Book: The Beauty Of Darkness by Mary E. Pearson

Published August 2016 by Henry Holt & Co|688 pages

Where I Got It: I own the hardcover

Series: The Remnant Chronicles #3

Genre: YA Fantasy

Lia and Rafe have escaped Venda and the path before them is winding and dangerous – what will happen now? This third and final book in The Remnant Chronicles is not to be missed.

Bestselling author Mary E. Pearson’s combination of intrigue, suspense, romance and action make this a riveting page turner for teens.

The Beauty Of Darkness  (BoD)was completely amazing!  This is a series that gets better with each book, and after The Heart Of Betrayal (HoB), which I thought was better than The Kiss Of Deception (KoD), I couldn’t wait to read BoD.

Seriously, this book is so good!  I’ve loved Lia since the beginning, and I didn’t care about the love triangle, at least in the sense that I was always Team Lia.  And the love triangle wasn’t annoying like it is in most books, because both Rafe and Kaden bring out different things in Lia.  I was slightly surprised by how things turned out in the romance department, especially for one of the characters, but they all have things they’re dealing with, and I’m glad that things worked out for all of the characters.  They all deserve peace and happiness, and I really felt like things were going to get so much better for Morrighan, Delbreck, and Venda.  Especially Venda, because they truly deserve good things.

I loved Lia’s transformation the most, though.  She’s so different than the Lia we met in KoD.  She’s determined and driven and still caring and full of compassion, and it makes her so awesome that you can’t help but root for her. Even when she doesn’t have a lot of support, she is very determined to help all of the kingdoms and defeat the Komizar so that everyone can have a future.  She doesn’t back down, even when people doubted her, and thought she should do something different.

More than anything, Rafe, Lia and Kaden felt very real and very human.  They weren’t perfect (especially with one thing Rafe did regarding Lia), but I understood why they acted the way they did.  They were flawed, and that was really nice to see, just because sometimes, YA characters don’t come across that way.

I really liked that we saw Rafe, Lia and Kaden narrate the book, because with so many things going on, it meant we got to see what was going on with each character.  I really like Pauline as a character, but I’m not sure how I feel about her chapters.  We do get a perspective that we don’t get with the other characters, which I really like, but I didn’t particularly care about what was going on with Mikail.

I’ve really come to love this series, and even though I’m glad I read it (mostly because I needed to know so many things), I’m also sad, because it means there are no more books in this series, and I won’t get to read them for the first time.  There’s always re-reading, and I actually really want to re-read the series now, because I have the feeling that there’s a lot I’m going to pick up on now that the story has come to an end.

The one thing I loved the most in the trilogy was the histories that we see throughout the books, and that was one of my favorite things in BoD.  In this book, we see that the texts we see don’t always give the whole picture, and that some history is hidden away, because it doesn’t support the view or story that those in power want out there. And it’s a reminder that history can be lost in so many ways, whether it’s an oral tradition that no longer gets passed down, or a book that’s hidden or burned because someone doesn’t want it out there.

And she did such a wonderful job at tying all three books together that it’s really hard to pinpoint each thing I loved about the book.  Everything seems like an accurate word, but at the same time, it’s too vague to accurately encompass what I loved about the book.  It seemed more emotional than the previous books, and it was hard not to start crying at a couple of different points.  I loved the details from the first two books that we see in this book, so it’s definitely a good idea to read them first, especially if it’s been a while since you’ve read them.

I haven’t really touched on anything specific, because I don’t want to give anything away.  Just trust me when I say that you need to read this entire series.

5 stars.  I think it may be the best in the trilogy, and I’m having a hard time deciding if The Beauty Of Darkness or The Heart Of Betrayal is my favorite, because each book was better than the last.