Last Stand by Rachel E. Carter

Last Stand by Rachel E. Carter

Expected Publication: February 7th 2017 – Self Published

He’s the Black Mage and she’s the traitor to the Crown.

Ryiah’s world was shattered the night she discovered King Blayne’s nefarious plans. Now, she has to betray the one she loves most in order to save the realm from war. Torn between love and duty, Ry finds herself on a perilous mission to help the rebels and convince the kingdom of Pythus not to honor its pact with the corrupt king of Jerar—all the while deceiving the most powerful mage in the realm, the very man sworn to protect the Crown and hunt the rebels at all costs: her husband.

She’s one step ahead, but sooner or later the curtain will fall.

Sooner or later, she’ll have to fight.

Witness the epic conclusion of The Black Mage series, and see just how far one girl will go to save her kingdom and the boy she loves—even when that boy has become the enemy.

Note: I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influences my opinion.

Firstly, can we just comment on how beautiful that cover is!!! I mean, that is #coverlove right there. Secondly, the story within… it was the perfect finale to this series! This entire series has been absolutely brilliant and I was so excited about picking up this last book because i have been hibernating for ages!!

The book basically starts where the previous one left off. I wasn’t left scrambling trying to remember anything that had happened in the previous books because the author made it extremely easy to remember, without being repetitive – even though it has been an age since I read Candidate. I definitely loved the fact that I wasn’t forced to go and read my reviews or a brief summary of the previous book because it saved me time and it meant that I had gotten into the story quickly. I was completely absorbed by the story and that remained throughout the entire of this book. I think hooked is an understatement. I was seriously questioning whether sleep is needed because… I just HAD to know what was going to happen next!!

I loved Ryiah as much in this book as I did in the previous books. She definitely changes as a person throughout this book and I feel extremely sorry for her throughout! However, it was understandable considering everything she went through and everything she was still going through. She remained strong, even when everyone was against her and she had lost everything. She is definitely a female MC that I will always look up to and aspire to be as strong as her mentally (because… lets face it, I will never be that strong physically!) and She has definitely made my list of top female MC’s!

Darren bugged me as much in this book as he did right at the beginning! If we remember, I really didn’t like him at the beginning because he was a complete jerk, but he began to grow on me as I learned more and more about him. However, he was ok for the first part of this book and then bam! I disliked him all over again! I began to question everything I knew about him and his personality because he was a complete douche! I suppose I could see the events from his perspective, but come on!! He definitely should have known better and he needed to learn a little thing called trust, that is all I am saying!

Also, that ending!! I finished the book and I did not even know how to function properly! It was the most perfect bittersweet ending and I am actually really sad to see this series end! I don’t want to leave Ryiah and Darren and the rest! Especially because I will never be able to read these book in the sense of reading them for the first time! I just… need a lot of chocolate!

All in all, I absolutely loved this book and, for me, it was definitely the perfect ending to a fantastic series! I cannot wait to see more from this author in the future! I gave this book 5/5 stars!!