Re-Review--Finale by Stephanie Garber

 

A love worth fighting for. A dream worth dying for. An ending worth waiting for.

It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.

With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time—only those who will win, and those who will lose everything.

Welcome, welcome to Finale . . . all games must come to an end.

As you can see, I finished my re-read of Stephanie Garber's Finale way too early...and I even forced myself to read ONLY 50 pages a day these last 4 days AND I skipped the weekend entirely! Alas now I have wayyyyyyyy too long to wait until Spectacular releases. But re-reading Finale was just as magical as the first time around. I do believe this was my first re-read of it too and there was a good bit that I had forgotten when it came to all the Fates, but I loved it all the same!

After releasing the Fates from the Deck of Destiny in order to save Tella from a fate worse than Death, Legend has presented himself as the heir to the throne and is ready to take over all of Valenda, but naturally things don't go quite as planned.

The Fates are free and they are ready to play...of course, knowing who the Fates are just means that Valenda and pretty much the world is in peril. Leading them, so to speak, is The Fallen Star, the most powerful of the Fates and the proposed king who is looking to rule more than just his fellow Fates.

So much happened in this book...so much so that I don't really know what to dive into as what could be construed as spoilers...for a book I re-read that was released in 2019! Honestly, if you're here for true reviews, go to my search bar on the right and type in "Finale" and the original review should pop up among the first searches! Lol. This re-read review is more me just gushing over how much I loved and still love this book because omg...this book was just everything!

I remember Stephanie sort of built us into a maybe love triangle when it came to Tella, Legend, and Jacks. Of course, knowing where we are now, you know who wins that game. I remember feeling very conflicted over this choice as well. While I was originally (and still am, and still ended there too, lol) Team Legend, I was not a fan of the way he treated Tella. This back and forth game he played with her about wanting her, but not wanting to give up his immortality and then when she was ready to be with him he couldn't be with her. It was a mess! Then you have Jacks, a Fate, and I just felt like I could never really trust him. He showed his true colors in this series and they were pretty dark.

Knowing how he turned out in the OUABH trilogy though more than makes up for it. Let's just say, that in this trilogy we see his darker nature. The B.E.; Before Evangeline. 

I think what made it hard for me to like Jacks in this series at least was I felt like we could never trust him. Trust is a big thing for me and time and time again Jacks proved to me why he should not be trusted. And I really did not like what he did to Tella in the end, that had me seeing red.

But people change and I felt like it took awhile for him to change in OUABH but change he did and I was growing to love the guy...just not in these "early days!"

The ending to this one really warmed my cold heart once again! Lol. I love how things ended with Scarlett and Julian and I love how things ended with Legend and Tella. I feel like truly, everyone was in a happy ending here. The ending still feels right to me, but this new added adventure of Spectacular has me SOOO unbelievably excited! Like, I'd camp out at B&N if I thought they'd sell me a copy when they come into open the store that day before official opening time. I mean, where's the midnight release party for this book? I'd totally stay up late to buy it and then read it and I'm a morning bird, not a night owl, so THAT is saying something! Lol.

Needless to say my re-read went spectacularly well--and omg I swear I read this word three times maybe? It had me wondering if the idea was percolating in the back of Stephanie's mind at the time. I should've noted how many times, I want to say a definite twice at the very least, but I thought maybe thrice--thrice, love it. Lol. Sorry, I'm getting a little giddy despite there being 96 hours until go time!

The Caraval series holds a special place in my heart. I remember going into it with something else in mind but the story totally blew me away. The pure magic and mystery that is Caraval and all the secrets that came after! Finale proved to be magical ending to the series, but as Stephanie pointed out there is the almost-ending, and then there is the true ending! While Finale may be the true ending...Spectacular will be the wonderful epilogue!

Overall Rating 5/5 stars