It had been a long time since I'd read the first or second book, but I presumed I didn't need to re-read them-to understand the third- big mistake. The 'magic' and the 'realms' in this book simply weren't explained at any point, I couldn't remember how it all worked and was hoping in the first few chapters that it would be re-explained but it never was, in fact there was barely any summary of the first two book at all which I feel massively let the book down. I would need to have the prequels fresh in my mind to understand 3/4 of what happened, it seemed to flow straight on from the previous book but gave zero mention to any events that has already happened, so I was struggling to remember what had happened and who all the characters were. I was just confused and subsequently irritated throughout the magority of the book.
Not only this, but anything new wasn't made at all clear either. There was a very confusing storyline based around 'The tree of all souls' which frankly I just didn't understand, it simply wasn't explained. I also felt the story dragged on far too much and just wasn't interesing enough. The only few things I was interested in weren't explored in enough depth, in my opinion. Namely, the relationship between Gemma and Kartick and the revealed relationship between Pippa and Felicity- this could have been such an interesting area to explore, sexuality in the very constrained setting of the victorian finishing school where 'young ladies' had to conform to the expectations of society- but oh no, it was just glossed over and Gemma hardly seemed affected. If I discovered two of my friends been having a secret relationship I know I'd have more to say!
Overall, I didn't enjoy this at all, between the prequels not being summarised, nothing new being explained and the story dragging on and on and on, I was just put in a bit of a bad mood every time I picked the book up. I kept on hoping it would get better but it never did. When I got to the end- which in tune with the rest of the book, made no sense to me- I was just extremely glad to banish it to the back of my mind, return it to the library and never pick it up again.
Sorry not to have reviewed this very well, I realise it's more of a rant than a review, in my defense, I couldn't summarise the story even if I wanted to, I couldn't for the life of me, give you any indication of what on earth was going on. I'd be interested to hear anyone else's opinion though as I'm wondering if it's just me, I very rarely dislike books so much and don't think I've ever told anyone not to bother with a book (with the exception of Just in Case!) but that's what I'm saying here, it didn't feel worth the effort of reading.
Heather xx
