Promised: The Birthmarked Trilogy (Birthmarked Trilogy (Hardcover), #3) (Birthmarked Trilogy, #3)

by Caragh M O'Brien

Gaia succeeds in leading her people to Wharfton and the Enclave, but rebellion there threatens them all just when everything they have dreamed of seems to be at hand.

• ISBN10: 1596435712
• ISBN13: 9781596435711
• Publish Date: 2 October 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 9 August 2023
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Roaring Brook Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/01/promised-by-caragh-m-obrien.html
The Birthmarked series is one of the more entertaining dystopian series, where the heroine isn't perfect, super tough, highly intelligent, or can rely on supernatural intervention. Gaia Stone is an average girl who is simply a victim of circumstance. She's scarred down one side of her face from a small child, which ensured the enclave didn't take her from her family, so she was allowed to grow up in a loving and stable environment, until her parents were taken.

Like any ending, Promised is not without it's tragedies. The finale felt a little anticlimactic, but ended on a beautiful note.

[reveriesociety_]

I loved this book. Honestly, it had the perfect amount of thoughts, dialogue and actions. Enough to move the plot forward, with briliant not over-flowerly descriptions. A nice close to the series I thoroughly enjoyed.

[nannah]

Ugh, this review hurts to write.

I adored Birthmarked and Prized. I loved the world O'Brien set up and the characters she introduced and the stories and romance she spun, but Promised just fell flat for me. It broke my heart. The lovely characterization, especially with Gaia and Leon, just didn't seem fully-fleshed out in this last installment. It seemed like they weren't given the same care as the first two books.

I think what bothers me the most is the plot. Nowadays, it's like every third book is a war or a major conflict that really isn't a plot at all. Things happen, but there's no real drive, it's just subplots going on to stir up drama for the sake of it, to fuel on this war that undoubtedly happens, because like I said, it's the third book. Heaven forbid the third book ends peacefully or in away that doesn't involve massive bloodshed or violence or bombs or guns or . . ., etc. Maybe this is just my opinion, but I'm so sick of it. I thought there was real potential for a beautiful, hopeful ending here, but nope, things just had to get worse, and I never really understood why. Why did things just have to fail? Every idea--BAM. A failure. Everything had to go wrong. I can't really think of an idea Gaia had that actually went right in this book! That's so frustrating for a reader to have to deal with!

I don't know. The love square, what was left of it, was pretty darn unbearable here, especially because I thought it'd been over and done with. It just left a day-old taste in my mouth. I really wanted to love this, and I was disappointed.