Thirteen

I liked this a lot better than Spellbound.. but I'm not disappointed this series is coming to an end.

I do look forward to seeing what she'll put out in the future though. ( )

I suspect this will work better for me after a full-series reread, which I am not feeling up to right now. There were a lot of plot threads wrapped up, which is nice, but it all felt very rushed and I think I need to have the context closer to the top of my brain to really appreciate it. ( )

The Good: Perfect, perfect, perfect. I didn't want this series to end. Honestly, I never considered it could end until the last book, Spellbound. Thirteen is the perfect culmination of a long running series. Everything that happened before led up to this book and I don't think it could have possibly been done better. Savannah, as well as every other major and minor character in the series, grew into the roles they play in Thirteen. The tagline "epic finale" is not an overstatement, by any means. I'm in awe of what Kelley Armstrong has done here - taking a decade of work and 12 previous books and turning them into a tightly wrapped canon of supernatural awesome. The best way the series ever could have ended.

The Bad: Not a single complaint. ( )

I had a love hate relationship with this book. There were parts I enjoyed, and a lot of parts that made me cringe. I was excited to finally read the last book in the series, but disappointed in how it was executed. I was hoping for a different narrator, I enjoyed the small parts when it jumped to a third person narrative, rather than read through Savannah's thought process, which was quite juvenile at times. Savannah was always a character I struggled with, and I didn't like how the series ended with her. I really thought it should have gone back to Elena as the main focus of the book.

Some of the plot twists that happened in the book, weren't that well done either. If I read Eve calling Savannah "baby" one more time I thought I would scream. The woman couldn't say a sentence to her daughter without ending it with that. The first few times, I can take, the fiftieth just made it respective. And that seemed to be a common theme in the book, a lot of repetitive running from bad guys, little talking and the sort of bad guys, accusing Savannah for treason. I was waiting for a big battle, and never really got it.
I was also disappointed in the lack of appearances in the other characters, while some of them appeared in the book, they weren't seen or mentioned much after, like Paige and Jamie. The book did tie a few things up, but there were a lot of unanswered questions, mainly because the focus was only on one character, instead of the other incredible cast of characters I've come to love. Even Elena and Clay were down played for Savannah's benefit - and I didn't like it.

The book did do its job, like I said there were some twists and turns along the way, it has Armstrong's usual sense of humour throughout the book, and she did tie Savannah's story up nicely (if it had been just her as the main focus for the entire series, it would have been the perfect ending to the series).

Overall it wasn't my favourite book of the series, and it was a slight disappointment as it was the final book in the series.

Also on my book review blog Jules' Book Reviews - 13 ( )

I loved it! Out of the last three books, this one is the best. It took me a while to enjoy Savannah's narrating, but I eventually warmed up to her. It was great seeing the characters of Women of the Otherworld series back for one last story.

Thirteen is everything I've come to love about WOTO. Fast paced action, danger with a good helping of romance. There is one character appearance that will definitely shock readers. I didn't see it coming at all. It's sad to see this series come to and end, it's one of my favorites. But I'm satisfied how it concluded and I think fans of the series will feel the same way. For those readers hoping for more of Savannah and Adam, Ms. Armstrong doesn't disappoint. ( )