Review: Finale

Name: Finale
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publication: October 23, 2012
Resource: Purchased at Indigo's

Fates unfurl in the gripping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Hush, Hush saga.

Nora is more certain than ever that she is in love with Patch. Fallen angel or no, he is the one for her. Her heritage and destiny may mean they are fated to be enemies, but there is no turning her back on him. Now Nora and Patch must gather their strength to face one last, perilous trial. Old enemies return, new enemies are made, and a friend's ultimate betrayal threatens the peace Patch and Nora so desperately want. The battle lines are drawn—but which sides are they on? And in the end, are there some obstacles even love can't conquer?

                                          

Why did you do this Fitzpatrick, Why?
I ADORED the Hush, Hush series. It was one of the first series' I read that got me into the hardcore reading that I do now, and I'll always have a special place in my heart for this story. I WISH Fitzpatrick ended the series with Silence like she originally was. This book sucked big time.
Now, I'm not sure if it was because she got lazy while writing this book, or put all her amazing writing mojo into the other three books and didn't have much to offer this one... I don't know, but her writing was horrific in this one.
It's almost like she couldn't decide what to do with Patch and Nora. They'll be arguing, or talking about something, then Nora will suddenly go " OH PATCH!!" and throw herself at him, and then he'll say something cheesy. WTF FITZPATRICK? The first three books were written wonderfully. I mean, Patch and Nora have always been cheesy, but a cute kind of cheesy that makes your heart bubble, not something that makes your eyes roll indefinitely. There was almost NO romance between them, and I was expecting way more Patch-Nora time since it's the last book. Espcially since the book trailer showed some hot moments. Yeah, no. Don't be fooled. The book had NO romance what so ever. Other than the usual "OH I LOVE YOU." moments. ugh.
Shall I show you?
"Patch drew my head against his chest, gently kneading the muscles at the back of my neck that were clenched so tight I thought they'd snap. "Do you think I'm going to let them lay a single hand on you?" he said in that same soft voice.
"Oh Patch!" I flung my arms around his neck, tears warming my face. "What are we going to do?"

Ugh, seriously. That's disguising. I also find it unbelievably stupid the way Patch acts towards Nora. He wont let her do anything, they argue every to seconds then hug, because Nora needs his approval or else she can't sleep at night. I can't even express how flipppen' annoying their relationship was. compared to the first three which were unbelievably romantic and cute, this book is a huge disappointment.
Also, NOTHING is explained. literally nothing. I'm pretty sure when you spring a new concept on the reader in the last 60 pages of the book, you should at least explain how it came to be, and include some of the hints you would have supposed to have dropped throughout the story. Some proof would be cool too. You can't just say that "so and so" [ Keeping it Spoil-free] is nephilim , without having spilled some kind of hints throughout the three books that it'd turn out this way. even the tiniest of hints. Just stating the fact to the reader doesn't make it believable. It's almost like fitz got close to the end and thought "Meh... I'll make them a nephilim for the heck of it." NO. NOOOO. It doesn't make any flippin' sense!
Another thing that doesn't get explained, and sorry I will have to spoil it since there is no other way to speak about it.
 [[SPOILER START]]] How the heck does Nora cutting her Nephilim scar make patch feel again?! What the hell?! Sure they mixed their blood. but what does HER scar have to do with PATCH feeling? It doesn't even give the slightest explanation!!! all it says was that it was basco's gift, and now patch can feel all of her kisses. Wooptie-do, wanna share how this feat came to be? At this point I was fricken annoyed. [[SPOILER END]]

Another thing that Fitz messed up writing wise-- When one of your close friends die, you don't just get angry and think about revenge... you scream and cry. That's what you do. I actually found that most of the time emotions were missing from the characters voices. it's almost like they were robotic when they wanted to express any feelings. that ruined the story BIG TIME. If i can't feel it in my heart, and feel the loss myself... then the author didn't do a good job.
Also, can Fallen angels posses each other? Can Nephilim? I don't recall that being possible; only Fallens possesing Nephil and vice-versa. See, I shouldn't have all these questions at the end of a series. Also, since the series stresses so much that a person can feel when they're being possesed, how the heck did Patch possess Rixon, yet Rixon still thought that Patch was in hell? Wouldn't he have known? Patch & Nora's reunion lacked major emotion. I liked the ring part-- that was cute. But it was so rushed and .... pointless. ____ Just died. Your best friend is lost somewhere in this mess of killings... shouldn't you get to the bottom of that first. What the hell happened to Vee anyways? Did she fight? Where'd she hide? UGH, I can't believe Fitzpatrick did this. Ruined a perfectly crafted series with this crappy installment.
The ending was mind boggling. I HATE when authors do this to their final books. Ugh, it makes me so angry. No one wants to watch ANY character get married at the end of the book. It's not Nora, don't worry I didn't spoil anything, but someone does end up getting married and you're sitting there thinking... What the hell just happened here? I swear, that was the worst ending in the history of bad endings.
I did, however, like the plot. I really did. Not all of the things were executed badly. If only transitions between situations could have been done properly, I may have liked it a little more. There's more bad things to this book than good things, but I did still enjoy reading it. I wouldn't give it less than 3 stars even though it deserves it, just because I love this series so much. I think I'll pretend like the last book isn't a part of a series, and continue to speak highly of it and recommend it.
It was interesting to watch Nora take on a huge responsibility like the Nephilim army, and try to balance it with her love for Patch. I loved how Nora grew throughout the series. She's tough and doesn't let Patch control her (which got unbelievably annoying), and liked to take manners into her own  hand. She quickly got used to her Nephil powers and kicked some Fallen angel Butt. It was better than watching Patch have to save her from everything. If only Patch wouldn't have been that up tight, I would have loved to see them both fighting side by side. Fitz played it too safe.

Don't get discouraged from reading it. I've noticed a lot of people have liked it, all though I don't know why. It is worth the read... just not worth loving it as a final book. It was interesting to read another story about Patch & Nora, I was just extremely disappointed in how it was executed. There should NEVER be that any unanswered questions at the ending of a series. And this series basically runs on romance. There was virtually none.
*sigh* I guess I'll continue to sit here and mop about how Fitz ruined this series for me, and wonder what it would have been like if the last book was actually phenomenal like I was expecting.

What'd you think?