Sunday 17 January 2016

BOOK REVIEW | Before the Dawn (#4)

Before the Dawn by Lindsey Fairleigh and Lindsey Pogue
#4 The Ending Series

Genre: New Adult Fiction/ Dystopian/Romance

My Rating: ★★★.5

Goodreads Page

Goodreads Summary:

THE FOURTH AND FINAL BOOK IN THE ENDING SERIES.

A year ago, the Virus killed off most people in the world.

A year ago, strange things started happening to those who survived. Some of them transformed into something dark and sinister, while others evolved, becoming something more, something beyond human.

A year ago, Dani and Zoe were lost. They traversed the country to find one another, losing some of the people dearest to them along the way. They fought for their right to simply live, uncovered long-buried secrets, and discovered irreversible truths. And after everything Dani and Zoe have been through—even with the battle wounds that they bear—they’re still not safe.

It’s time for the struggling to end, for survivors to take back their lives, their families, their safety. It’s time to really begin to live, and to do that, they must wait for the first rays of dawn.

*This book contains some adult content and language*


**This Review Contains Spoilers**

So after reading the first three books in the series this time last year, I was finally able to read the denouement this year. This final book was only published in Autumn last year so I didn't waste to much time before diving right back in to this series. I don't often have spoilers in my reviews but as this is the fourth and final book in the series, it's I'm afraid I'll be going into some details that are spoiler-filled. So again, if you didn't see the warning above, this review does contain some spoilers! If you haven't already read this book but are interested in this series then you can read my reviews for After the Ending (Book 1),  Into the Fire (Book 2),  or Out of the Ashes (Book 3); please click on the links to read them if you're interested!

I did enjoy this book quite a lot and I found the entire series to be addictive and fun reads. I did, however, have a couple of minor problems with this book, but I think a lot of that came from leaving a whole year between reading the third book and this one. There are a lot of characters in this book (and this is true of the whole series), which was quite confusing as I was trying to get back into the book. I could remember a lot of characters and it was so easy to get muddled as so many characters have similar names  (e.g. Anne/Annie, Jake/Jason, Daniel/Danielle). So this made it a little bit difficult to get back into.

I also found that this book really didn't add very much to the overall plot of the story and felt a little bit unnecessary. There isn't much we learn in this book that's different from the others, and the 'kidnapping' of two of the main characters just felt a bit like plot devices that didn't add much. I think that the main reason I lowered the star rating, however, was due to the slightly anti-climactic fight at the end of the book; it ended so quickly. The book started off very exciting but I just felt like it simmered out by the end of the book, and,  like I said in the previous review, all the main characters (and there's a lot of them) felt extremely safe. I never felt like there was any danger of any of them dying, and I was right. Only one main character died, and it was one we never get chance to get attached to. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the happy ending and was glad to see the characters all get together and work things out, but it just felt too easy considering what they'd had to face, and I never once felt any fear that a character could be in danger.

Anyway, despite these minor issues I had with the book I still really enjoyed the series overall. I think most of my issues with this book came from leaving it so long between books. It's definitely worth a read as it is something unique that I've never read before. The characters are interesting and funny, the plot and concept of character's powers is so fascinating to read about, and they are just books that are easy to fly through. I think I read this 400 page book in little over a day! And I definitely read the first three books in under a day each. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this series and this is definitely worth picking up if you enjoyed the others. (But I would recommend refreshing your memories of the previous books first if it's been a while!)

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