Alright, I started this *so fast* after the second book. This series has been bomb.com and I was also so hype for this final romance. I haven't been this excited to pick up a book/finish a series in awhile and goodness I forgot how much I love that feeling! 

We pick up right where we left off in the last book. Violet's newly inherited home has become the de facto "home base" for our group of (not quite all bought into the concept yet) found family. Lord Hawthorn, Jack, stays grudgingly entrenched in the fight to save the future of British magic, alongside our favorite (previous MC) couples: Edwin and Robin, Maud and Violet. The search for the last piece of the contract in Violet's home is going...slowly...until their ally from shipboard shenanigans, writer and thief Alan Ross, shows back up. With his unique set of skills, and a newly discovered ability to "perturb" magic, he is convinced to help the group once again (in exchange for a favor from Hawthorn). Thus, of course, ensue many major and minor hijinks, both funny and dangerous, as this group risks everything (including their own lives), to prevent the Last Contract from being deployed. Everything comes to a head at a giant magical celebration/ball at Cheetham Hall, Hawthorn's family estate, in dramatic fashion. And all the while (of course) Jack and Alan are pulled together irresistibly, against both of their wills, as they realize that despite the surface gulf (enmity, really) between them, they are actually - in ways both passionate and emotional - exactly what the other wants. 

Y'all, I cannot even with how much I loved this book. What an epic freaking finale. To everything! From the saga of the Last Contract to the ties binding this whole group together to the fact that this last romance was so freaking perfect. Love love love. Most of this review is going to focus on Jack and Alan, because they were everything. But before I get there, let me just add a few other things I enjoyed as well. First, I love a magical house. And Violet's inherited one (RIP) was a fantastic example of what that can look like. After the self-contained ship situation of the last one, I loved all our charters being brought back together, working together, in this finale. Seeing Violet/Maud and Robin/Edwin, plus Miss Morrissey (and her sister), so much in these pages was so cozy and familiar. And I thought the way Marske used them all, each of them having strengths the others lacked (even when they were less obvious), to fill important roles in their own rights to bring this story to its conclusion, was really well done. (On that note, sort of, getting Hawthorn’s background, his own reckoning with it - finally, and then the part with his twin towards the end, was quite emotional. Unexpectedly so. I definitely shed tears.) It’s been a long time since I fell this deeply for a "ragtag" group of conspirators (like this is Six of Crows or A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet level of investment in a group) and I'm so grateful for that. The ending was so satisfying. Just desserts are received, and yet it doesn’t spill into the unbelievable or too utopia-esque. Plus, the connection between people and land through the natural and ley line magic is always (IMO) so cool. I mean the cradling was super original and creative, for sure, but the conceptual magic of nature, with less stringent rules (like that of VenCo), has always been a favorite of mine. It's not always as clear, and in that vein, it wasn't here, but I liked it anyways. Finally, and I will talk about this more when I address Jack and Alan, the social/class aspects included in this book were nuanced and complex and impressively handled. There was nothing easy and nothing decided, which is so honest, and yet within our plot/characters, we are given a reasonable settling place (with room for better and growth). 

Ok and now: JACK AND ALAN. Like, OMG. Look, the connection between the two is buzzing with heat and intensity. The anger that moves them both, the shared look for conflict as foreplay (flame and danger as metaphoric parallels), is written spectacularly. It's so smart and so hot. Seriously, the conversation between them, when they finally have it, about their mutual, complementary, wants...the dancing around it and the proper dialogue of improper topics and the towing of the line to be assured of safety and respect is SO GOOD. I was burning up reading it. The careful suggestion/anticipation in the conversation is too much - some of the best back and forth I’ve ever read. And then, really, Marske’s ability to write sex scenes is one of the best, across all three books, and I will follow her writing anywhere now. After that, as the relationship grows further, the way they’re both fighting the falling in love, but are so head over heels anyways (and so dang stubborn about admitting it) - gah. YES. Slightly more seriously, I want to also recognize that the social justice about class/SES/power differential is pretty heavy handed, but important conceptually, andis written in as a complex and nuanced part of the development of this MC couple so well. Marske wrote Hawthorn and Ross' relationship with such depth and layers, emotionally and sexually…and really societally, with such mastery.  

This whole series, but especially this final book, is alive. It moves, there’s so much passion and action and it's just such a phenomenal reading experience. I am devastated, in all the best ways, by this story, these characters and (in a less great way) by the fact that it's over.  

 

 

“If the world were different, I wouldn;t have had to, but it's the way it is, and so I've been scared my whole life and angry for even longer. It's exhausting. You have no bloody idea how exhausting it is. Some people get exhausted out of the anger early, because they need all their energy simply to stay alive.”

“He wanted to crack open his rib cage and place Alan Ross inside it, the better to warm him with Jack's own blood.” (I mean COME ON has there ever been a more perfect line?!)

“Alan had never been looked at like this, with this hot pleasure in his presence that had such palpable, irresistible weight. It moved like an iron over his irritable nerves and uncreased them.” 

“The coat of an act of power shouldn't be borne by anyone except the person who gains the most from it.”

“The air between them was so tight, so rich with potential, that he wouldn't have been surprised to see a crackle of magic. A seam of lightning gold.” AND “A sensation like a liquid shadow, like the burn of good brandy, was spreading beneath Jack's skin.” (these LINES tho)

“Both of them had been twisted up by the plain facts of their existence. The past could turn you into a strip of paper with a single side, so that comfort and vulnerability slid away down invisible channels and couldn't be grasped.” (my god the tenderness, I cannot)

“The fae had assumed that mortal society would remain exactly as it had been when they left. But the distance between those who had power and those who had none had widened, and the willingness of leaders to take responsibility - for land, for their own actions, for anyone else - had withered.”

“It was a new experience, to want his solitude and then find someone intruding on it and be glad. A small gladness, like a mouthful of good wine, but world-shaking in its novelty.” (yes this!)

"I would write you into immortality. I would trap you in ink and wear the pages next to my skin until they fell apart. Kiss me until I know you. Kiss me until you know me, and unmake me, and love me anyway."