Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: This final book in the Indigo Court series delivers a satisfying conclusion to all that has come before it. While I have issues with the series in general, the overall story of this final book is a good one.

Opening Sentence: I stood on a hillock near the Barrow.

The Review:

It’s been six weeks since Cicely returned to New Forest, Washington. So much has changed in her life in that short span of time. She’s discovered she’s an owl shifter, met her father – the King Consort of the Fae Summer Court, faced off against countless Shadow Hunters and vampires – each with their own reasons for wanting her dead, said goodbye to her father, became Queen of the Winter Court, and married her one true love, Grieve. Now, it’s all come down to this: Myst has returned to New Forest with one goal – total domination. Cicely, Grieve, and their friends must band together for one final battle. Who will come out on top?

I’ll be honest, I have many issues with this series in general. I read the first book a couple years ago and was majorly underwhelmed. I gave it one star on my Goodreads account and had decided I wasn’t interested in continuing the series. Then I found out I was going to be reviewing this last book in the series. Cue me frantically making my way through books 2 through 4 so I wouldn’t be completely lost when I started this one. On the bright side, the other books in the series are better than the first, but there are overriding issues in each one, including this one, that keep it from being a great read for me.

I’ll start with the good though. The world and story Galenorn has built is very interesting and unique. I love the idea of the Vampiric Fae and have never seen anything like them in other books I have read. Every time I would get frustrated with something in the book, the desire to find out more about this race of creatures kept me going. Other fae creatures like the Snow Hag and the snow weavers were just icing on the cake.

The big thing for me that kept me from loving this book (and the series in general) is Cicely. I just don’t like her. She doesn’t tend to think before she acts (although to be fair, that does change a bit in this last book). Even after countless warnings from various people about using her power over the wind, she still does it and seems surprised when the warnings ring true. This led to a lot of eye rolling from me. You never want that in reaction to your main character.

I also never warmed up to Grieve or the love story between him and Cicely. It doesn’t matter how many times I was told that they were meant to be together due to their previous life, I just never bought it. It struck me while reading this final book that I think the reason for that is the language used during their love scenes. I don’t need a sex scene to be all flowery words and declarations of love, but when every one is described in terms that remind me more of a casual affair, it makes it very hard for me to feel the love. It also didn’t help that I actually liked Lannan more than Grieve, despite being told countless times how awful he was. On that same subject, I felt the triangle was wrapped up way too quickly and easily, almost as if Galenorn ran out of time and didn’t want to deal with a scene between the three of them actually discussing their feelings.

All of this ranting probably makes it seem like I would be giving this book less than 3 stars, but because of the originality of the story, I have to give it at least that. For a final book in a series, it wraps things up nicely, and I appreciated the epilogue to show where everyone is now. While this series wasn’t always my cup of tea, I do like Galenorn’s Otherworld series and will continue to read that. This series will just have to go on my “Good Story, but Bad Characters” Shelf.

Notable Scene:

The little girl atop the hutch caught my eye, and in her expression I saw both horror and hatred. She would carry this for the rest of her life, if she made it through. She had seen them destroy her family, and right there, I knew she’d grow up with vengeance in her heart — it would be her way of surviving. The hope that she might one day return the favor, should any of the Indigo Court survive.

Cicely — there is another. Ulean’s soft whisper hit me full-on. The slipstream let me hear things that were too quiet to overshadow the noise going on around me.

Another what?

Another child. He is upstairs, in a crib — and he will die shortly if someone doesn’t get up there and save him. There’s a Shadow Hunter nearing his room, and the boy is crying loud enough to be heard.

I tried to make myself heard over the din, but Check shook his head, indicating he couldn’t understand me. Frustrated, I shoved him aside and bolted for the stairs. Check and Fearless were on my heels then, and within seconds Check had scrambled by me to take the lead. I shoved at him, indicating that we needed to continue upstairs, and that, he understood.

We came to the hallway, and there, near a door at the end of the passage, stood one of the Shadow Hunters in his creature form. The sound of the baby was clear enough here, and we could hear his piercing cries over the shrieks of the fighting downstairs.

I pushed forward, but Fearless caught me back. Check engaged the Shadow Hunter as it lunged down the hall, and they fell to the fight. But one against one — not so good of odds, not with Myst’s warriors. And so I shoved Fearless in front of me.

“Help Check! I’m getting the baby.” I shook off his hand and raced into the room as both of my guards began to struggle with the Shadow Hunter. A toddler — possibly a year old, maybe a bit more — was standing up, clinging to the side of the crib. His screams pierced the air. I raced over and swung him into my arms.

As I turned around, I saw the Shadow Hunter dart into the room. Fearless and Check were on his ass, but he covered the space between us in one great leap, and I found myself, baby in hand, facing the ruthless monster.

FTC Advisory: Berkley/Penguin provided me with a copy of Night’s End. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

Cicely has gone through a lot in a very short time. Her life was turned upside down when she came back to New Forest and now that she is a Fae Queen she has to not only protect herself but her court as well from Myst who once again is ready to attack the Golden Wood. I have always felt that Cicely was a very strong character. The slow reveal of information about her past and what she was meant for when she was born was intriguing and I was never bored with it. Her relationship with her cousin Rhiannon has remained strong and I have enjoyed watching them fight for their friends and family while growing closer.

Although this is Urban Fantasy there is some romance to be had in the Indigo Court series. Cicely and Grieve have a long history as soul mates and this lifetime together they are finally able to be with one another after a long struggle. I have always been a bit disappointed that Lannan was brought into their story. I'm not really into the sharing of Cicely so it never felt right and I wasn't really satisfied with how things turned out in that department.

The events of NIGHT'S END happened at a nice pace with plenty of action and lots of danger. I felt like the series was over by the end and all loose ends were tied up to my liking. We got a tiny glimpse of the characters future at the end of NIGHT'S END which was nice, I wouldn't mind another little short story diving a bit more into it as I am always interested in what happens after the fact but overall I was happy with the conclusion to the Indigo Courts series.

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ( )