Review: The Wondrous and the Strange by Page Morgan

Title: The Lovely and the Lost 

Author: Page Morgan 
Publisher: Delacorte Press 

Publishing Date:  April 14th, 2015

Pages: 352
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy 

Series:  The Dispossessed #3
Source:  Audio

 

Since the Waverlys arrived in Paris, the streets have grown more fearsome by the day. As Ingrid learns to master her lectrux gift, she must watch Axia's power grow strong enough to extend beyond her Underneath hive. By all indications, the fallen angel's Harvest is near-and the timing couldn't be worse.

Targeted by vengeful gargoyles, Gabby has been exiled to London for her own protection. Meanwhile, the gargoyle castes are in disarray, divided between those who want Luc to lead them and those who resent him and his fondness for humans. The Alliance is crumbling from the inside as well, its members turning against one another, and possibly against the Waverlys, too.

Axia has promised that the world will burn. And now, unable to trust the Alliance, separated from Luc, Gabby, and her twin, Grayson, Ingrid is left to face the demon uprising alone.

This is the last book in the Dispossessed series and I was very excited to get to this final book and to see how the series would end. I loved the first and second book. I thought this one would just fall in line with the others. This book was good but I feel I was bit more bored at times. It was slower at parts. I am not sure if I was just not in the mood for this book or if it was just in  fact a little slower. But at any rate. I did end up enjoying it and it was a great ending for the series. 

So the battle continues between all the factions in this book, the Gargoyles, Axia and her demons, and the Alliance, humans.... It seems it is all a mess. Luc is no longer the gargoyle for Ingrid, Gabby is back in London away from Nolan, and Grayson is doing everything he can to fight his demon side. Axia is not going to rest though and the Alliance and the Gargoyles are going to need to get it together to save Ingrid and Grayson. If this isn't enough to have going on...  let's add an evil gargoyle who wants all the power and is willing to kill all the humans that have demon dust.... more trouble for Grayson and Ingrid. Never ending it's never ending. 

There are some things I truly loved about this installment and things I was a little bit meh on. I was so very excited as the second book just rocked my world. I loved it and I wanted to know where the rest of the story was headed and I wanted to have a smashing end to the story. 

So the things I was meh about. The pacing was off in this book. I felt the beginning was a little slower than the previous books. I think this may have had to do with the fact... Luc was just MIA and I didn't like the gargoyle that was protecting Ingrid. I felt no love between these two. I mean there isn't supposed to be love but I mean in the fact there was nothing. No hate, no sparks, no fire, no like, no friendship. I mean there is supposed to be some hating or some strong dislike going on. I just didn't feel like it. So not only was Luc missing... Gabby and Nolan are separated. I did not like this at all. I loved these two together. So I think it came down to this. 

There was a lot of building up going on in this story. The big stuff was coming but a lot needed to be put in place before the big stuff happened. Because of the loss of any love connection between characters. I was a bit bored and underwhelmed. I am not the biggest fan of huge story build up... I need something else to entertain me... like relationships, banter, love, kissing, fighting... some kind of passion between characters. For most of the book this was missing. 

I will say there were things I loved though,  and the ending made up for some of the slow meh stuff. I loved Gabby in this book. I mean I did like her from the beginning but with each book she grew, I feel she grew the most and I feel she stole the show in the end. She was the pure human in the bunch and she fought the hardest. She had the most passion, strength, determination, and love for others. She was a shining star. Not only that her relationship with Nolan... SWOON.... I wish there had been more moments with these two. 

So now let me talk about the new romance with Grayson and Chelle. This I didn't get enough of either. There were so many romances going on that could have been great but just didn't have enough time to develop and this was one of the main ones. These two could be great together but it just gets started before everything goes to crap and we never get to see it fully bloom. So sad. I did like the build up between these two. 

The love triangle between Luc, Ingrid, and Vander finally comes to an end. I hated this love triangle because I loved both of these guys and both were perfect for Ingrid in their own right. I personally loved Vander more but Ingrid's heart always belonged to Luc. This relationship finally was able to reach a high point and it was good and in the end Luc was perfect for Ingrid and he really melted my heart. 

The ending.... oh my goodness the ending was just perfect, tears in my eyes, smile from ear to ear, sad to say goodbye but floating in clouds feeling. It was too good. So right. Not that it was just a happy ending... there was struggle and loss... but the ending it was good guys.... so good. 

I had a bit of hard time in the beginning but in the end it owned my heart and perfected the art of series finale. 

I'm the author of the YA Gothic thrillers THE BEAUTIFUL & THE CURSED, THE LOVELY & THE LOST, and THE WONDROUS & THE WICKED. I've been intrigued by les grotesquesever since I saw an old, black-and-white photograph of a Notre Dame gargoyle keeping watch over the city of Paris. I wanted to tell that gargoyle's story. Soon, the idea for The Dispossessed series was born.

I live in New England with my husband and our three daughters, an English Pointer puppy, an arrogant cat, two cuddly bearded dragons, a couple of bunnies, a bunch of chickens, and during the summer and fall, our neighbor's two sweet horses.