Crowned by Roses by Elizabeth Helen review

 

Crowned by Roses by Elizabeth Helen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Stars 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3 Spice

You have no idea how much I have been waiting for this book and also dreading this book all at the same time. The Beasts of the Briar series has been one of my favourite series to read, and getting my hands on the last book was like both a blessing and a joy to know how it finally all ends, and an epic curse because, oh my god, how can it all be about to end!! Noooo was my mindset the moment I got my hands on it. That said, massive thank you to the authors for giving me an ARC. You have no idea how happy I was to get it.

The book picked up a little while after the last book, and you feel it, the heavy weight and gloom, the after-effects of what just happened and its ripple effect throughout the characters. The writing was, as always, impeccably written, easy and smooth like butter, so that you almost glide through the pages, even as the characters try and work themselves out and pick themselves up. That weight really gives you that feeling, really gets you in the mindset of the moment and the edginess of what happens now.

Then the book starts really moving, which, as always, is where even more magic happens. The whole book from the start had this massive question mark over it, so as you read it, that weight of are we going to do this, are we going to be OK, are we going to make it, all but sits on your chest as you read.... It gives the book depth and you a feeling you can't shake off the whole way. At this point, I did not think I would see much growth in the characters anymore because we are on the last hurdle, but I was so totally wrong because even at the end, they improve and strive to try and be more than they are, try and keep hold of themselves and hope, and it was honestly really beautiful.

The world inside this book had slowly, and I had thought, been totally detailed and explored to me, but I might as well have thrown that idea out of my head because coming into this book, the places we knew are dark and harsh and not at all how we had them before. You get to see a world holding onto the edge and about ready to be turned into a true hellscape for all, and we got to see a place never seen before so far in this series, and I was.... breathless and so shocked by it that there was still so, so much I could be taken in by and given by this book.

I was not left feeling like I was rehashing or reliving the same thing over and over that might have happened in other series this long that I have read, where the WOW has gone, where storylines felt like they had been put in the washing machine on repeat. Nope, this book was like slipping into the series, but nothing was nailed down. It was all topsy-turvy and so new.

The books, over the course of reading them, had grown darker, and in our great journey to get here, we had gained and lost people we loved. We had given pieces of ourselves and sobbed and cried, laughed and loved, been scared, begged and pleaded, and most of all, we have been whisked away from our lives into this world and felt things that moved us. This book and series had all that, so much so it oozed from the words and pages.

This book was a masterpiece of light and dark and holding out hope, and I felt like I had earned that ending. I had bled and cried for the ending, and it was oh so worth it.

The book had a perfect level of action, story, love and spice, and the ending gave me goosebumps and tears and a warm feeling. I would have loved more, but I think I would have loved more no matter how much the story gave me because I never wanted to reach the end of it.

I wanted a never-ending story to just slip into and stay in. I have no doubt that this will stay in my number one all-time favourite series for a VERY long time. It gave me magic, gave me both heartache and love, gave me loss and gain, and most of all, gave me a world to lose myself in, to find comfort in.

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