I really enjoyed the previous books in the series, but this one was a disappointment. I could hardly finish this one and I was bored most of the time. I'm afraid this book ruined the series for me. ( )

Oh, darling book series that I have devoured in the last few weeks entirely, you were darling and you are all gone. I ate this book in less than two days, and it is still 'Not Your Mama's Book About Angels' and I ran through the whole gamut with Clara, Angela, and Christian. All of whom I love so much and are all put through so much all together.

This book I probably would have rated 3.5, but in the rounding scale I'm going to always round up with this one. I felt the ending was a little forced after all the ground worked laid through it. For Christian, Clara, Tucker, and Angela. I felt the ending left me in a place where I wanted the story of the next thirty years, and especially the story of What Happens to Tucker, and the story of What Happens to Clara & Christian in Eighty Years.

There's so much left unanswered at the end that it tugs at me more than how amazing a lot of the book was. Getting out of it's original sleepy, magical town and into a whole world of college, other people, memories, miracles forward and back, time and space. So I'm still sorting this one out. Amazing, but not a conclusion ending, which is setting a little hard on me in the house since finishing it.











As my last thought and the only one that is vaguely spoilery, but not entirely so either (but was, also, the first thought I left a friend with after finishign it tonight) --


….right. So that just cemented that I'll ship Clara/Christian probably in same way I ship Jean/Logan (X-Men) and Rhapsody/Achmed (Symphony of Ages). Which does not mean I do not ship Clara/Tucker, Jean/Scott or Rhapsody/Ashe, or see the vast importance of them. But if you give me the option between the mortal "now" ship and the "eternal, going to outlast one of the people in the 'now' ship" ship…..I will inevitable pine and wait for the glorious swell and fall of the first, and long slow burn into the other. Which rare, but well done when it is well done. Like this. ( )

Review-4/19/2013

I finished Boundless yesterday and I can say that I enjoyed it but it seems like with each book, it was a bit more of a struggle for me to get through, but I still enjoyed the series none-the-less. It took me a while to read it because I got sick and wasn't in much of a position to read anything, but, as soon as I started feeling better (well enough to read), I picked it back up.

The book in and of itself is a 4.5/5...The cover, is a 4.5/5 as well. All of them just look too much alike, but they're still very pretty. This is a series I will be trying to find and buy for my bookshelf just because its so pretty. :-)

If you read the first book, and maybe even the second, this one is worth reading just to complete the series. I wouldn't be surprised if she did a series on Jeffrey...And maybe even Angela. ( )

In the final book of the Unearthly trilogy, Clara Gardner attempts to juggle the normalcy of college dorm life with all the abnormal challenges of her life as an angel-blood. She's having a new vision where she's inconveniently in the dark and knows only that she is in danger. She's trying to help friend Angela through an unexpected crisis. She's trying to give Christian a chance at a real relationship not tied to their shared purpose as angel-bloods. She's trying to get over Tucker and pretty much failing. And soon she'll have to take the greatest risk of her life to rescue those she loves.

Typically, if I'm going to read a YA, it's not going to be a supernatural romance, especially one with a love triangle. Yet I adored the first two Unearthly books. The supernatural elements are structured with fascinating, detailed rules that make sense and are never broken by the author. The characters are sympathetic, and I managed to read three whole books without wanting to clobber anybody for their immaturity. But the thing that drew me back to this series more than anything else is Clara's voice. Clever but not cool, vulnerable but not fragile, compassionate but not perfect.

As for this book, specifically--much of it is as great as the first two. I loved Jeffrey; I loved Angela; I loved seeing Maggie again, even briefly; I loved Michael (always); really, I loved everybody. This author knows how to create detailed, individual characters who are all messed up in their own ways yet still trying to do their best. The interpersonal conflicts are at least as compelling as the war between angels and Black Wings. One or two elements wrapped up a bit too cleanly at the end, but on the whole, this trilogy is really well plotted. Allusions to [b:The Great Divorce|17267|The Great Divorce|C.S. Lewis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418791341s/17267.jpg|1215780] are compelling and wonderfully written.

However, this final book leaves me wavering between 3 and 4 stars, mostly over something I never would've expected to care about. Yes, believe it or not ... the love triangle.

Clara does end up with the person I hoped was for her, back in Book One. Theoretically, I should be pleased. But Ms. Hand uses this final book to deepen the character and heart of the "other" guy and gives "my" guy very little page time at all, as if intentionally blurring the "rightness" of Clara's choice and the reader's feelings about said choice. Then again, given Clara's conversation with Uriel at the end of the book, maybe this was the author's point all along: that both guys were equally right for Clara. If so, fine, but then the entire series is over. I realize it's the typical stopping place for a romance: Girl Makes Choice, The End. But it's dissatisfying for both "teams" as readers don't get to see Clara's relationship grow or see the "other" guy find his happiness. Instead, we get a "Nine Years Later" epilogue that only makes us even more aware of the things we missed out on in those nine years.

I need another hundred pages to flesh out the resolutions of character and theme. Or even better, a fourth book. Oh, and while I'm making demands, how about a book for Michael and Maggie? ( )

I legit just finished this book two seconds ago, and it's kind of hard to type because my hands are sort of shaking.

but that was perfect. the ABSOLUTE perfect ending.

I actually feel like I could achieve glory right now, because my heart just feels so light.

I'll type something more coherent as soon as I can, you know, type again.

30 minutes later.
I did some homework, and I can type again.
I don't how I'm going to talk about this book. IT WAS SO GOOD.



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