5 Star Book Review: End of Days (Penryn and the End of Days, #3)

Author| Susan Ee (Facebook/Twitter)  Edition| Kindle eBook  Rating| 5 Stars

Related Posts| Angelfall Review, World After Review

There may be SPOILERS below for the first two books in the series.  If you haven't read either Angellfall or World After I recommend you go do that right now because this is an awesome series.

This book payed off in so many ways.  But... it also fell flat in a few places as well.  It still gets five stars for being full of heart pounding action, romance, and general awesomeness.

End of Days picks up right where World After left off.  I may not have mentioned this in the other reviews, but I love when a series does this.  It's hard when you have to wait between books, but when you can marathon them like I did it helps the transition run smoother and takes away the need to re-explan many things.

Before we get into all the things I loved, let me tell you what I didn't like.  First of all, the ending.  Not the whole ending, just the last chapter or so.  It's one of those books that ends sort of abruptly and lets you imagine the Happily Ever After, or whatever is to come.  In this way it reminded me of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater.  It also disappointed in the romance category at the very end.  I was hoping for a little more there, but was unfortunately left disappointed.  I've seen several reviews on Tumblr and Goodreads that share these sentiments.

Now, what I did like.  (And that's everything else.)

The most surprising thing that I enjoyed was the development of Paige and Penryn's mother.  Both were characters that I would have wished would just take a hike in the first two books.  They felt like liabilities to Penryn and the story itself.  Boy did Susan Ee deliver with these characters, though.  Paige really becomes her own person in this book.  It started in the very end of Angelfall when she was turned into the "monster" and escalated a bit in World After, but she never really became super independent until this one.  Once she was, though, I was wowed by what she had become and what she could do.  With Penryn's mother I was equally shocked.  I could never see why Penryn loved her mother in the first two books.  It really became clear what and where her motherly instincts were.  She also proved to be a valuable asset in the end of the world during one of my favorite scenes (hint hint, the one where she throws the eggs).

All the characters, truly, got a bunch of development.  Penryn herself began to grow up and find her role in the whole Apocalypse.  Rafi began to see what life was worth and to allow himself to feel.  They're relationship was still the focal point for me, but it also wasn't the most important thing.

The plot was full of twists and I was always off my guard, which I truly enjoyed.  It's rare that a book enthralls me so much that I don't take time to breathe and try to predict the ending.  I was so involved with this book and this series that no one could make me leave my room.

This will, from this point onward, always live among my favorite series.  I hope you get the chance to enjoy it, too.  If you want to add End of Days to your goodreads bookshelf, click here.