My Five Word: TL:DR Review:All Wrapped Up With Love

The Echo Archives has been a fantastic series, it has surpassed my expectations in so many ways and I have absolutely no qualms about heartily recommending it if you enjoy fantastic and fun fantasy. The imaginative settings and plotlines have been excellent and I fell in love with the characters.

Here are my reviews for The Last Hour Between Worlds and The Last Soul Among Wolves. If you haven’t read the series then you might want to beware of spoilers, also, I feel with this series you really do need to read these books in order and not dive in randomly. As I mentioned they are incredibly imaginative and good fun to boot.

It is difficult to review the third and final book in a series because of course I don’t want to give away spoilers. So, I can tell you that in this final instalment Kembral is assigned a murder investigation, her own! She needs to stay one step ahead using a series of cryptic clues about what form her ‘murder’ may take, try and suss out who is attempting to kill her and why and help to fix breaches in the fabric of reality that are suddenly beginning to appear in the Echoes.

That’s all I can say about the plot. So instead, lets have a look at what works really well here.

Firstly, I love returning to this world. By now I have a handle on the place, I love the crazy things the author comes up with every time Kem visits the Echoes, I’ve become attached to the main characters and I know that there will be some crazy scheme playing out usually at the hands of – well, I better not say I suppose.

Kem and Rika’s relationship has become really firm and in fact both of them are considering their next steps (without the other’s knowledge). There is much to discuss and think about but the two rarely have a chance to catch their breath once the shenanigans start up again.

We once again jump back and forth in the Echoes, which I frankly can’t get enough of, and are accosted by some very serious problems. It begins to feel like the tears in reality and murder attempts on Kem’s life are not only connected but are becoming much more frantic as everything rushes toward some unknown deadline.

If you’ve read the first two books you’ll probably have a good idea who is behind all the schemes but with this instalment you may also find some surprising allies.

In terms of the pacing, I felt like this instalment slowed down a little in the middle and also it felt like the feel of the story changed in tone to the first two. To explain. Books 1 and 2 were amazingly creative, both storylines were unique and I simply fell in love with all the elements at play. The third instalment felt like it was giving more focus to Kem and Rika, their overall story arcs and their relationship. Which isn’t to say that there isn’t action and drama and plenty of potential kill situations, but, here it felt less grand in scope is the only way I can think to describe it. The other two instalments had very dramatic plots that became a race to discover what was going on before everything went to hell in a handcart. This book also has a race against time but it feels more broken into individual scenes where Kem and Rika go from place to place usually with bad things happening and the two of them, plus others, trying to find a way to survive or get out of their current dilemma. This isn’t a criticism because this was once again a very entertaining story but, I think I was still expecting more of the same sense of grandeur when it came to the plot. I can definitely appreciate why the author changed tack a little, and the stakes are still ridiculously high, but there’s a lot more focus here on the central relationship and how the two must overcome their differences to become stronger together. Again, this isn’t a bad thing, just, not quite what I was expecting.

In conclusion, this may not be quite as grandiose as the previous two stories but it still has a dramatic finale, plenty of bloodshed and (spoiler alert) a satisfying ending, I really liked seeing the development between the two main characters and the way their relationship becomes paramount to success.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4 of 5 stars