Aurora's End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES • The squad you love is out of time. Prepare for the thrilling finale in the epic, best-selling Aurora Cycle series about a band of unlikely heroes who just might be the galaxy's last hope for survival. Is this the end? What happens when you ask a bunch of losers, discipline cases, and misfits to save the galaxy from an ancient evil? The ancient evil wins, of course. Wait. . . . Not. So. Fast. When we last saw Squad 312, they working together seamlessly (aka, freaking out) as an intergalactic battle raged and an ancient superweapon threatened to obliterate Earth. Everything went horribly wrong, naturally. But as it turns out, not all endings are endings, and the team has one last chance to rewrite theirs. Maybe two. It's complicated. Cue Zila, Fin, and Scarlett (and MAGELLAN!): making friends, making enemies, and making history? Sure, no problem Cue Tyler, Kal, and Auri: uniting with two of the galaxy’s most hated villains? Um, okay. That, too. Actually saving the galaxy, though? Now that will take a miracle.

First I want to thank PRH International for giving me the chance to read an eARC of one of my most anticipated releases from this year!

And now... Where do I even start? Writing this is going to hurt, because I love this series so much and the characters are my little babies, but this book was not it for me. Maybe I had high expectations after reading Aurora Burning and I didn't expect this book to be so... soft?

Let's talk about the characters first.

Aurora
I felt like she was so weird in this book and I understand that it was because of the power within her, but she made some crazy decisions, she was acting very strange and I just didn't like her character that much in this book. She could've been so, so much better, she had a lot of potential that wasn't used.

Kal
After Aurora Burning, my heart was broken for him. This guy deserved so much more and he did get some of that in Aurora's End, but not enough. I would've loved to see him make up with his sister, but eh...

Zila
I love her with all my heart. she saved the book, because her sacrifice was literally my favourite thing in this book, one that I felt like it was worthy of the finale of a series. She is so amazing and I wish we knew more about her life with Nari, I need a short story or novella or something about them.

Tyler
I didn't expect him to be the person he was in this book and I LOVED his new self. And I was rooting for him and Saedii, so I'm glad they made the big step, because they're really great together.

Scarlett
I love her growth so much. She overcame so many of her fears in order to save the ones she loved, she became such a beautiful person and I'm so happy that she finally got what she deserves.

Finian
He's enough and he has always been enough and I love him so, so much. He has come so far and I'm so happy that he and Scarlett found each other. I mean it was very predictable, but I love them together. They deserve each other.

The plot? Well, the plot was definitely not what I was expecting. I really enjoyed the whole time travelling stuff, even though my mind went a little crazy while trying to piece everything together. It was challenging and I enjoyed it, coming from a sci-fi book. But as I said in the beginning, this book was too soft. I was expecting a huge fight with the Ra'haam, not what happened with Aurora and her choices. I just didn't feel like it was such a great ending to this series, it was just cute, but not exciting.

All in all, I liked the book. I even loved some part of it, but not the book as a whole. It could've been much better in my opinion, but this is all we get.

Books, Coffee & Passion

3.5 stars
Aurora's End was the first book I read in 2022. I was excited to read this one because I loved the first two books in this trilogy. It was a roller-coaster! I can't say much about it because I don't want to spoil it, so I'll try to keep it vague and brief.

The pacing was insane but some of the plot devices used to move the story further weren't my favorites. Specifically, because of that, the first half of the book felt a little disjointed. Still, I couldn't put it down and I enjoyed some of the storylines and moments. Especially Tyler's, which was kind of surprising to me. The character growth that Tyler and Zila go through was very well done. Tyler's POV was my favorite in this story.

The ending bothered me. A lot of YA books end with this trope and, even though, I enjoyed it at times, I just don't think it makes ANY sense in this book. I'm sad. Some of the choices made didn't make sense in my opinion, considering everything we were led to believe in the previous books. Some of it felt convenient. And I wanted so much more for the last book in the trilogy and these characters we love so dearly. Regardless, I love Squad 312 and I'll keep loving these characters.

Overall, despite everything I said and I'm definitely in the minority, it was still enjoyable. I liked the epilogue a lot. I only wish I loved Aurora's End as much as I loved books 1 and 2.