As soon as I heard this one was due for release I knew I just had to read it. I'd just read the third book in a trilogy and loved it so I whilst I really wanted to read this book, I also didn't want it to end either.

The back ground of this cover is a gorgeous blue-ish purple colour, I love it. The cove has the bones/antlers on the font once again which makes it eye-catching as well as fitting in with the other book covers in this series. I think the covers for the whole series are amazing and would look great together on a book shelf! The by-line on this cover is as cryptic as the ones on the rest of the series, though I'm sure all will become clearer once I have read the book. I think this cover, in fact the covers of the whole series are very unusual and will be eye-catching on a book store shelf so certainly do their job very well.

Genres I have seen listed for this book include Teens, YA, Sci-Fi, Dystopia which I totally agree with but I personally would add apocalyptic as there is the pandemic which is still thriving in Dominion City in this last book of the trilogy. I believe the book could also be labelled as having genetic elements, as well as having some romance. So I do think that this book will appeal to a wide audience and not just a teen readers either!

I did initially find this book more difficult to get into, I'm not sure whether it was to do with my "I don't want it to end" thoughts or that things were just moving a little too slowly for me to begin with. Once I did settle and get into the book I didn't want to put it down!

Once again there is the class divide as well as the type of people divide of Lasters who live day to day waiting for the plague to strike them down. The Splicers who use what eve money they have and can get a hold of to pay for expensive treatments to prolong their lives The True Born are still quite mysterious, feared and ostracised by most. When Lucy's parents ran off to Russia with Margot the only people that wanted to help were the True Born's. So it's only natural that Lucy offers to help gaining intelligence and information from the remaining males in the upper circle for them. Lucy ends up being the True Born's link to the Upper Circle Splicers and Lasters. Nolan Storm wants to form a new ruling council, one that will represent all the people of Dominion City. Could Nolan Storm want Lucy to be one of the new council members. It's a possibility as he takes her to the meetings to discuss the possibility of a new council.

In this book the girls have been reunited, but things are just not quite the same anymore. It seems that Margot isn't revealing all of what happened whilst she was held captive in Russia other than she was married to the mysterious Russian that their parents chose for her. Though Margot is upset and through their bond Lucy also feels this and asks he sister about it, Margot refuses to reveal all that happened. As the book goes on it becomes apparent that Margot being the more confident and outgoing twin had secrets she kept from Lucy when they were happily oblivious and attending the exclusive Greyguard school together along with the rest of the elite and upper circle students.

It’s quite amusing when Lucy receives a letter from Alistair and Jared is obviously jealous that someone else is getting Lucy's attention when he loves her so much but keeps holding back saying he isn't right for her.

There's still plenty of the romantic elements in this book, Lucy seems to be gather prospective boyfriend/potential husbands! There's Jared her personal merc guard since she has been under the protection of new Guardian Nolan Storm. Nolan Storm is another potential husband and then of course there's the rather mysterious Alistair who generously gives Lucy a family heirloom necklace without revealing it's full power and meaning.

Lucy continues to work with Doctor Raines in the lab that Nolan Storm has provided her with. Doctor Raines continues to examine Lucy and Margot's blood observing its unique properties. I think I am okay to reveal without giving any major spoilers, that at one point the twins unique blood is compared to the unique properties of the tree that is still being "worshiped" and has been made into a sacred place by the lasters.

The characters I have loved all the way through the series are Lucinda Fox, who continues to try to make the best of a bad situation and ends up facing a possible choice of three potential boyfriends/husbands in this book. I adored the relationship between Lucy and Jared Price he merc guard and boy crush throughout the series so far. Though Lucy finds it difficult to handle the fact Jared keeps holding them apart, not quite committing to the possibility of a romantic relationship.

I admit to not always being very keen on Lucy's twin sister Margot Fox but I did grow to like her much more in this final book of the series. Margot always seemed to be the twin that belonged and thrived best in the Upper Circle. In this final book the birthmarks of the sisters and the whole Lock and Key element to the story are revealed. We also learn who the main person is behind why the girls genetic are so different to others around them. I'm not going to say who but when it was revealed to me in the book I was like, yes I believe that character would be so conniving and capable of all that the girls have gone through.

