(The Sacred Stones, #3) A Reign of Rose by Kate Golden review

 

A Reign of Rose by Kate Golden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

⭐⭐⭐½ 3.5 Stars
🌶️🌶️½ 1.5 Spice

Where to start… OK, again, this whole series has been easy to read. There is nothing super difficult or overwordy with this book, or the whole series to be honest, so reading one book a day was really easy. I liked that a lot.

I also really like having easy world building. The kingdoms and their rulers were simple to follow and warranted little brain power. With this being the last book in the series, we saw a few new places and some of the places we already knew. It’s not over the top detailed like you might see in a high fantasy book series, but it’s also not bare bones and hard to imagine either. I would say it happily skipped down the line between the two, which made zooming through the book, and the whole series, easy.

Now all the characters at this point are totally fleshed out, as best you’re going to get. The main characters, of course, are the ones you know the most about and have a clear understanding of why they are the way they are. There was clear growth for a few of them, more than others, throughout the series and this book.

Some of the highlights for me in this book had to be the friendships, found family, love, and overall the willingness to protect and look after each other. I loved that the spice was NEVER the main focus, and it was the story that stayed at the forefront of the whole series and this book. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

I totally loved Acorn, and I wished we saw more of her. I also loved that our lead, Arwen, did something in this book that really made me like her so much more!!

Now onto some of the problems I had, starting with a few characters getting little growth all the way to the last few chapters. That ticked me off. Loose ends?? Like why do that to me? Why give me something and leave loose ends? Ahhhhh. There were patches of the story that totally confused me and left me feeling a little whip-lashed. Also, one thing happened in this book more than once, and it got old fast. It left each event feeling less impactful.

Overall, it was a fun series, and I am glad I read it. I struggled between 3.5 stars and 4 stars with this one because there was a list of things I did like, even if there were many things I did not like as well, which made rating it hard. But I think the whole series overall would be a solid 3.5, slipping towards a 4.

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