Title: The Beauty of Darkness (The Remnant Chronicles #3)
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Publication Date: August 2, 2016
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pages: 679
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Reviews for book 1 & book 2
Tracy’s Review
Lia has survived Venda—but so has a great evil bent on the destruction of Morrighan. And only Lia can stop it.
With war on the horizon, Lia has no choice but to assume her role as First Daughter, as soldier—as leader. While she struggles to reach Morrighan and warn them, she finds herself at cross-purposes with Rafe and suspicious of Kaden, who has hunted her down.
In this conclusion to the Remnant Chronicles trilogy, traitors must be rooted out, sacrifices must be made, and impossible odds must be overcome as the future of every kingdom hangs in the balance.
To say I was a little disappointed in this book is an understatement. After flying through the first two books and loving every moment of them, everything came to a screeching halt with this book. I’m just going to mention that I cannot stand when series end like this. It feels like complete and utter betrayal from the author and everyone who made this book possible.
First off, let’s talk about the romance. I kinda liked how the romance was going in the first two books. I was desperately hoping that maybe there would be a twist at the end, but NOPE. Lia was horrible to Rafe just about the whole entire book. If I were Rafe I would’ve walked away long ago just from how she acted. She didn’t care about their relationship or bring up major things that they should have discussed before she just went off and did them. That is so not how a relationship works. I feel like the romance with Kaden was a bit forced. If he couldn’t have one girl he’d take the other. I guess it gives him a happy ending, but not the ended I really hoped for him.
Lia’s attitude throughout this whole book just plain sucks. Not only is she a jerk to Rafe, but she has to act all high and mighty like everyone is out to get her just because she’s a girl. I get that girls can do somethings a guy does, but there is no need to have to prove yourself better than a man.
Her “gift” also ticked me off. That was the only way this book moved forward. Lia saw something or heard something and expected others to follow her completely blind. I would’ve hopped off that crazy train long ago! You have to have some other type of events to move the plot forward or it just gets so horribly redundant and boring for readers. And just because she has this “gift” it does not make her infinitely smarter and better than everyone else. That’s cause right there for a butt-whooping, at least in my family. You don’t treat people like trash just because you can do something they can’t.
Also because she has this “gift” she blindly follows it herself. Does she not have any regard for her future at all? I guess not cause there she goes head first into danger because her “gift” told her to… It’s like as soon as she found that book about the history of Venda she has to make sure that every prophecies comes true.
I listened to a good majority of this book on audiobook, but after about 55%-60% I had to stop listening for almost a week because I just couldn’t deal with this book. I was so close to almost DNFing this book, but I figured I was that far I might as well stick it out and complete it. In a way I wish I had just left it at the second book.
This book is massive! I was expecting a really long and epic final battle, but that only took place in the last 10% of the book. A few pages was all it took to defeat the enemy and wrap things up. Plus her whole “speech” to get them to lay down their arms did not make a lick of sense. People just dropped their weapons and followed her? I’m surprised she wasn’t shot with an arrow first. This book definitely could have been cut down and the fight could’ve been written to be more believable. I mean, come on, they have been prepping for a battle of the centuries and it is but a blip in the book. We could’ve done without all of the whiney Lia in the beginning as well.
Overall, I just have to shake my head at this book. I wanted to love it so much, but it seems like you either love this book or you hate it. I hate to say it, but I’m leaning towards the latter.
