Another series that I had embroiled myself into came to a conclusion with this book. Here are some things I have loved about them both, i.e., the book and the series:

Elisa is a teenage character who doesn’t wait for the action to come to her. She doesn’t whine about being misunderstood or why her crush doesn’t love her — mostly because he does but that’s majorly due to who she is as a person and not because of how pretty she is. Their relationship is one built on mutual trust and respect, which was refreshing to see in a YA novel. She cares about the others and interacts in a positive way with other female characters. She evolves just like a real person would over the course of the trilogy. When she loses what made her special, i.e., the godstone, she realizes it wasn’t the jewel but her own strength that made everything possible. Therefore, she keeps on being her awesome self!

Now here is what I didn’t like:

The godtsone that Elisa was born with is why she is directly connected to god. It is also why wars are being fought and she remains a target in all three books. Yet the circumstances that led to the stone’s falling out were highly anticlimactic and even random. What was thatabout? Why design a whole series around a concept if it didn’t even matter in the end?

Another relatively minor quibble was the reason why her sister treated Elisa like shit all their lives wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny. When viewed in its light, Elisa’s forgiveness didn’t really make sense either.

A worthy conclusion to the trilogy, as Elisa makes her last stand against the enemy and the final secrets are revealed.

Just because it took me forever to finish reading this book doesn’t mean I didn’t find it good.  

I have read the second book of this series for almost two years. I was so worried I would lose interest if I would keep stalling reading the last book in the series. So even if I wasn’t in the mood to read it, I decided to just go ahead and get this over with. They say do not force yourself into reading a book if you don’t feel like it, well this is an exception. I was glad that I forced myself even if it took me long because I just read one chapter each day.

Although the experience was a struggle, I actually ended up liking the story of this book. Yes, I had issues with this but at the end of the day I liked how this series ended. I actually felt “that feeling” when you finish a book and you don’t know what to do next. I realized I missed the characters and felt a bit sad because I reached the end but I was also happy because I finished a series (I know you get what I mean right?).

Lots of things happened in this last installment.  A lot of exciting adventures that I haven’t read in other books; wonderful old/new characters I fell in love with; and that romance the main character, Elisa deserved after everything she’s been through.

Overall, I enjoyed this series. It might not be a favorite series of mine but this book introduced me into desert adventures I was never interested reading before but now made me reconsider. Its concept with the god stone was quite unique and as a Christian I liked it.

If you are into books with desert adventures, religious concept, and romance, I recommend this to you.

#I would certainly miss Hector, Elisa, Prince Rosario and Mula/Red

#Looking back at it, I learned a lot about desert survivals through this book. One thing I enjoyed much about reading fiction novels is that I learn things while having fun.

I fail at this whole active reviewer thing as of late.  I'm going to use the husband as an excuse as he came home from deployment recently, so I haven't had as much reading time as before.  But I still manage to finagle time here and there.  And devoted some of that time to this series, which wasn't a complete waste, but I could have found something better.  But I digress.  

This series wasn't TERRIBLE, but there wasn't much to it either.  I had some hope after the first book but everything pretty much fizzled out after that one.  It just became a little too ridiculous as it went on, not enough that I didn't finish it but enough that it was a little laughable when it was all said and done.  

Anyway, I'll be sporadic for the next few weeks still before said husband gets back into a full work schedule.  Tis one of the few times in my life where I'm not upset to have my reading time cut back, lol.