort of refreshing because everything is such shades of gray now days. It’s nice to have a story be a bit more black and white and say ‘no, you’re evil, clearly, and we’re not going to put up with it in the world but we’re also not going to stoop to your level because that’s what being good is about’. I loved that this was fighting against bigotry (magick vs non magicks), and this is a fight we see mirrored in our own world as the culture wars rage on. I only wish that the characters had reflected the real world a little more, especially for a book about fighting back against bigotry, there sure was a lot of white-ness. Just a thought.

Because of all the battles and the planning leading up to the battles the pacing of the book was fantastic. It was one thing after another, the characters hitting their enemies again and again. The only other small criticism I have in this is that things almost seemed too easy at times. Even though there was a price to be paid by the characters, things kept working out in their favor from beginning to end for the most part. I like to see people succeed but I think I like to see them work for it a bit more. Then again, Fallon was The One and everything was fated so of course you’d expect things to work out for them. And, like I said, it’s not as if there weren’t any struggles at all, just that they felt minuscule in the grand scheme of things. There was also a great twist in there that I really loved, which I won’t go into but I didn’t see that coming at all. I do love a good surprise.

Overall, I was really happy with this final volume of the series. I thought it tied the story up well and it was nice to see good triumphing over evil–I think we could use a little of that in this world right now especially, when a lot of things feel unjust. 4/5 stars.