Dreams of Gods & Monsters

This felt like it took me forever to read and not really because of length but there is just so much happening in this book. So many characters and plot and subplots to follow and yes it was a lengthy read I found myself thinking many times near the end (because I was getting impatient) can we just get to the important stuff because a lot of the writing was a lot or at least felt like a lot of characters working through their feelings which understandably all the stuff they are going through there will be feels and I usually don't mind beautiful deep writing about all the emotions but this time around I could have done with less of it. If this is ever adapted for the screen it has to be a TV series because there is no way a movie could squish all this into 2-3 hours and be good. I am happy I finally got to finish this series, I picked up the first book years ago. 2011 or 2012 and I LOVED it so much, the sequels not as much but they were still very good reads.

This book got me engaged, involved. It kept me on the edge of my seat, it had me worrying, it had me hoping, there were a couple of places where I was almost praying... and there were parts that were so, so, so sweet... it made me cry. Of both sadness and happiness.

There were only a couple of things I wasn't happy about.

1) I WISH Eliza had reacted differently to the incident. I wish she had said: “Of course I'm distraught! I managed to flee a cult where I had been abused my whole childhood, and am studying a field I'm passionate about, and if you don't believe I'm innocent, if you don't believe that I didn't do this, I can kiss my career goodbye, no-one will ever take me seriously, and I'll go to jail for violating the agreement AND YOU ARE SENDING ME BACK TO THE CULT!”

2) I wish to know more about how the fake grandmother's life turned out. I wanted to see her punished.

3) I wanted to see the other guy punished.

And where will they find enough teeth to create enough bodies? Why aren't they using the teeth from the old bodies?

It's done, I finished the final book in this amazing series! I'm just going to dive right in with this review. First off, I want to thank Laini Taylor for writing these books, she really has a way with words that make me pause for a minute. However, compared to the other books, I have to say this was my least favorite. I've made a small list of the reasons why:

• The story was still thrilling and I had so much fun reading it, but there was also a lot of information being dumped.
• I didn't like the character Eliza.. At first, she was just boring, and then I felt like she wasn't really part of the story (even though she was actually at the beginning of everything).
• I'm also not sure how I feel about the slightly open ending. Maybe it was this open because Taylor wants to keep writing about the world of Eretz, which I'm absolutely fine with, but I kind of needed closure after three books.
• I think somewhere in book 2, I kind of lost interest in Akiva and Karou's relationship. Of course, I still wanted them to have a happy ending, but I didn't really care as much as I did in book 1. In the end, I was way more invested in Ziri & Liraz and Mik & Zuzana ("the most excellent rabid fairy"😂). I will always be team Akiva, so if he's happy with Karou, I'm happy 😉

That being said, I'm still very enthusiastic about this book and there were so many beautiful moments as well. I loved Liraz's storyline in this book, and I shipped her with Ziri from the moment that was even a possibility. So glad they got together in the end❤️ I'm glad Karou finally decided to create soldiers with honor, that was what I was hoping for in this last part of the series. The chapter in which we get inside Razgut's mind was one of my favorites. He is feisty. At the end of book 2, I was so disappointed in him, but I love his wit and internal dialogue. It reminded me a bit of Gollum on a good day. What was done to him was so cruel, I thought his backstory was very important. And poor Akiva, he just can't get a break, can he? "I keep getting second chances, that aren't rightly mine". If you've read the books, you understand how intensely sad it was when Akiva spoke them😭

Because I've only read two books this month, I'm going to pick this one as my Book of the Month⭐ I will miss the world of Eretz, and I will say goodbye to it with the appropriate words:

I kiss your eyes and leave my heart in your hands.