ARC Review--The Beyond by Chloe Neill

Sensitive Claire Connolly must journey to another world in the electrifying fourth installment of Chloe Neill’s post-apocalyptic urban fantasy series.

It’s been a year since the Veil between the human world and the world Beyond was torn apart, and war began again. Sensitive Claire Connolly and bounty hunter Liam Quinn have been helping their human and paranormal allies fight back against the ravaging invaders and save what’s left of New Orleans.

But a new enemy has arisen, more powerful than any they’ve seen before, and even Devil’s Isle cannot hold her. . .

When Claire learns of a new magical weapon–one built by paranormals themselves -she knows it could turn the tide of war. But to reach it, she and Liam will have to cross into the Beyond itself. In a world full of hostile magic and dangerous foes, she’ll have to channel the powers she once kept hidden in order to survive. New Orleans hangs in the balance, and the storm is growing closer . . .

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.
 

Chloe Neill brings the heart-pounding Devil’s Isle series to a close with The Beyond! Everything is about to change for Claire and her friends and New Orleans will never be the same again. Things were really intense to this one as the chaos that is New Orleans is about to get even more chaotic. I have to say Chloe did an amazing job with this series and I feel heartfelt over how things were brought to a conclusion.

The story takes off after a seelie escapes from prison and joins together with others of her kind to wreak havoc on New Orleans and the humans who live there for the crimes committed against her sister. In order to save the city that she loves, Claire and her friends will have to journey to the Beyond, the place where paranormals live, if not in NOLA, in order to find a magical artifact that could help them defeat the seelies, but it isn’t going to be easy. As if anything about Claire’s journey has been easy so far.

Not only will Claire have to overcome the physical challenges that this journey will bring and the battle to come, but there is also a lot of emotional challenges that will have to be faced as well. The Beyond is a well-rounded book in that kind of way as Claire continues to grow into a remarkable heroine.

With the two year gap between books publishing, I’ll admit it was harder than usual to get back into the swing of things but luckily we had a nice bit of a recap with Claire at the helm of this story, so it was fairly easy getting back into the swing of things if I didn’t force other memories to come up. What I realized that I missed most were my memories of these characters. It was easy to fall back in love with all of them, I just wished my memory was better so I could remember why I always loved them.

Naturally, the story wouldn’t be complete without a little romance. Claire and Liam have had a lot of ups and downs over the course of this series and their relationship. And even though we’ve reached the end, that’s not to say that everything is going to be peachy for them. I was happy that their times of struggles wasn’t as long as before, because, hey, it’s the end of the series! Let’s see a little bit of happy time! Lol. Needless to say that there was plenty of happy moments amidst the chaos and of course, a few stolen kisses too.

The pacing to this one was ideal! There was a nice round of buildup going on, the searching for the magical artifact and then of course the action packed battle to end all battles. I think I struggled the most in the beginning as I tried to get familiar with the series again along with the world as Claire and Co. know it and the characters themselves, plus the high points of the last book’s events. After that rough start, it was smooth sailing.

I have always loved Chloe Neill’s characters, they are very real, and yes that includes her vampires and otherworldly folk too! They’re just so relatable, even if the problems aren’t quite the same as real world problems. They’re close though, just an added dose of magic is the only difference! And that’s partly why I love Urban Fantasy books so much, it’s a nice blend of reality and fantasy to make for a great escape from reality but never leaving it too far behind.

Chloe Neill is without a doubt one of my all-time favorite authors! If you haven’t read her books yet, I highly recommend them! The Beyond is the end to one series that will have you looking at the city of New Orleans a little differently, but in a good way. I cannot wait to see what Chloe will write in the future.


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars


The Beyond releases June 4, 2019