As The World Falls Down

End Of Days : A Review

Collage by the fantastic Olga.

It's not often I'm THIS excited to gush endlessly about a book. But let me tell you, End of Days is a book release I have been WAITING for since reading the last words in World After "It's a new day in the World After." 

Needless to say, I was ecstatic when Susan Ee released details about End Of Days. And the countdown began. And soon after that, I basically died a little when I was given the opportunity to read the ARC of End Of Days for the Wenches months before release day! I am going to try and keep my fangirling to a minimum right now, since this is a review. (And allow me to say, THANK GOD release day is finally here!)) But there WILL be posts dedicated to squealing about how amazing this author, her team, and these books are in the near future!

NO SPOILERS FOR END OF DAYS in this review! But I will assume you have read both Angelfall and World After. BE WARNED! (You can read the Wenches' reviews of the first two books here and here.)

Source.

Things pick up right where we left off, with Penryn and her oddball group flying away from the Aerie, while we all picked our jaws up off the floor after the Paige/Beliel drama. Not to mention processing what the hell just happened with Pooky Bear! That was a pretty epic scene. I love that we got to see some of the Angel Sword lore Raffe has been telling Penryn about in action. That is one bad ass sword. 

Cue Raffe and Penryn both being proud of her.

We see more of Paige interacting with the scorpion like creatures, and finally, Penryn realizing that Paige is still Paige. It breaks my heart reading about Paige for the past couple of books, what has been done to her and the way it was revealed towards the end of Angelfall was tough to swallow. That scene in the lab, with the piles of mutilated children, it was terrible and painful to read, and really showed us how some fates are much worse, and much more tragic than death. But in End of Days, there's a certain bleakness to Paige's possible future that killed me. A certain scene set in a department store brought me to tears for that innocent child, and made me curse at the creatures and people who had done that to her. 

This book surpassed my expectations, I knew it would be epic. I knew I would feel things that would make me gasp out loud, want to bite my nails, take up casual drinking, talk out loud to myself in public (I really did, not kidding). But I didn't realize just HOW much I would FEEL. And the unlikely players I would feel things for. Susan Ee made my heart hurt for characters I wouldn't have ever imagined feeling compassion for! 

I could barely put the book down once I had started, it's a page turner! Just like both it's predecessors! There are so many new things we find out in End of Days. It made my head spin, in a very good way. Make no mistake, this is an action packed book. Penryn is face to face with everything from angry angels, angel politics and trials, the human resistance camp, hellions, her mother, new and terrifying creatures, an unexpected journey, and not to mention huge revelations of a past so bleak that you can't help but feel pity for all those involved. 

And once again, Susan Ee shows us how sometimes humanity is at it's best and worst when the world is going to hell. That we're as capable of despicable acts as the creatures that threaten us and the world we live in, as we've been shown numerous times in this series.

"If you're worried about pervs breaking into the house, it's not going to make a difference whether I'm in this outfit or in baggy jeans and a sweatshirt. Either they're decent human beings or they're not. Their actions are on them."

It's a beautifully written story, about bravery, about family,  about hope, redemption and condemnation, and how sometimes even the cruelest of us may be deserving of pity. Penryn's strength of character and determination to survive and keep on living are awe inspiring. There's nothing "special" about Penryn on the surface. Genetics. Abilities. Not a "chosen one". And yet, she's the kind of brave we're all capable of being. The kind that gets up. The kind that doesn't let life bring her down. The kind that deals witha  crazy mother and an absent father and takes care of her baby sister. That's the kind of brave I want to read about. The kind of brave I'll root for till the very last page. 

Raffe, as always, is amazing. After I put End of Days down, I literally could not think of reading anything that didn't have an insanely sexy angel as the male lead in it. Of course, no other angelic alpha came even close to being as perfect as Raffe, and none of them seem to have his wit and sense of humor, so I ended up rereading Angelfall and World After again. I'm pretty sure I've been ruined for most other alphas, especially those of the angelic persuasion.

Sometimes authors are able to make things such as insane age differences, animosity between species, etc, just melt away into the background. Some characters just connect on a level that the real world can't fathom. That's the connection I feel between Raffe and Penryn. Sometimes inexplicable. But in so many ways, it makes complete sense. It's as if their souls get each other on a very unique level. It's something so wonderful, even if you took out the tension, the romance, it would still be beautiful to read. It would still make you sigh with longing. Make you feel warm inside. And still make your chest hurt for their impossible situation. (I already went on about this in my World After review here.)

I will go down with this ship.

You guys, there are SOOOOOOOO many amazing moments in this book. Honestly, I want to tell you EVERYTHING. But that would spoil the amazing, beautiful, sigh-inducing, heart melting, difficult, painful, epic journey for you. And I would not do that to a fellow fan. 

This is one of those stories that will stay with you long after the last page is turned. A story you won't be able to help revisiting again and again. Not much comes close to making me feel the way it did, I can't tell you how many books I went through the week after I read End Of Days TRYING so hard to get into one of the stories, but it took a while. And now that release day is here, and I have to come to terms with the fact that THIS is it. I don't know what I'm going to do..... 

I'll miss Penryn and Raffe. And I'm still hoping Ms.Ee continues their story (kinda like I hoped J.K Rowling would continue the Harry Potter books even after the last one..) I would love to live in this world just a little bit longer, get more answers, find out more about what's been happening, and take a deeper look into the way things ended. But despite all that, it was a perfect ending, for a perfect story. And I could not love it more.

This Wench Rates It :

Thank you, Susan Ee for this amazing book, and thank you for giving me a chance to read the ARC! Thank you, Megan Beatie for getting these books to me and being such a great help!