Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing a book review. This review is for Ascend, the third and final book in the Trylle trilogy by Amanda Hocking.
Because this is the last book in the series, there will be spoilers for all three books in this review. If you haven't read any of these books and you wish to, I wouldn't recommend reading this post.
Let's get into the review!
Ascend picks up not long after the conclusion of Torn, just after Tove's and Wendy's engagement. Wendy is preparing to fight her father, Oren, the king of the Vittra, another troll tribe who is an enemy to the Trylle.
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This final book was my favorite of the three. I like how the love triangle was resolved. I liked Finn, but he could never fully be himself around Wendy. It felt as if Mia came out of nowhere, but she seems like a good fit for him.
Finn and Wendy just couldn't be together. Between Trylle society, Finn's attitude, Wendy's status, and Finn's duty, it was never going to work.
Wendy needed someone who could meet her needs--someone who didn't have many duties. She needed to be with someone who wouldn't break her heart multiple times. She needed someone who could love and care for her without having to keep her relationship a secret.
I genuinely enjoyed reading the scenes with Wendy and Loki. During that scene toward the end when Oren kills Loki, I could feel Wendy's pain. Honestly, it was heartbreaking, mostly because it was so sudden and unexpected. Luckily, Sara was able to save him.
It was refreshing to read a book where one of the love interests doesn't choose love over duty. It was very interesting to see the opposite happen.
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One of the things I really like about Wendy is that she accepts responsibility when she makes a mistake, such as when she cheats on Tove with Loki while married to the former. She quickly admits that it wasn't the smartest decision she could've made, which I agree with.
It's very easy to find books (especially in YA) where the protagonist blames other people for their mistakes, never seemingly taking responsibility for anything.
I do like that Wendy doesn't act like that. Her character arc reveals growth and maturity. She still doesn't always make the best decisions, but she tries, and, to be honest, that's all most of us do anyway.
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One of my favorite things about this series is that while it takes place over the course of a few months and probably could be considered fairly unrealistic because of that, there is never a point where Wendy suddenly knows how to do everything. Even at the end where Wendy is fighting Oren, she admits that she's never really been able to control her power.
In a lot of books, you'll read about characters who suddenly find out their true lineage and they can seemingly control their abilities and know everything about it by the end of the book, without truly ever training.
By the end of this series, Wendy hasn't fully learned to control her power, not because she isn't trying, but because this takes place in a short timeframe and she's never been trained before.
It felt very realistic despite the timeframe being somewhat short as far as the romances go.
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I gave Ascend a 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. It was a nice conclusion to the series. Pretty much everything was wrapped up satisfactorily. It wasn't the best book in the world, nor was it the best series, but the resolution didn't leave me confused or annoyed.
The characters were enjoyable, and all of them grew and matured over the course of the three books. The book isn't without flaws, but no book is perfect. Sure, there are books that feel perfect to other people (mine is the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan), but those are objective.
The Trylle trilogy was an enjoyable YA paranormal romance that is very simplistic, but it's light and fun. It doesn't try too hard to be something it's not, and the story was pretty well-executed, especially considering the fact that the series was originally self-published. The writing wasn't perfect, nor was it the most amazing thing in the world, but it got the job done.
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