The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3)
By: Deborah Harkness
Website: https://deborahharkness.com/
Release Date: July 15th, 2014
Publisher: Viking Adult
Series: All Souls Trilogy
Award: Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy (2014)
Rating:

Sometimes, I really hate when I’m right. I was hoping against all odds that book three would save this trilogy for me but it didn’t. While I can still say I liked the book, that the series was okay, I found myself giving book three my lowest rating for the entire series. Probably out of frustration more than anything but, here we are.

There are a ton of characters flying across the pages in this book and many details and small facts thrown together at once which left me feeling lost at times. I ended up resorting to a wiki page for a brief summary of book two so I could recall the important plot points and focus my brain a bit better on this book.

I felt like the first book could have been a standalone and I’d have been satisfied. The second book, while amusing at times, created many subplots and even though these things were referenced in book three I felt a lot of it was hastily resolved, glossed over or in the case of a few unimportant things, not really resolved at all. Though, in the broad scheme of things, it’s okay because we did get some major answers in this final book.

A quote I enjoyed in the middle of falling out of love with this series seems a fitting reminder to the world lately.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.

With that I’ll say that if you enjoyed the series I’m glad you did and if you didn’t, or fell out of love with it, I understand. I’d cautiously recommend this book, but I’d say you should be warned about the ongoing cliches and the drawn out stories. However, if you’re looking for a world of fantasy mixed with history, alchemy and romance, you may enjoy this, regardless of the small faults I found.