Reading physical books, ever since I have a special to be read bookcase, is much more satisfying. I see that case emptying, I see that my books are moving. And yet, I really wanted to read this last e-book in the Once Upon a Curse series as soon as possible! This series quite easily stole my heart and even though I am kinda said that this was the last book, although there is some room for more, I enjoyed the ride from start to finish.
Davis writes the way I wanna write and the way I wanna read. Her stories are driven by emotions and the focus is on what the characters are feeling, what they are going through and what they are learning. That means that action wise not that much is happening in the books and yet I never grow bored. Because everything the characters feel, I feel too and in the end, when all is said and done and all lessons are learned, I always feel that tear rolling down my cheek.
And that also happened in this book, even though Aerewyn and I are completely different people. Everything I would never do, Aerewyn does. I can so imagine that people around her get annoyed by her constant longing for adventure, for breaking the rules. And yet, her journey and all the challenges she faced, it did move me in the end. The lessons she learned were so beautiful and I think the price she paid for her recklessness was incredibly high. It makes her story heartbreaking and heartwarming at once.
That's also because Davis created a wonderful world and mythology and in this final book the last pieces fall into place too. Everything works. Everything is so well thought out. All the details really make sense. And even though these books are fairytale retellings, the elements of the fairytales are used so creatively and originally that the stories feel incredibly fresh and new.
I'm gonna miss this amazing dystopian fairytale world. I'm gonna miss all those characters. And maybe a part of me will keep on hoping that one day Davis returns to this world and decides to tell us just a few more stories.
This was my favorite of the series so far, and I liked how Davis continues to pick and chose the elements of the original fairy tale that she puts in her book. I liked Aerewyn and Eric as characters, and even though I knew they were doomed, it was still exciting to see exactly how that fateful day played out. I would have liked more resolution at the end since it seems like the series is done, but it's also up in the air how the characters will resolve the continuing stolen magic/destroyed earth problem, though it seems to be leaning towards hopeful? . Once again, these audiobooks were so quick and easy to devour, which is always enjoyable.
I like how this book summed up the entire series. I also like very broad lesson overall: love can both destroy and conquer depending on it's use. Would definitely recommend this series. The books were each easy reads and I found myself reading every chance I got to find out what's next.
The author/publisher provided a free copy of the book for review purposes - thank you! Receiving a review copy does not guarantee a positive review and therefore do not affect the opinion or content of the review. If you all thought I was done shoving the Once Upon a Curse series after reviewing Chasing Midnight and the cover reveal for Parting Worlds, you were definitely, surely wrong.
Parting Worlds brings everything together.
Parting Worlds is the fourth and final book in the Once Upon a Curse series, a retelling based on The Little Mermaid. This starts right where Chasing Midnight ends before going back to the very beginning and bringing everything to full circle.
We get a little intro to who Aerewyn is back in the third book, but Parting Worlds is where we truly get to know who she is and her side of the story. We get the chance to see her bond with Nymia and how it forms from complete strangers as young faeries to best friends as they train to become priestesses, where they can use their magic to protect fellow magical creatures.
I personally loved seeing their friendship bloom and how it ultimately withstands in the centuries of time they're apart from each other. I also loved seeing how they have ups and downs in their relationship and how they try to overcome those without straining it. It shows how they have a close bond with each other despite their differences.
I think Parting Worlds also gives us a chance to truly see Nymia's growth as a character as this is set before the third book but still connected. Chasing Midnight also shows her growth, but it was brief and fleeting as much of the focus was not in the past and rather on how she changes throughout the book through the events.
Going back to where all the disaster begins.
And finally, through Aerewyn's story, Kaitlyn Davis shows us how all of this began in the first place. I had so many questions after reading the third book and a lot of them were answered in Parting Worlds. Aerewyn's a faerie full of mischief and seeks to bend the rules whenever she can this sounds like me. She questions how the world can be different, where humans and magical creatures can live together in harmony, especially when she meets Erick and starts forming a relationship with him. Honestly, it's the Butterfly Effect in a fairy tale dystopia and I am living for it.
The majority of the book focuses on how Aerewyn and Erick meet and how their meeting becomes fateful for the rest of the world. But Aerewyn still grows as a character: she's still mischievous and up to no good, but she learns how her actions became major consequences for everyone, including herself. And I love how Davis does this really well.
A bittersweet end, but maybe there are more stories.
I don't know about anyone else, but Parting Worlds feels bittersweet with a (sort of?) happy ending. This puts the final piece of the story together with no loose ends in the story; it's answering all of the questions that have been there since Gathering Frost and connecting all the books together. At the same time, there sounds like there could potentially be another storyline in the future. If that happens, you know what I'm doing.
I liked this one a lot better than Chasing Midnight, but it still doesn’t compare to Gathering Frost. Aerewyn’s love for the humans and their wonders was so endearing. And don’t even get me started on Eric and Roo. This was a great audiobook series to listen to and I highly recommend it to all fairy tale lovers.
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