Book Review: Battle Born by Amie Kaufman (Elementals #3)

 

The final book in the Elementals trilogy! Spoilers ahead!

Now with all three races --dragons-shifters, wolf-shifters and humans-- divided, it is up to the half-wolf, half-dragon twins Rayna and Anders to put a stop to the war and unite them for one and all.

I really expected to get some kind of reaction out of this book. I liked the first two a lot, but this last one just left me feeling...empty? I don't quite know why. I still like the characters fine, I like the setting and plot, but for some reason this last installment just didn't connect with me.

It's not bad, either. I just felt no connection to the story and characters anymore at this point. Maybe it's because it's been a long time since I read the first two books, but even then there was also a large gap between me reading book one and me reading book two, and I rated both four stars. This? It just didn't hold my attention despite me wanting it to. I've been meaning to get to the conclusion of this series for over a year now, and me just not vibing with the payoff is not what I expected.

I just have no real criticisms here. I didn't skim it either, I legit read all of it, but it just didn't connect with me the way the first two books did. I just consistently wanted to put the book down and wasn't engaged enough, despite what's going on in the book being interesting stuff and the pacing being good.

I guess my only criticism is how Lisabet is kinda shoved aside in this book, which I dislike because she's one of my favorite characters of the series. Also, if anything, her role should be big here. It's her mother that's been causing so much suffering throughout these books, but aside from Lisabet reacting when her mother dies her role is very much just a smaller one than in the first two books.

But to counter that with a positive: LGBT+ representation! Gay wolves! One of the rebel kids is non-binary. That's all good stuff and I'm here for it.

So I don't know what it is here. I'm just going to rate it three stars. Not bad, not amazing. It's a fine book. Just didn't vibe with it personally which is quite a shame after how much I liked books one and two.

Rating: 3/5