Finale Book Review

Finale by Stephanie Garber

From Goodreads: A love worth fighting for. A dream worth dying for. An ending worth waiting for.

It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.

With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win, and those who will lose everything.

Welcome, welcome to Finale. All games must come to an end…

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. I know the book only recently came out, and I have tried to avoid them, but a lot of my opinions on the book relate to specific events in the book and I didn’t want to just offer up a super vague review.

IF YOU HAVEN’T READ FINALE YET AND PLAN TO, PLEASE BOOKMARK THIS PAGE AND COME BACK TO IT WHEN YOU’RE FINISHED, UNLESS YOU’RE OKAY WITH SPOILERS.

Step right up, step right up and welcome to my review of Finale. I’m actually a bit surprised at the hype this book has received recently. I knew the series was fairly popular, but most of the anticipation for the second book must have slipped right past me, and now suddenly we’re at the end and people are so excited for Finale. 

With this in mind, I thought I’d bump it up my TBR list. By which I mean, I read it as soon as Waterstones handed over my signed copy.

And although I enjoyed it, I have to admit that I didn’t love it. Yes, I know that’s going to be a very unpopular opinion, especially after seeing some of the glowing reviews for the book out there, but I just couldn’t connect with it in the same way that I did with Legendary. 

One of the things that still captured my attention was the magic. The world Garber has created is just brimming with whimsy, and I loved every glimpse of it she offered us. Dresses that change according to mood, keys that will take anyone anywhere they want to go, beautiful sounding flowers and perfumes and delectable foods to sample. Everything is so clever and imaginative that I fell in love with it, over and over again.

Tella and Scarlett are another big positive for me. I liked reading both sisters’ perspectives, and I thought their voices were always connected, but instantly recognisable as their own. Which, kudos, is a pretty hard thing to accomplish.

On some level, I did also really like the romances and all the angst they brought with them. However, I felt like this was also a big con overall since it offered diminishing returns. There’s just so many will they, won’t they moments, and love triangles and declarations of feelings that are shredded on the very next page. At first, I was excited to see where things go, but after Legend’s and Tella’s 50th fight or so, I was officially done. And they always seem like they’re really arbitrary reasons too. I’m not saying that having the person you’re in love with say they’ll never feel the same way about you isn’t a huge blow, and of course it’s a legitimate reason to part ways, but these characters just kept coming back to each other over and over again even though nothing had changed, only for them to be mad again a scene later because of the same thing? Like, either accept it and move on, or decide that’s a deal breaker and cut ties. The Julian, Nicholas and Scarlett story isn’t much better either. I did like that at least it made up its mind much earlier on, but I was a bit frustrated that Garber neatly severs it by just killing Nicholas, thus saving Scarlett the awkward break-up conversation. Worse still, it was possible that Scarlett might have drawn out the conversation out of guilt, and thus would have ended up in a situation like her sisters’, so while I’m pleased it never went down that route, I feel like the whole thing was just a bit unnecessary to begin with. Nicholas was never really going to be a choice, and he was just sort of thrown in there to add pointless drama and tension.

My other main problem with Finale is the ending. What even was that? I was pretty surprised by it, but not in a good way. The idea that Scarlett defeats her father, The Fallen Star, by pretending to be her mother was creepy enough, and I was very icked out by the prospect of her even pretending from across a space. But then she makes a slip up and he realises she’s not really the wife he just murdered and he becomes human anyway because she gives such a moving, lovely speech? It felt like a big cop-out to me, and it just came across as quite silly. The Fallen Star isn’t human, and even though Paloma is his weakness and his love for her was enough to once make him mortal, it seems bizarre that a few words from her daughter would be enough to make him remorseful. Especially given some of the awful things he’s done. He’s set up as a very cruel and uncaring villain, and as a result, this weird ending was very unsatisfying to me.

I know I’ve mentioned a lot of negatives here, but I did still enjoy reading Finale. It was a very quick read, and even though I rolled my eyes at some moments, it was still entertaining and I can see why some people will be absolutely enamoured by it. The world-building is beautiful, and the magic and whimsy is just perfectly crafted. And although I had some issues with the back and forth romance, I do admit that there were some moments where I found it utterly engrossing, and super-romantic.

Overall, then, I’m giving Finale a 7/10 stars.

Has anyone else read this book already or plans to? What do you all think of it? Let me know in the comment section down below ❤