I enjoyed strongly disliking the crazy Father Wes and his followers with their Evolve Or Die message that appears all over Dominion City.

I was never totally sure of what I felt about Alistair, there was just something about him I personally just didn't quite trust. Did my opinion of Alistair change with this book? Sort of as he did come to help and do what he could do to protect Lucy and I guess at one point in the book you could say he saved her life. However, he did have a rather underhand way of doing this so maybe my first impression of him was right.

My immediate thoughts upon finishing this book were Amazing! This one had me a little teary eyed by the end. Excellent ending to a brilliantly written series! I highly recommend reading this series.

A few characters die in this book, which is a shame for some of them and good riddance to others, but it's all believable and part of the story. The ending is all action packed and keeps you on the edge of your seat to the end. I was sad the series had to end, but as the saying goes "All good things come to an end" There was plenty of nail biting action and drama up to the very end of the book. I'd have to say I was definitely happy with how the series ended. Thank-you to L.E. Sterling for a fantastic read. I'll be keeping a look out for other titles by this author.

This book was a good ending to the trilogy, however wasn't the best I thought but wasn't bad either, all in all was a good read, I also enjoyed the adventure it took me on which was fun to read.

We've reached the end of the True Born Trilogy and I'm a little surprised at how I'm feeling about this final book. Honestly, it didn't come across as an ending to me. More like another chapter with much left to be reconciled. My emotions are so divided on whether I liked how everything ended or whether I didn't. Squarely in the three star middle is exactly where I'm at right now.

There's still so much about this world and it's dynamics that I don't fully understand but wish I did. Even with the author trying to have the characters explain things I often felt lost, rereading and trying to gain better comprehension but failing to. The mythology behind the True Borns still alludes me, and even with Alastair and the revelations he brought I'm still utterly confused. Everything revealed regarding Margot and Lucy didn't seem to come together in the end either, and the resolution regarding the Plague seemed rushed at the end.

As for Lucy and Jared, I wasn't much of a fan of their romance and this final book didn't convince me to change my mind. Jared comes across more as possessive than as someone who truly loves and wants to protect Lucy and Lucy plays the same hot and cold game she continually accuses Jared of. This final book doesn't add much emotional depth to their dynamic, instead it only furthers the idea that their bond is mostly through sexual chemistry. It's an immature relationship and the way it resolves in the end seemed out of tune with the way their relationship had been carried out through the three books. Individually Lucy herself really didn't grow much either, still having others fight her battles and sliding more towards not knowing who she is without Margot, which honestly is sad because she had seemed to grow more into her own person in the last book.

As far as side characters go, I was saddened I didn't get to know much more about any of the other True Borns at all. I'm still left scratching my head, wondering what Storm's endgame really was and who he really was. But my biggest sadness has to do with Alastair and Margot. Alastair became a favorite of mine in the last book and I was really looking forward to getting to know more about him in this book. Unfortunately his character gets mostly tarnished in this book and then discarded, which is a real shame. The potential for romance was realized with Lucy, but not at all in the way I had hoped. And Margot just became a shell of a character instead of the fully realized person I was expecting. There was all this talk of her having secrets but the reveal with Resnikov was shocking at best, inappropriate at worst. After what he did to her in the last book I would never consider that love and wish none of their dynamic had been included in this book.

The author does have great writing skills, and the way she writes made me want to keep reading even when I got annoyed with the characters, which is saying something. I was always impressed with the way scenes and atmosphere were detailed and those moments were some of the best parts of the book and would draw me in better than anything else. It's mostly for that I kept the three star rating. Because even though the ending felt rushed, and the characters never developed like I had hoped, the writing still pulled me in, I kept reading and it was an adventure.

Overall I did enjoy this series, but now that the final book is done it's leaving the impression of being unfinished. I think there were so many great ideas that never got fully fleshed out, or characters that weren't wholly realized but I'm glad I read through the entirety of it. Getting to the end of a series is satisfying, even if it's not how I imagined it would turn out. The True Born Trilogy was a unique concept and I'm left wishing there was just one more book, if only to alleviate that tension of questions left unanswered.