3.5 stars. I was going to do full review in the beginning, but I've changed my mind. It's mainly because many things have hindered my reading of this book and it took me a while to finish it. But then "Triumphant Love" was a pretty long book to begin with, and being the last book of Banished Saga, I was eagerly waiting for it until sh!t hit the fan in my personal life, as well as worldwide. Who the hell wants a pandemic tell me? I don't know how to explain my feelings as I read the book but it's been really odd with all that's been affecting my reading life lately. But it's bittersweet to say the least, saying 'goodbye' to a series I've been following since 2013.

If you are a fan of the Saga already, you'll be in for a treat, seeing all of your favorite characters coming together as they gather in Missoula where Gabriel lives. There's also some thrilling moments, suspenseful incidents that are both happy and sad. But everywhere, the tune was the same; it was time to say goodbye. One of the best moments of the story had to be the epilogue of the book. I don't wanna reveal exactly why but it left a big smile on my face. I was so happy for Sophronia and her gang, the girls (Clarissa, Florence, Zylphia, Parthena, Rowena), then felt utterly sad that this maybe the last time I'm going to read about them. It's been raining the whole morning today which kind of reflected my mood as I finished "Triumphant Love".

If I really have to mention it, the only thing that I kind of disliked was Eleanor's character. I didn't precisely hate her but she wasn't the most inspiring person either. I tried my best to sympathize with her due to her past but gosh, it was difficult since she was one of the major characters! I'm still not sure whether she was the correct choice for Jeremy and that kind of affected my enjoyment of the book.

It also occurred to me that another pandemic that happened in 1918, was mentioned in one of the previous installments, where I lost 2 of my favorite characters because of it. Which also almost broke me because I wasn't prepared for it at all. I'm trying hard not to find a connection between that and with our current situation but I can't help myself TBH. Was that a kind of foreshadowing? I don't know. I kept thinking of that the whole time I was reading this book, even if that pandemic isn't mentioned anywhere here. This last story takes place around 2 yrs. after the initial blow of it.

For any newbie to the series, please begin from the very first book that started it all, titled "Banished Love". All the books are very, very much interconnected and needed to be read in order to understand all that have been going on in a tale that spanned almost 20yrs (from 1899-1920).

I'd like to thank Ramona for this wonderful journey that she took us through for the past 7 yrs. It was wonderful and so worth it! I highly recommend this series. Also thanks for sending me a review copy. x

Book source ~ Kindle Unlimited

Sonya and her partner Callie are going out for their date night when things go horribly wrong. Men, all men, are behaving incredibly badly. They are spouting terrible pickup lines and sexually assaulting women. Sonya and Callie take refuge in the restaurant where they were going to have their date, but there are men raping a woman there. Gathering their courage they take care of the assholes and rescue the woman. But this is just the beginning of a terrible nightmare made real.

Wow. How scary is this? There are plenty of men out there in real life who behave like these assholes all the time. In this book, ALL the men are doing it and out in the open. They’re like walking dick zombies. All they can do is fuck women and they don’t care if the woman is dead either. Ewwww. What starts it all? An announcement by the President over all air waves. Well, isn’t that just peachy? The Prez just started an apocalypse. Totally something his predecessor didn’t do. What a bigly “winner” that fucker is. I feel bad for guys who aren’t assholes getting sucked into the deranged idiot’s apocalypse just because he has a Y chromosome. I wish there were pockets of resistance taking out the ones doing all the damage. Oh, well. In the end, the ones responsible get what they deserve.

If you’re a fan of Banished Saga by Ramona Flightner as I am, and have read the series so far, you’ll probably know that this series is coming to an end next month with it’s 9^th installment. And although it makes me really emotional, and extremely sad, I know all the good things have to come to an end at one point or the other. I’ve been really enjoying these short snippets of the lives of our favorite characters from the series since Ramona had taken to deliver them to her newsletter subscribers as Christmas gifts for the past few years. Irrepressible Love, being the one before the last installment, makes it even more precious to me.

Irrepressible Love is a short story that focuses on once uppity librarian Hester Loken who has been a recurring character in the Saga for the past few installments. Everybody around her thought she was firmly on the shelf, that she’ll live out her life as a spinster. Even Hester convinced herself that something so magical as the love of a good man is too good to be true for her. She’s not one of those lucky women and never will be, even having friends like Clarissa MacLeod or Araminta Sullivan who have found love in the previous installments of the series. Enter Jim Bailey, a blacksmith who was working for Colin Sullivan, husband to Araminta and brother of Clarissa, and Hester’s life’s plan goes out the window. Only she has no idea whether for better or for worse. Hester longs for this to be a reality, but afraid to hope too much. What will she do?

TBH, I had a hard time remembering Jim from any previous installments so I was a little taken a back with all that has been happening. But it didn’t hinder my enjoyment at all. Hester deserved love and she found someone who adored her back exactly the same, if not more. I couldn’t have been happier for the two.

Irrepressible Love sets the tone for the final installment of the series, Triumphant Love, coming January 2020. I’ll also suggest not reading this story before reading the previous installments because it contains spoilers you may not expect or even like. But highly recommended for the fans of the series.

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Read this one for:

Book: Read a pastiche, a book authorized by a deceased author’s estate, the 4th book in a series, a book with the word “four” in the title, a book featuring four siblings, or a book with a wreath, pines or fir trees on the cover.

Awwww, these books are so cute. I loved them so much when I was a kid.