Confessions of a Literary Addict

Watch out for spoilers!

Read my review of the first book here and the second book here.

The Last Ever After by Soman Chainani
Series: The School for Good and Evil #3
Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Fairy Tale
Release Date: Published July 21st 2015 by HarperCollins
Format: Hardcover, 672 pages
Rating: 5/5 Crabapples
Find it here: Goodreads || Book Depository

In the epic conclusion to Soman Chainani’s New York Times bestselling series, The School for Good and Evil, everything old is new again as Sophie and Agatha fight the past as well as the present to find the perfect end to their story.

As A World Without Princes closed, the end was written and former best friends Sophie and Agatha went their separate ways. Agatha was whisked back to Gavaldon with Tedros and Sophie stayed behind with the beautiful young School Master.

But as they settle into their new lives, their story begs to be re-written, and this time, theirs isn’t the only one. With the girls apart, Evil has taken over and the villains of the past have come back to change their tales and turn the world of Good and Evil upside down.

Very rarely to books only get better and better as the series progresses. I haven’t encountered this happening too often in my many years of reading, but each time I do it’s like angels have descended and started playing their little trumpets directly in my ears. And, good lord, they were blasting it with this series. The final book in the trilogy, The Last Ever After, was amazing. I haven’t been this happy with a trilogy in such a long time. (Though, I haven’t finished the series that follows my favorite book of all time, Daughter of Smoke and Bones, so. We’ll see what happens there.)

I wasn’t bored reading any of this. Despite the time it took for me to read through it (it’s a pretty big book), I found myself powering through the chapters to see what was going to happen. I knew the end would be happy, or I at least figured it would be since I couldn’t fathom it not, but I couldn’t figure out how it would. Would Agatha drop Tedros and accept Sophie as her Ever After? Would Agatha drop Tedros and let Sophie have an Ever After with him, leaving her as the perpetual third wheel? I couldn’t put my finger on what would happen, so the ending did have a bit of surprise to it for me.

I also didn’t see the whole thing with Sophie’s mom coming, though I knew there was some sort of connection between Agatha and Sophie’s dad, somehow. Callis played a much different role than I had thought she was going to.

As much as I praise the series overall, however, I felt just the teeniest bit cheated in the end. I’m thrilled Sophie found her happiness in what she did, but I wanted a glimpse into the future. A few years or something, just so I could see how she handed her new position, how Agatha and Tedros got along with their kingdom, and what happened with Hort. I was so proud of Hort and I didn’t get enough of him in the end to make me totally happy with the way everything wrapped up. I still absolutely loved this series, though.

I can’t wait for the movies to come out and for Chainani to write more books. I hope he has more fairy tale ideas in mind, but I think I’ll take whatever he churns out.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo Nova