Stars: 4 out of 5
What a great ending to a great series. All the different threads carefully hinted at during the previous books finally come to play and are resolved in a satisfactory manner. All the friendships Pet has cultivated in the previous books come to play as well.
You can really see just how much Pet has grown up between book one and book 10. In the first book, she might as well have been a ghost. She was so afraid of loosing her house that she lived only in order to earn enough money to buy it out. Nothing existed beyond work and hiding in her own home. We watched her gain confidence, both in herself and her abilities. We watched her make friends and stick by them in difficult moments. Most importantly, we watched her open her heart to other people and actually enjoy life instead of trying to exist as a ghost in her own house.
I loved that all the friends she collected along the way came to her help in the end, even the leprechaun. This was a nice juxtaposition to the idea Behindkind has that friendship is a burden and that anyone can stab you in the back, or that there is no such thing as freely given aid. Pet helped all of those people at one point of the other, and didn’t ask for anything in return. So they all showed up to help her, and to save the other heirlings stuck in the King’s arena. Heck, even the old butler had a redeeming moment.
I was surprised by the twist in the end. Not going to mention it to avoid spoilers, but let’s just say that the new King of Behind is… an interesting fellow.
My only complaint is that this book dragged in the beginning. There is a lot of running around doing mostly nothing for the first 50% of the story. So much so that I had to put it down and walk away for a few days because I was getting bored. Once the action picks up again, it’s a fun ride to the end, with satisfactory conclusions all around. The way Pet defeated the former King is a stroke of genius.
I am glad I found this series, and I will definitely check out other books by this author.