So, in the spirit of talking about NPC’s I have to bring up one of my favorite NPC heroines, who I no longer think actually qualifies as an NPC just because of her complete and utter awesomeness, and that would be Maddie the original star of the series. Maddie’s return is just one of the things that this finale has going for it, the other two are Dawn Chapman’s deft storytelling abilities, and the ever incredible narration of Andrea Parsenau. Seriously, aside from the great Duchy/Dooky debacle of 2017 has she ever been anything but perfect?
This book marks Maddie’s return, only for her to find out that she is not alone in her quest, but that she also has Akilla, Lila, Dahlia, and Jessica to help her take care of business, so this really is the culmination of all the preceding novels and it brings them together in a very nice and cohesive storyline that can’t help but grab your attention. Also, this has been a very unique series in that it started out with one MC and then went and added more players as it went on. The entire concept was new, and it was played out brilliantly.
So let me say one little thing about the narration. I absolutely adore Andrea Parsenau, and it was such a treat for her to return to close out the series that she and Dawn started together, it is very fitting and honestly it would not have felt right otherwise, BUT, BUT I would have really loved to have had the other narrators, or at least one of them, come back to voice “their” characters. For example, Annaliese Rennie would have been brilliant to have snuck in a cameo, as would Suzanne Barbetta who did just as many of the Puatera books as Parsenau. I realize that monetarily it was probably not possible, but I do want to give a tip of the hat to the other ladies who kept this series going while Andrea was elsewhere, although I have to say that keeping Maddie solely as Andrea’s character was very fitting. I honestly had hoped that Andrea would return before the close of the series, but had no idea if she would. For me, Andrea is a conundrum. She’s like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way, but every time I listen to her I hear something new. She continues to improve and evolve as a narrator and she simply blows me away every time she narrates.
Chapman, has played some cards very close to her chest because you really will be surprised who the big bad is. There is a change in perspective as we bounce between Maddie’s POV and that of Lila. Now Spoiler, we don’t get a real happy ending. We get one that is tangled in real life, something that doesn’t come with clean fairytale endings even though the resolution to the problem could be considered fairytalish in nature. In other words, Lila manages to get a resolution, but you have to ask if it is something that she can live with, and I like that. I like books that don’t just wrap things up in a neat little bow and pretend that the real world doesn’t have emotional cures. I can’t really say much without spoiling things but I have to say that this is Dawn at her absolute best. She crafts an excellent tale and brings it to life with dashes of the way things really are. It is definitely an edge of your seat fast paced story that unspools its secrets at just the right time. The only bad thing about it was that it was only 12 hours long.
Final score 8.4 stars. Hell of a way to wrap up a series.