4.5 Stars

The epic conclusion to the trilogy that wasn’t as epic as it should’ve been

This is it, final book in the trilogy, which would see our heroes go and kick some ass. Battles for survival, save the world as we know it and badassery and epicness all around. Except somewhere along the way the epicness was kind of toned down a bit too much.

You have a great evil, someone who terrorised the world until he was put on a time out. Now 1000 years later the time out has ended and the evil is back. Except we see no such evil or horrors or anything close for us to grasp the magnitude of this evil. And no just telling us that he is evil doesn’t count, at all. I get that 1000 years is a lot of time and things would have changed a lot, the world and the people in it would have evolved in their way of living and thinking, but still where is the epic battle we were promised.
Funny thing is, Larkspur a.k.a Larky, had the same issue with the time frame!

The bad guy has power

Spoiler

but not really since he depends on others for said power

, he has an army of marked who are untrained and the next best thing to modern zombies

Spoiler

who are also controlled by someone else

and finally a plot twist that went so unnoticed like milk in heavy cream

Spoiler

he is a quad, the original quads and his brothers are invincible beasts but do we get to see any of it really? No

. We have literally a comparison to a Greek battle: approximately 300 of the good guys versus a few hundred marked (sounds familiar to anyone?) and we get is this: “We don’t want to hurt them, they were victims in all of this, we just wanted to incapacitate them for a little while” which is fine since it’s true but then we jump to this: “We had given up at this point apparently. Marked were dying left, right and center”.
Really now? Really?!? *sigh*

I was introduced to a bad guy that was supposedly badass and seemed to be a step ahead from everyone at all times, yet in the end he kind of turned off his brains and went down way too easy. Don’t get me wrong, everyone has a weakness or a flaw that would help an opponent get traction and beat them but there was no coherent timeline for this to occur. One minute he was smart & ahead and the next, boom shaka laka, just like magic he was not.

Even so I did looove this book and this trilogy in general! Jessa, the Compass quads and Luis are among my very fav characters. A heroine that can be a badass, ass-kicking Alpha and a feminine figure at the right time & place and Alpha males who were not complete cavemen and brute strength. Their friendship is #lifegoals for me.

To conclude the rumbling: This book was great - if it was build/written a bit different, just a teeny tiny bit, it would have been awesomesause - while the characters will forever be in my heart. As such it has earned a spot in my favorites list and would recommend it to anyone and everyone!