Nora Roberts - The Rise of Magicks

After the sickness known as the Doom destroyed civilization, magick has become commonplace, and Fallon Swift has spent her young years learning its ways. Fallon cannot live in peace until she frees those who have been preyed upon by the government or the fanatical Purity Warriors, endlessly hunted or locked up in laboratories, brutalized for years on end. She is determined to save even those who have been complicit with this evil out of fear or weakness--if, indeed, they can be saved.
Strengthened by the bond she shares with her fellow warrior, Duncan, Fallon has already succeeded in rescuing countless shifters and elves and ordinary humans. Now she must help them heal--and rediscover the light and faith within themselves. For although from the time of her birth, she has been The One, she is still only one. And as she faces down an old nemesis, sets her sights on the enemy's stronghold, and pursues her destiny--to finally restore the mystical shield that once protected them all--she will need an army behind her...

Comment: This is the third installment in the Chronicles of the One trilogy, a paranormal series by author Nora Roberts and where we get to see the conclusion of the story and the war between good and evil.

In this third section, war goes on, our characters are getting ready to face the enemy and Fallon, as the One, is still recruiting followers to help her but who she will help in return. She makes new alliances while removing enemies one by one, step by step. However, her evil cousin is certainly hiding something and Fallon needs all the help she can get to finally clean the planet of all the evil which also rose when the Doom hit the world and killed so many.

At the same time, she is wondering where her feelings for Duncan will lead her but perhaps there isn't much to think about, since he seems to feel the same way. Will they succeed in their endeavor to be the answer to the world's protection?

I'll start immediately by saying I expected more from this book. The first book was a good start for a story that was unique and quite different from the author's usual style. The second book was more alike any YA books out there but I felt invested enough to have enjoyed it. I fully expected something incredible for this last book but it wasn't as good as I imagined it could be.

I would say the biggest issue for me was how under developed the characters felt in this installment. Everyone already had their role established, there was no surprise, no development, no change in anything besides the basics. There were countless scenes preparing for war, discussing the war between the good and the bad guys and even more on smaller scaled fights while Fallon and her followers were helping those in need or freeing areas so her goal of bringing back the Light would happen effectively. But on how the characters' interacted, how their relationships were or how they would become more complex, nothing.

I would expect this form the author's usual books and, in fact, this was just like any other third installment of the paranormal trilogies I've read by mrs Roberts in the past. I would not be surprised, then, were this to be another repetitive type of trilogy, but the premise of this series and based on the first book, I did think things might go a different path. True, there are some changes from the usual, but to me it was not enough to make me think of this books fondly.

It's not a novelty to know the good guys win but even the battles, the fights, no matter how detailed the preparations, felt very staged, quickly done... again, it's not I'd want the author to start writing about every single thing, but the way things are done, everything feels staged and automatic and I miss a more relatable kind of plot, where I could follow the characters, where I could see how this would be affecting them...the story simply stopped being intriguing for me after a while.

Fallon and Duncan maintain the pattern and obviously fall in love. However, not even this seemed passionate nor fascinating. They could have had a different dynamic, even allowing their fates to be pre destined, but we didn't get to see them falling in love because the other person was special or because the things they shared or the situations they had to do together would force them to see the other person like that. You know, as in any type of romance where getting to know the other person would be why you were falling in love and why you felt it was right, fate or being mates aside. I missed this here.

All things considered, this was weaker than I hoped for. There are plenty of books by the author I love and many scenes in all of them I re-read sometimes but this won't be one of those, sadly.

Grade: 6/10