Jonah by Nikki Kelly – Review

Jonah by Nikki Kelly
Series: The Styclar Saga #3
Also in this series: Lailah
Published by Feiwel & Friends on 2/7/17
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy
Pages: 352
Source: NetGalley, Blog Tour
My content rating: YA (Characters have sex, but it's not described; Some violence)
My rating:

The conclusion of the Styclar Saga trilogy focuses on Jonah, the vampire badboy with a hunger for Lailah and a rivalry with the angel Gabriel.
Jonah is the vampire who saved Lailah from the appetites of even darker evil: the vampire Purebloods. Now he must decide whether he will give up his existence so that Lailah will survive—even if it means that she will spend eternity with his friend and rival, the angel Gabriel.

This stunning conclusion to the Styclar Saga will have fans deciding once and for all: Team Jonah or Team Gabriel?

It’s been a long wait for the final installment in the Styclar Saga, so Kelly made sure that we had an epic ending to the series. We got answers to all of the questions that remained about the three dimensions and then some.

What Fed My Addiction:

• Boy troubles resolved. In this book, Lailah didn’t do any waffling between Jonah and Gabriel. She knew exactly who she wanted and why. That didn’t mean that the road to romance between her and Jonah was smooth, though—Lailah had determined that she wasn’t going to survive the fight with the Purebloods, so she didn’t feel that she could give herself to Jonah completely. And then there was the fact that Gabriel didn’t remember that Lailah had already let him down gently (since she had turned back time in the last book). The romance between Jonah and Lailah was probably my favorite part of this final book.
• The worldbuilding. This series has such elaborate worldbuilding. Lailah visits both the first and third dimensions in this book, so we get amazing descriptions of both of them. I loved all the parallels between the dimensions and religion—Is there a God? (We get the answer.) Are the Angels and the Purebloods who the humans think they are? Are they all wrong, or are there elements of what they believe that makes sense? Is Lailah a Savior? The world that Kelly created is complex, and I could spend days just analyzing it.
• Epic battles. Of course, the showdowns between Laila and the Purebloods in the end was intense, but there were also other conflicts leading up to that one that made my heart race. When Lailah returns to the second dimension (the “regular” one), she discovers that much has changed. It’s a much more dangerous place and the stakes have risen ever higher!

What Left Me Hungry for More:

• Took me time to connect. Unfortunately, since it’s been so long since the first two books, it took me a little time to remember what was happening and to connect to these characters again. I kind of wish I’d had time to do a reread of the first two books before I’d read this one.
• The scientific details went over my head. Though I loved the worldbuilding, the sheer amount of it in this book added to issue #1. I found myself puzzling over some of the scientific details we learn about the three dimensions and how they work. Sometimes I found myself tuning out a bit during these sections of the book (especially in the middle).

I didn’t put the ending into the Love It or Hate It categories because I kind of felt both. My gut reaction was something along the lines of, “What?!” I sort of hated it. But, then again, I sort of loved it too—and, more importantly, I think it was fitting for the story. Maybe. Probably. (As you can see, I’m still a bit conflicted.)

In the end, I felt that this was a strong conclusion to the series, but I didn’t connect quite as well as I wanted to, so I ended up giving it 3.5/5 stars.

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley and The Irish Banana Review in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

About the Author

I was born and raised only minutes away from the chocolately scent of Cadbury World in Birmingham, England. So it will probably come as no surprise that when I’m not dreaming in Vampires & Angels, I dream in chocolate! For the past ten years I have lived in West London with my hubby and two dogs, Alfie – the Pug & Goose – the Chihuahua.
LAILAH is my debut novel, and first launched in serial form to wattpad, a readers & writers community. Within just 6months, LAILAH had over a million reads and thousands of comments and votes.

Since then, The Styclar Saga has gone on to pick up a traditional deal with Feiwel & Friends, and LAILAH, the first book in the series was released on October 7th 2014.

These days I spend my time balancing my amazing job of writing fantasy fiction, with my other, very important role of Chocolate Connoisseur. I like to multitask and do the two together. It makes me happy.

 

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