Initial Impressions 3/7/15: Wellllllll that was a bummer. I just for the life of me could not get into this book. Sadly, I think along the way I just fell out of love with these characters and let's be honest -- It actually took me a while to fall IN love with them. Things started to hit their stride for me in book two and I was okay starting STRANGE AND EVER AFTER, but it didn't last for long. I found myself pushing to keep going and I just couldn't get into the story.
I felt like yes, things did have explanations but somehow it didn't feel like enough. I never really to into the whole magic idea there which is unusual for me. Maybe I just felt like it didn't have enough substance for some reason.
The characters started to fall flat again -- except for Oliver because demon + sass = true love.
The ending got spoiled for me on Twitter DAYS before I got to that point so blegh. Not surprised by the THING at the end (though I did have some guesses) but it did still tug at my emotions.
Overall, I finished the book to finish the series but I was so sad to find that I wasn't really enjoying it. I even tried putting it down and coming back later, coming back in a different mood, reading while doing other things. I just couldn't.

Full review posted HERE on The Book Addict's Guide 3/25/15: I started this book because I just needed a series to fall back into when nothing else was grabbing me at the moment. After scanning my shelves, I thought it was finally time to finish the Something Strange and Deadly trilogy! The funny (or not-so-funny) thing is, after picking a book I was sure would grab me, I had nothing but struggles trying to get into STRANGE AND EVER AFTER.

I’ve been a fan of the trilogy from the start. SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY was just a lot of fun and Susan Dennard is an absolutely sweetheart! I actually even enjoyed the second book, A DARKNESS STRANGE AND LOVELY, even more so my plans to finally hop into book three and wrap up the series had me really excited and feeling all kinds of warm fuzzies. It started off well and I was definitely interested in where we had left off (plus Oliver <333) but for whatever reason, I just could not get into the book. My interest started REALLY waning after the first few chapters and I just found myself struggling to focus.

Falling out of love with a series is hard, and I think that’s what happened here. The book wasn’t “bad” by any means but my interest in the series overall just seemed to… drift. It also makes my review that much harder to write because how can I feel SO differently now than I did when I first started the series? It seems unfair to say “it’s me, not you” with a series that I’ve already invested time in and spent time sharing… but either way, that seems to be the case here.

I did still like the magic aspect of the book but I felt like in STRANGE AND EVER AFTER, I just wasn’t AS interested. Did I not get enough answers? Enough explanation? Was I so unfocused that I totally missed those fine details on how the magic system worked? Whatever the true answer is (maybe yes to all of the above), it just didn’t seem as concrete as I had hoped. Oliver (the demon!) was one of my favorite characters from book two and honestly, if he wasn’t in this book, I would have had a very hard time continuing at all. I did struggle with the characters a bit in each book, but I still had that love there for the plot. Struggling with the pacing and seemingly similar battles versus the undead several times over just really made me feel like I was reading what I already read in the previous books and I didn’t quite feel that growth from the characters in this book like I had hoped either. There was character growth, but maybe not as much or not in the way that I was hoping. The worst part of it all is that I honestly cannot place my finger on why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would except for the fact that… falling out of love with series happens.

There were still some things I enjoyed about STRANGE AND EVER AFTER but I just was not feeling it this time around. I wished we had gotten to see more of Egypt (and I was secretly hoping for more Egyptian mythology tie-ins). I wish I had seen even MORE from Eleanor. I wish someone hadn’t spoiled the ending for me on Twitter… But such is life and I can’t have all of the happy endings to series that I want! Sometimes these things just happen and really, I should have known this was a possibility. More than anything, I’m just really sad because Susan Dennard is SO amazing that by not liking this book, I almost feel like I’m letting her down. It’s a tricky thing when you start to interact with authors! I think I had many more personal feelings attached this time around so I really felt bad as I was reading.