Book Review: Beasts of War by Ayana Gray (Beasts of Prey #3)

Time for the final book in the series, and the book that made me want to start reading it in the first place! Spoilers ahead.

Now freed from Fedu's clutches but with his threat far from over, Koffi, Ekon and their friends set out on a quest to unite the gods against their evil brother in hopes of defeating him. Will they be able to before it is too late?

Overall a solid conclusion to this series. I do have a few more gripes with this one than the last two books, but I still consider it good with well-written characters, creative world-building and a plot with real stakes.

The first thing I wasn't too into was the convenience of some things, from the gods showing up precisely when they need to, to Akande turning out to being the key to getting rid of Koffi's overcharged splendor. It's all fine and all, but at the same time some things just feel a bit too convenient, like they have only three weeks (roughly) time to find all the gods and not only does this work but they also manage to convince them all to join in against Fedu. Even one of the goddesses who doesn't agree to help unless they fetch her a certain bracelet shows up at the end to help them despite the bracelet-quest failing. 

I also wasn't too into the love triangle between Koffi, Ekon and Safiyah, since I think Koffi and Ekon don't have a lot of chemistry in this book nor to they have a lot of scenes to themselves, they're mostly surrounded by their friends so we don't get a lot of time to build their relationship up. They are just together by the epilogue which is sweet, but more buildup and chemistry would've been nice. Also Safiyah isn't even mentioned in the epilogue so did the author just forget about her or what? Some conclusion to her relationship with Ekon would've been nice, even if not romantic.

Finally I think the climax was over a bit fast. There was a lot of buildup to it, of course, but it felt a bit rushed and was over in the blink of an eye before I really processed what had even happened. Not terribly rushed, I have definitely read more split-second climaxes before, but it still felt a bit fast for all this buildup we have so far. 

That said, I do like this book. Like said before it has good aspects. I also enjoyed Akande's flashback chapters, the lionesses and of course the many fantastical creatures and concepts we come across on this journey. The epilogue was also rather sweet, even if there could've been more buildup for the relationship between our two leads.

Rating: 3.5/5