Broken alliances, the danger of unbridled anger, the wonder of trust and forgiveness, and the power of good over evil make When Darkness Falls perhaps the best of the three books in the Obsidian Trilogy. It brings the story to a very satisfying conclusion, resolving just enough issues and leaving just enough pain and happiness to go around. I began to guess the twist before the end, and found I’d only guessed a fraction of it. A well-woven trilogy, a well-built world, well-realized magic, and fascinating characters. Highly recommended.

Disclosure: I’m going to reread it soon. ( )

Raising your reincarnated mate is creepy beyond imagining. ( )

Grande, epic fantasy. Wizards and elves and unicorns. Good vs bad. What's not to love. ( )

I really enjoyed this trilogy and have been lending it out to friends. ( )

I really enjoyed reading the first two books in this trilogy. The problem with this third book is that it suddenly resolves everything, without expounding on any of the plot elements that had been hinted at through the first two books. The pace is fast - very fast- and we just don't see as much of the characters we've come to love as they hurtle along their way. I felt somehow cheated.

After all the effort to paint the demons as powerful, evil, and intelligent, they show virtually none of those qualities in the third book. The impending "war" turns out to be one battle; the humans just sort of come along, even though we’d been led to expect a harder sell; Kellen and Vestakia end up together far too quickly (even though it was obvious they would); the relationship between Kellen and Lycaelon had potential that didn't eventuate; even Idalia and Jermayan's romance felt like it was put in from obligation. There were so many possible directions the book could have taken, instead it just plodded along and suddenly dropped the reader off a cliff into oblivion.

I am torn! It definitely makes a nice change to finish a trilogy in three books, as opposed to the recent trend of endlessly drawn out series- but it also illustrates why the longer series can be a good choice. In balance, I think would have been better to make this series four books if that was necessary instead of trying to conclude everything in the last few pages of the third book.

Definitely worth reading, but nowhere near as captivating as the first two books of the trilogy. ( )