Synopsis:Layla’s world tumbles out of control when she discovers the truth of her parentage and realizes the Prophecy—the one she upended her entire life to defend—is incomplete. When her new friends share the entire Prophecy, the revelations contained within it alter her destiny and challenge everything she and Wil believe in. Now, she must confront the Outlander queen to save the Ethereal kingdom while grappling with this new reality.
Tortured and imprisoned, Nash accepts his fate and offers the First Ones the one thing he has left to give: his life. In a desperate attempt to save the people he loves most, he surrenders himself to the Outlander queen and a destiny darker than he could have ever dreamed possible.
Wil, tormented by the consequences of his choices, realizes he may never be able to uphold his end of the Prophecy. His mistake casts a deep, foreboding shadow over his kingdom and those he loves, while its ripples threaten to shatter both the Prophecy and everything he and his family have sworn to protect.
In this epic conclusion, lives are lost, kingdoms clash, friendships are tested, and love and fate collide.
Review (Contains Spoilers):
As they say, it all comes down to this. Erin Rhew wraps up her trilogy with The Fulfillment, where everything is finally revealed. While the world waits for all out war, they hope for peace between the three nations: the Ethereals, the Vangards, and the Outlanders.
As the prophecy comes to fruition, each character plays their destined role. Two important women join Layla, Nash, and Wil as they follow their faith in the First Ones. Layla, believed to be The Fulfillment, with her purple eyes and Vangard strength, is struggling with heartache through most of the book. She's accidentally betrayed by Wil and struggles to keep her focus. Though she is undoubtedly brave, courageous, and dutiful, readers see her jealous side. After the revealed betrayal, Wil spends most of the book feeling guilty, almost to the point of annoyance. He was tricked, plain and simple. Yet, it came with complicated consequences. Regardless, Wil is the most understanding character and overly forgiving. His personality is honorable as is his loyalty. The main connection he has with readers will come from their sympathy and understanding. Nash shares his brother's loyalty and honor but his strength and fortuitous nature shine brighter. Readers will have a deep respect for Nash and his desire to save those he cares about. Mia and Zarina are the two characters to take their place beside the others. Though I did not like or trust Mia in the second book, she sort of wins me over in this final act. She was incredibly deceptive but with a good cause. Overlooking that, Mia is a brave, courageous, and steady character that fits in nicely with the others. Zarina, once discovered, quickly becomes the key to the entire prophecy. I liked the story's twist with Zarina and the slippery understanding of the prophecy. She's incredibly brave and hopeful, giving the book it's chance for a happy ending.
The plot of this final installment has two main points: defeat the Outlander Queen and stop King Vance. With hope, the main characters join together to defeat Queen Cataleen. When they all learn of an innocent woman trapped within the evil dictator, they revise their plan to kill her. It's discovered that there is more to the prophecy than they first thought. United, though some on rocky relationships, the destined characters extract the Queen from her host body and banish her to the afterlife. Yet, there is still the war hungry King Vance to defeat. Through heart wrenching losses, Vance and his army are defeated and finally, the world has a chance at peace, and The Fulfillment series has a happy, though bittersweet, ending. I enjoyed this final book, but there was one main downfall. Sadly, I found the writing style repetitive with blanket statements instead of the detail I wanted. The storyline seems oriented toward young adults (I'm thinking 16 to 25) but the word usage and bland sentence structure doesn't support that. Don't get me wrong, not every sentence is like that, but when reading fantasy series I enjoy poetic prose with surprising analogies. I wasn't satisfied. So while I enjoyed the story, it fell short of my expectations when I didn't take to the style.
Rating: 3/5 Cups
Meet the Author:
Erin Rhew is an editor, a running coach, and the author of The Fulfillment Series. Since she picked up Morris the Moose Goes to School at age four, she has been infatuated with the written word. She went on to work as a grammar and writing tutor in college and is still teased by her family and friends for being a member of the "Grammar Police."A Southern girl by blood and birth, Erin now lives in a rainy pocket of the Pacific Northwest with the amazingly talented (and totally handsome) writer Deek Rhew and their “overly fluffy,” patient-as-a-saint writing assistant, a tabby cat named Trinity. She and Deek enjoy reading aloud to one another, running, lifting, boxing, eating chocolate, and writing side-by-side.
