Such a thrilling end to an incredible trilogy. I loved this final book with all my heart. What is left of it, that is. As this one completely ruined me. At all times. It was much darker than the others. Yet so full of love as well. And I loved every moment of it. As always, the writing was fantastic. Five stars, of course. Loved it so much.
Finding the words for this book will not be easy. I have loved this trilogy so very much. I love that the books are from the point of view of a sister each. That the story of them all fits together so well. That we still see much of all three of them in all the books. The world created was full of magic and danger and creatures.
This third book tells the story of Mara. The middle child. And the one who had it the worst of the three sisters. I still love Gemma more than anything. She was the youngest and the more happy one, but fully broken inside even so. Farrin was the oldest sister, and the angry one. Yet so full of softness inside. And Mara, the middle one, is the one who is truly broken. And it hurt so much to read her story. Yet I loved it so much. She might be the one whose story I love the most. Though, to be honest, I love all three sisters the same, in a way. They are different and yet not really. And their stories have been truly amazing to read about. But yes. This third book hurt the most. It is also the book where the war is truly happening for real. Which was so exciting.
I'm going to try to stop myself from writing down all the plot that happens. Though, knowing myself, I am going to write way too much even so. I simply loved this trilogy so very much. The writing was so good. I truly loved reading about this magical world. And how it was falling apart. How dangerous creatures were coming out of the olden country. How Mara had to fight so many of them. One scene in the beginning hurt my heart a whole bunch. When the Warden pretty much tricked them all to kill so many. I did not approve.
There is so much going on in this book. We learn so much more about Mara and what it means to be a Rose of the order. What it means for her to protect the Middlemist and everything around it. We get to see how sad she is. How much she does not wish to be alive any longer because of the pain. Which was so very sad to read about. Yet I loved it so very much too. Mara was so real. So very broken. And I adored her to pieces. She deserved all the happiness. But oh, she went through so much pain in this book. Rude.
This third book is very much Mara's story. We get to know her so well.
She is so broken. And I loved her so much. It was so exciting to read
about her life as a Rose. I loved reading about when she transformed
into a beast. It was so interesting. She was such a great fighter too,
which was awesome. I loved being inside her head. Even though it was also so very painful. As she had so much heartbreak in her life. But I also loved it. Sigh. Mara tried her best. She just wanted to be able to go home. Which was not possible.
This book is about them all trying to fight Kilraith. To hunt for the final cursed objects, trying to weaken him. To also find the other gods that are waking up. That part I loved a whole lot. The place in the woods was so awful and sad and so good. There were so many moments that I loved in this book. Many dark ones. But many hopeful ones too. Mara and Gareth together gave me so much joy. But much sadness too. Getting to see Gemma and Talan and also Farrin and Ryder in the background made me so happy.
There is truly so much I want to say about this book. And I am writing too much, adding in a little more at different places. Oops. I simply cannot stop writing about this book. And so I am not going to. One of my favorite things was Gemma and Farrin and Mara together. Reading more about their magic powers. And how they got stronger after they learned the secret about their mother. Which was such a great plot twist. Fully exciting but also so sad. But yes. Them being together and fighting together were my favorite parts.
Much of this book is about Mara and Gareth together. When I first read book two, I did not see how they could end up together. But when I read it a second time, I saw it better. And I liked reading about them getting to know each other in this third one. As they did not know each other from before. And they had so much to learn. I loved getting to know more about Gareth. He was such a sweet person. Full of love. And full of hurt and so broken. We learn about what he went through as a captive. Fully heartbreaking.
And so I very much loved the romance in this book. These two were a little more crazy in love than the other couples, in a way, haha. But I did not mind it. They were so sweet together. Although Mara kept trying to ruin it. Again and again. I didn't blame her, though. As she was so scared. And so broken. I just loved reading about her slowly changing her way of thinking. Slowly getting better. Well, except for that one scene at the very end of the book. That was not getting better at all. So very rude. But so well done.
We learn a little more about the villain of these books, Kilraith. Though he was not that much in this one. Yet he did a lot of damage. And I liked reading about him and Ankareth. Getting to know a little more of their story. We get to see if she comes back or not. And that was such an exciting moment to me. I loved it so much. We see more of Mara's familiar bird, Freyda. Which was all kinds of cute. I so loved Mara's friendship with Brigid. And how all the Roses cared for each other, how they were all close like a family.
One thing I must talk about is the Warden. The woman who controls all of the Roses. The woman who teaches them all to fight. Who takes care of them. Who is always there. Sort of like a mother to them all. Yet she was not a kind mother at all. Mara loves her. But to me, it is a twisted love. Because the Warden was truly the very worst person in these books and I just hated reading about her. Yet it was always very interesting too. But oh, this woman caused so much hurt. And it made me so angry. But mostly just sad.
There were some scenes that were so hard to read about. First a small moment with Nerys the harpy. That hurt. But then the scene with Posey came. And I am not sure I will be able to forget that moment. Shudders. It was truly the most heartbreaking. Yet fully exciting too, and written so well. Even though it was so cruel and so awful, I still loved it. Sigh. That poor girl did not deserve all of that. Oh, and the part with the fire nymphs in the beginning. That scene hurt. And something that was done to Mara at the end.
That was just so cruel and evil. Yet so very well done as well. Rude. I did not like the Warden at all. I kept wishing for her to die a gruesome death. Oops. I must confess that all the heartbreaking moments were some of my favorite parts. I love reading about sad things. But it hurt an awful lot. Some other characters that are in this book were their mother and father. And they are finding their way back together. And like the sisters, I did not like it one bit. I honestly felt like those two did not deserve happiness together. Hmph.
There is so much that I wish to write about this book. Yet so much that I am not going to mention. It is a long story. And so very much happens. I always write too much. Yet I just can't stop myself from sharing. One of my favorite moments of this book was a fae hunt they took part in. It was so awesome yet so rude. There was a part where Mara was running in the snow. So very sad and so very good. Then another part where she was running even more, and it was so heartbreaking yet so thrilling at the same time. Loved it.
The ending was so very bittersweet. I loved it so very much. Yet it was a little sad too, and broke my heart a little more. And even though the story of these three sisters is over, it does not feel over. There are still things that I want answers to. Still things that need doing in this world. But yes. I do think the ending was good. I just want more, haha. Always. As this world was so exciting to read about. Honestly, I just loved these books so much. They are so very long. Yet not long enough. I so loved all of the smaller moments.
A Rose of Blood and Binding was everything I had hoped it would be. I loved it with all my heart. Mara's story was just perfection. This third book was full of hurt and evil people. Yet it was full of love too. I loved reading about Gemma and Farrin and Mara being together the very most. They were just such excellent sisters. And it just made my heart happy to see them together. These books are also full of smut. Which I keep forgetting to write about, haha. But there is a lot of it in all three books. And it is all written very well.
The biggest thank you to the publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca, for sending me a free ARC of this book to read and review. It means everything to me. It is fully gorgeous and I love it the very most. A treasure for me. My Claire Legrand book collection is the biggest and I love it so much. Now to wait for Claire to write even more perfect books. She is truly the best. And such a kind person too. Which makes me the happiest. You need The Middlemist trilogy in your life. It is such a perfect and sad and oh so good story.
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