Destiny and darkness collide in this final book of Kate Ristau’s Shadow Girls Saga.

The Fairerlands are burning. Áine walks the endless road, fighting off nameless fears, while Hennessy battles in darkness. They both must rise up and stop the Queene before the worlds collapse. Fey hangs in the balance, teetering on the edge of Oberon’s sword. If one world falls, they all will. It is time to take a stand.

My Review:

This is a thrilling conclusion filled with strangeness, danger, magic, and love.

Like book 1 of the Shadow Girls trilogy, book 3 begins in a strange place—two strange places, actually, with Hennessy and Aine dealing with their separate consequences from book 2. Hennessy is working with an old enemy to train an army of monsters so they can bust out of the Hetherlands (what she calls “fairy hell”) and find Aine. Aine is walking the Path of the Beast, an endless trail near an unchanging forest, seeking answers that won’t come. But with unexpected allies, she might be able to find a way back to Hennessy, if too much time hasn’t passed. A month for one could be years or centuries for another. You can’t trust faerie stuff.

Ristau does a good job of creating interesting scenes in these strange but monotonous settings. As a reader, I often felt as confused and off-balance as the characters—appropriate in a tale about an imbalance in magical power throughout the Faerie Lands. But I knew I could trust the story to come together to a satisfying conclusion. Once again, I enjoyed Hennessy’s snarky interactions with her fairy friends and rivals, and her growth into her role as Shadow Queene. And her dragon puppy Rego was reliable comic relief whenever things got too grim.