The Fate of the Tearling: (The Tearling Trilogy 3) (The Queen of the Tearling, #3)

by Erika Johansen

In less than a year, Kelsea Glynn has transformed from a gawky teenager into a powerful monarch.

As she has come into her own as the Queen of the Tearling, the headstrong, visionary leader has also transformed her realm. In her quest to end corruption and restore justice, she has made many enemies - including the evil Red Queen, her fiercest rival, who has set her armies against the Tear.

To protect her people from a devastating invasion, Kelsea did the unthinkable - she surrendered herself and her magical sapphires to her enemy, and named the Mace, the trusted head of her personal guards, Regent in her place. But the Mace will not rest until he and his men rescue their sovereign from her prison in Mortmesne.

Now the endgame begins and the fate of Queen Kelsea - and the Tearling itself - will finally be revealed . . .

• ISBN10: 0593073134
• ISBN13: 9780593073131
• Publish Date: 1 December 2016 (first published 1 November 2016)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 5 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Bantam Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 496
• Language: English

Reviews

[ross91]

This book was great but the ending is total BS. I hate when a book or a movie does this!!

Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.

• I have been dying to read The Fate of the Tearling since I finished reading the second book of this series.


• Book three changes yet again compared to book one and book two. You think you know what you're going to get and then when you read it you realise this book is not the same.

What I liked

• The ending. Why? Because it makes freaking sense. Also because it was shocking.


• We get to see more of the Mort Queen and she is one interesting character.


• The Fate of the Tearling draws you in and it's really hard to put this book down. I read it in a total of three days and that was reading every spare moment I had, I really just enjoyed this.


• Erika Johansen has this style of writing that pulls the reader in, I will definitely be reading other books by her. She's a really good author!

What I didn't like

• The ending. But I already said I liked the ending. Let me explain: I didn't like the ending because while it made sense to me it also broke my heart! I really wanted to know more about this new world Kelsea has woken up in.


• Kelsea sees the memories of another woman in this book, and it's not Lily. This made me sad because I had really enjoyed Lily's chapters in book two. However I didn't really like Katie's chapters, I didn't much like reading Katie.


• Some of the characters we got to know in the first and second book all of a sudden have a light shed on them and everything clicks into place. But it also changed the way I thought about this series as a whole, nothing was as it seemed and noone was who they seemed. The Fate of the Tearling was a good finish to the series but so very different than expected.

Have you read this book? What did you think of the series as a whole? Did this finish the way you expected?

Always,
Jordon

This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift

[sarahjay]

There will never be another trilogy I love like this one. I want to write Erika Johansen a novel-length, tear-stained letter about how much I adored every second of it, but I can't because I'm almost completely speechless. It was brutal and beautiful and perfect in the most unexpected ways. 5 billion stars.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

The Fate of the Tearling is a strong ending to this trilogy. Questions are answered, which is a big thing. And the ending, in my opinion, isn't quite happy. The Tearling trilogy has been a breath of fresh air in the genre, breaking many popular cliches and remaining very successful. I'm sad that my time with Kelsea has ended, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

(Detailed review posted on my blog.)

[Ashley]

I'm undecided on my rating.. leaning towards 3.5 stars.

Loooved the ending! All the POVs were really interesting too.

But I feel like my excitement for the series started to wane a little. I'm not even totally sure why. The CONCEPT was super, super interesting, but maybe I lost some of my love for the characters? Maybe I just stopped connecting with them? It was a great idea but I didn't feel as invested as I could have been.

Also, the book felt loooong and I'm not convinced it was all really necessary. There were a lot of parts where Kelsea was locked up, pondering the same things over and over, or time spent with characters I didn't feel were that useful.. My attention was lost for a bit and at times I was skimming rather than actively enjoying every second.

A quote from this review actually managed to say exactly what I mean in a few words:

"It's good, and has some really unique concepts that blew me away, but it is also long winded, has some plot holes. It never grew into anything that I would cherish, recommend, or want to reread in the future; it was just a passable fantasy series, with strong female representation that I appreciated."

Yesss that's exactly it! Although I did really enjoy the book, I think I was hoping it would grow into this HUGE EPIC THING I WOULD NEVER FORGET! ...but that didn't really happen. I enjoyed it, it gave me a lot to think about, but I'm not convinced it's going to stay with me forever. I never reached the level of epicness that I hoped it would.