After waiting a while for the finale depicting the once for all last battle between the Demesne of Purgatory and the evil Marfach, I’m sad to say this last installment of “SoulShares” series just don’t deliver it for me. The sole objective of all protagonist involved in this book - in whatever Realm they resided - was to defeat, or better yet KILL, the Marfach and they prepared accordingly in the course of time the evil existence exiled away at the Arctic. Now I get that people can prepare all they wanted for the battle of their life but would still be caught off guard when the time come. Perhaps it’s the message conveyed here because ...man, what a mad scramble that finale turned out to be.

For once the many characters and multi POVs worked against the story, making the chopped flow that had the narrative shaky and pretty scattered. It didn’t help that other than alternate POVs, the hopping also involved places and time (not quite a flash back, but retelling of what happened moments before), not to mention the liberal sprinkles of ...Fae languages (for want of better word). Frankly, it was just exhausting to follow!

What’s more aggravating was the ”epic battle” itself. I mentioned before it was such a mad scramble. But after practically haunting the Demesne with their malevolent terror, I wish more of that battle than the series of scrabbles shown here. And, the endgame was such a let down that drew the sort of “THAT’S IT!?!?” reaction. Because... come on. THAT’S IT!?!?!

What a bummer to the conclusion of a charming series. And having been so excited after finishing #book8 to hear it’s not the final entry and the next one was coming soon... now I don’t see what’s the point. I feel so cheated.


Copy of this this book is kindly given by the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.