TW/CW: torture, animal harm, sexual assault (groping)
This was a really fantastic end to this romantic suspense series (here are my reviews of Book #1 and Book #2). I've said in both previous reviews that I don't generally read series but I'm glad I gave this one a chance. The main issue for me was the pacing which was a little off for me reading this book (but made a lot of sense when I was thinking back over the trilogy as a whole). This book really hits the ground running and there's a lot of really great tension, suspense, and mystery elements. As this is a romantic suspense series (and thus should not be a surprise to anyone), Lara and Finan are reunited and then the last 30%ish of the book is a lot of wrapping up and checking in with all the different characters and seeing how everyone is recovering after the events of the book. As a single reading experience, having this much wrap up at the end really felt like it messed with the balance of the book and the pacing dragged a little bit in comparison to the pretty non-stop pacing of the first 70% of the book. I really liked getting to see how all these characters we've grown to love finish up their individual stories but I did have the thought a few times of "wow, this is really a lot of wrap up/resolution for a book". All that being said, when I then think about that 30% of wrap up in comparison to the whole trilogy, then it does feel like a more appropriate proportion of the narrative is being spent in this phase. For example, in a stand alone romantic suspense book, we would only get a chapter or two (or maybe just the epilogue) of this resolution phase which would maybe only be 5%ish of the total book. Again, this might just come down to me not being used to reading series but this pacing quirk was the one thing that didn't quite feel great while I was reading.
I really enjoyed the characters and how much we got to see Lara's interactions with the other townsfolk. Lara's character growth over these three books is really fantastic and there's a stark difference between book 1 Lara and book 3 Lara and I think that difference and growth is really earned on her part. We really see her come into her own as a person finding her way in life and figuring out what is important to her. The trilogy takes place over about 4-5 months but there's a lot of plot stuffed into that time period. I really enjoyed seeing Lara's relationship with the other people on the island grow and change as well. I always like when the main characters in any book (but especially a romance) have a lot of interactions with side characters because it usually allows us to see different parts of their personalities. I think this choice also made Lara's character arc and growth feel more realistic because we can see her from different perspectives and interactions. The book is from Lara's POV so we quite literally don't see much of Finan for the majority of the book. Most romantic suspense books that I've read have the love interests paired up to fight together against the bad guy (which was the case with books 1 and 2 for the most part). However, having Finan out of the picture and having Lara team up with the rest of the island to bring him back really emphasized that Lara had grown to love this island and the residents there despite her initial reluctance way back in the beginning of book 1.
Gordon does a fantastic job with the suspense elements in all three books but I think her efforts really came though in this final installment. I mentioned in my book 2 review that I felt like a lot of that book was rehashing the events/information we saw in book 1 and I was a little worried we'd get that same issue with book 3. However, we really jumped feet first into the situation and drama of trying to find Finan as well as figure out how all these different secrets are involved in this situation. I was really pleased with the twists the mystery/investigation took and how Gordon was able to pull in so many different seemingly unrelated aspects and weave them all together. I was a little worried at one point that some plot threads would be sort of 'hand-waved' away because they seemed so big and introduced relatively late in the story but I ended up being entirely satisfied with how everything wrapped up. There was a really good balance of the high-tension suspense elements with some quieter moments especially between Lara, Harmony, and Humboldt that I think worked really well to give the reader a bit of space to breathe before the next plot point gets dropped.
Despite my earlier explained issues with the pacing of the ending, I thought the resolution for the series was perfect. I think, overall, it was a good choice to have such a long resolution section that also allowed us more time to get back into the 'romance' side of this romantic suspense story. I especially loved how we got to see not only Lara and Finan's romance resolution but also relationships and friendships of all types across the other characters. I 100% cried at the ending which if that isn't a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is. We also got some answers to questions I didn't even know I had so those were fun surprises to get. I think the ending also did a good job balancing the realities of going through these events with the fluffy romance elements and ending we all expect. For example, Finan does have some moments of PTSD-type reactions (although he isn't specifically diagnosed in the book) and some of the secrets do shatter the illusion that Lara had about certain people in her life. That being said, the ending is overwhelmingly lovely and heartwarming.
Overall, this was a really strong ending to a great series. Books 1 and 2 do end on cliffhangers, but now that the trilogy is finished, you can just read straight through! I think it can sometimes be hard to get the balance right with romantic suspense books but Gordon does a great job at developing both sides well.
Thanks to BookSirens and the author for the ARC - I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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