Review: The Grave at Storm's End by Devin Madson

4/5 stars 

I had to sit on this one for a while before I decided that I was ready to write a review. Partly because I'm a lazy potato, but mostly because I was bitter about this book's ending. 

​Rating this was very hard as well, because I enjoyed this less than I did the first book in the trilogy (and I rated that one 4 stars), but I also could not deny how brilliantly everything was wrapped up, so I couldn't give this less than 4 stars either. So you see why I had to sit on this and ponder. 

​But let's go back to "I'm still bitter" stuff, because I really am. Did I think that my favorite characters would survive the book?? Yes, I did. I was so naive! So childish. To be honest, now that I think about it - I'm surprised that anybody survived! 

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This definitely wasn't a happy ending book, at least not for me. But there was a little sweet moment that softened the blow (I guess...). See, still bitter. The fact that the characters I absolutely loathed survived didn't help either.

I mentioned this before (in my review for the 1st book) that I absolutely recommend reading the novella  In Shadows We Fall before this series - because it brings much dimension to the story and the characters, and I have to mention it again because book 3 wrapped everything in such a way that everything came full circle. It's hard to explain without spoilers so I'm afraid you will just have to see for yourself. 

Reasons why I didn't enjoy this as much as the other two books (I adored book#2!) were mostly related to characters - I loathed Hana. And Malice. Equally, I'm pretty sure. It's quite comical because in book two I was so busy hating Katashi that I didn't realize that Hana was so much worse. 

​I also didn't care for sexual content in this book. I liked the placing of it in book 2 because it brought a lot to the story, but here it was more like "been there done that..." and it just didn't add anything to my experience, maybe except the ick factor. Also, all of this brother/cousin loving didn't sit well with me. I know, I know - different times, pure blood and all that, but I still think that it's absolutely gross. 

I'm not even sure that I need to mention it, but the writing is absolutely superb, all throughout the trilogy. It's just so addictive and easy going (despite the very dark content) that I couldn't help but swallow these books up. I would have read them much faster to be honest, but reading e-books hurts my eyeballs, so that kinda slowed me down. I feel like that was important to mention because I was in a middle of book 2 when I just had to take a day break to let my eyes rest and I couldn't stop thinking about the book that whole day! That's how good this series is! 

​I can't wait to read We Ride the Storm - the only book by Madson I haven't read yet. I discovered her few weeks ago and already read 4 of her books- oops.