** Review will contain spoilers for the rest of the series -- up to and possibly especially the ending of Beautiful Chaos Book 3 don't read if you haven't read those because spoilers are no fun **
Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles #4)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
October 23, 2012
464 pages
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In order to save everyone he loved and cared about, all the people of Gatlin, Ethan made a huge sacrifice at the end of Beautiful Chaos. Now, even as Ethan vows to find his way back to Lena, finding out he may have to trust some he thought to be the enemy and leave behind others he thought he'd never see again -- Lena's making her own attempts.
Not everyone thinks all that Lena's will to risk seems worth such a small possibility. But she knows she has to do it. Even if it puts lives at risk.
Will even death mean the end for these two? Find out in Beautiful Redemption, the conclusion to the Caster Chronicles series.
The ending to Beautiful Chaos left more questions than the previous books in the series. They've all succeeded at leaving things hanging or leaving something (or somethngs) that make you need that next book now, but Beautiful Chaos left more of a, "How? Hunh?! What?!" than the others.
I really enjoyed seeing characters from some of the previous books play a part in this last book. Some of them that I expected to see due either to the plot or to Beautiful Chaos but some not as much. It was enjoyable to have them back one last time as things wrapped up.
Obviously the bigger, series long story is a romance between Ethan and Lena so it made sense for that to be the focus of the story, but at times I wanted that to . . . not quite take a backseat but not be such a focus of Ethan's. With Lena it made sense for her to stay as focused on him as she did, but given Ethan's surroundings earlier in the book, there was a period where I wanted his mindset to shift just a bit.
It wasn't a big issue for me and, as I said, I think it made sense for the story and kept things moving forward well. It's also the only thing I can point to wanting to happen even a bit differently in this book.
The characters, their romances, their familial bonds and their friendships seemed especially strong in this last installment. Whether that was because the plot gave them the chance to shine, for the characters to work together in ways they hadn't before, or because they've grown - as characters and the writing of them - over the series, I'm not sure. Whatever caused it, I loved the interactions between the different characters (Link and Lena, Amma and just about everyone, Liv and John, etc) here.
While a bit different than the previous three novels, Beautiful Redemption was still very true to the tone that's been created throughout this series. It fit with the series, it felt like everyone was getting where they needed to be, or where they were supposed to be and readers were finding out what was needed to be found out before the last page. And then it was over.
This is a series I'm incredibly sad to see end but only because of how much I love it. I don't have any problems with the way it ended. I don't wish a or b or y or z had been different. I really have no even kind of big issues with Beautiful Redemption and look forward to Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's individual books coming (semi) soon and anything they ever decide to co-write in the future!
Rating: 9/10
Great review! I haven't read this series yet, but I've heard such awesome things about it and now with the movie coming out, I definitely need to get my hands on these books!
ReplyDeleteJesse @ Pretty In Fiction