And so it ends. With a bang and with a whimper.

On one hand, the stakes (heh (yes, I know I just did that joke)) couldn’t be higher. The Heir is coming. All the threads and mysteries of 15 books (that haven’t otherwise been killed already) are coming back to rear their ugly heads.

On the other hand, it doesn’t quite land? You have literal angels and demons, but they’re in far less of the book than would have made an impact. You have the big bad evil skinwalkers hinted at from the very beginning, but no real direct interactions with them. And you have vampire politics… but the Heir was never as interesting as the Sons of Judas.

On the other other hand (I know), as a final book in the series, it does work. You get a decent bit of closure for most the main characters (that have survived thus far). The world has changed, almost certainly for the better–and if not, certainly the more interesting. And Jane finally seems happy.

Was the series worth the read? Absolutely.

Would I have preferred that the series went a different direction about when the whole ‘Dark Queen’ idea was introduced? Probably.

Was the whole deal with time fascinating… and then ultimately less used than it could have been. Yup.

Overall, worth the read but I’m also ready to move on to other things.

Onward!