I enjoyed this series more than Gallagher Girls, which is unusual, but I found the setting and world building to be very strong. This was probably the weakest of the three, secret princesses don't do it for me, and there was a whole explanation to dispose of the elder brother for much of the book that felt very forced and suggested the trilogy was not fully planned out in advance. Some lovely kissing scenes.

Grace may be the lost princess of Adria but she is not interested in a royal role...rather she just wants to keep herself, her brother and her friends alive. A thoroughly satisfying conclusion to the Embassy Row series.

DNF

I don't normally write reviews for books that I didn't finish, but this is one I probably will go back to at some point. It just felt like it went off on a tangent and was different to the rest of the series. Not in a bad way, but it wasn't what I was expecting or in the mood to read so if I forced it, my opinions would've been more negative than the book deserves.

I love this series by Ally Carter and found this to be a very satisfying conclusion.

A good enough ending for a series that started off very strong.
I left this book feeling severely underwhelmed, whilst I LOVED the first book and liked the second, I felt as though this book was too twisty. I did respect the portrayal of mental illness though, well in Grace anyway.

NOTE: this review containers spoilers for this book and the ending of the series.

It saddens me to say it, but I was disappointed with this book. I really enjoyed the previous instalments, and have always been a huge fan of Ally Carter, but I had a lot of problems with this book and unfortunately, there wasn’t enough good to outweigh the bad this time.

I’ll start with the things I did like; Grace’s friends, that wonderful bunch. They were so loyal to her, and so helpful. They were always willing to hear her out, to listen to her side of the story, no matter how crazy the situations got. Megan especially, and Rosie, I loved those two so much! I also really liked Grace’s grandfather and her brother, Jamie, and I was really glad they both managed to survive (it was shaky for a while there). I also really liked getting to find out more about Alexei’s mother, Karina, and what actually happened to her. It wasn’t what I was expecting, and I found her story very interesting.

Moving on to what I didn’t like, I think the biggest problem I had was the plot. I have to get into spoilers here, but I didn’t really understand why Grace and her brother couldn’t just renounce their rights to the throne publicly right at the start of the book, if that was what they wanted to do? They ended up doing that at the end anyway! The rest of it seemed so unnecessary and pointless. And I never understood how somehow, Grace always seemed more important than her brother (by the fact that there were always people chasing her and not him, despite the fact he was injured and an easy target!) when he was the heir to the throne, and she was only second in line? And don’t even get me started on this whole 63 heirs stuff that came up at the end – suddenly there were all these random descendants of Amelia? How on EARTH did they find them all, when there was supposed to be a secret society DEDICATED to concealing this information? Even the Society didn’t know where the other descendants were! Ann admitted it! And how did they find them all, contact them all and get them all to agree to renounce their rights to the throne so quickly? Plus, it’s so unlikely that they would ALL even want to – surely some person would be like, “Ooh I quite fancy being a royal!” And having all these heirs just diminished the entire story which was based on Grace being the heir of Amelia, and that’s why all these people were trying to kill her. Now it was just like, oh well, who cares, look how many people there are that could claim this title? Ugh.

Another thing that really bothered me was how Ann was dealt with. Why the hell did they think that was a good idea? Instead of prosecuting her through a democratic justice system (which Grace should have supported since she was giving up her right to the throne for these ideals), they made out she was Karina?! WTF? Karina had been wrongly imprisoned in a mental institution that wasn’t a mental institution but more of a torture facility for years. Instead of freeing her justly, letting her recover from her years of trauma, letting her live freely as her own person under her own identity, they instead forced Ann (who deserved to be in a real prison, because the people of Adria deserved to know their princess was a bloody murderer!) to take on Karina’s identity and be sent back to the facility. Well what the hell was going to happen to Karina then?! Did she have to live as someone else? How was that going to help her fragile state of mind? She was already suffering from what had happened, and now she had to pretend to be a different person? Who would actually buy the whole “Ann is Karina” story anyway, I mean, photographs exist, and they couldn’t possibly look that similar? One question and a DNA test is all it takes! And what did everyone think actually happened to Princess Ann? There’s only so long they could go with the “taken ill from grief” story. Would some eventually announce she had died? Or went missing? She would be remembered as a loving and caring princess instead of the murderer she actually was. I just didn’t agree with it at all.

Grace herself was also somehow even more dramatic than usual in this book, her narration just got on my nerves at times. And Alexei became a bit too controlling and annoying in this book, I lost any love I previously had for this romance, and that’s a damn shame because I really used to like these two.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book half as much as I wanted to. The endings to Ally Carter’s other series are far superior and I’m not quite sure why this book took this route.

This was a great final book for the Embassy Row Trilogy. It had everything I've come to expect from Ally Carter. It had adventure, mystery and surprising twists and turns. Except for Grace's self-sacrifice. Even though she hadn't completely given up, it felt so out of character for her. Grace fights, always, from the start to the end of her life she has always been a fighter, whether it's fighting to keep up with her older brother, or fighting for her life. The lull of her acceptance of her fate just didn't feel right for her character at all.

But the rest of the book was perfect. The ending felt completely right. With such a situation that seems so impossible to fix without bloodshed and destruction, it felt amazing that Carter managed to pull the perfect solution out of her hat, but she managed it and I really liked the way it turned out.

I've always preferred the Gallagher Girls to this series, but I think that any book by Ally Carter is well worth reading, she always knows how to tell a thrilling and addictive story.

If I'm honest, I'm a little underwhelmed by this one. I had high hopes, because it's Ally Carter and she always writes good last books, but this one just didn't quite have me as hooked as the others.

It felt like the plot was a little all over the place, much like Grace appeared to be (how she didn't get jetlagged absolutely defeats me). One moment, they're in America, then Paris, then Russia, and all of this happens in the span of a few pages each time. It exhausted me just reading about it.

Perhaps the main problem was that, in this one, unlike the previous books, I found myself having trouble suspending disbelief. I mean, after the second one, I knew Grace was a lost princess, but I didn't have to deal with that beyond the reveal at the end. This one, it got brought up every few pages, and that, combined with the fact this is all taking place in a made-up country, just got to me eventually. I know, I know, it's funny I can suspend disbelief enough for a spy school (and the various, slightly far-fetched shenanigans going on there) and a group of teens committing heists, and yet I get stuck here. Maybe it's just that there were some plot points in this one (like the whole thing with Alexei's mum in that hospital) that really needed some serious disbelief-suspending.

And the whole thing with the prince? It kind of, for a bit at least, looked like it could be heading for a love triangle, which, no thanks. But it thankfully didn't. And I guess you could argue it was necessary in a way, but it also didn't seem that necessary, especially when it came to the fact that it put pressure on Alexei and Grace's relationship. Didn't need that thanks.

I mean, I did overall like the book. I was just somewhat disappointed by it.

I loved opening (or more accurately clicking on) a new Ally Carter. I was nice to sink back into Ally's smooth writing style, a style which I have been reading for a number of years now. I just love her story style as well, with a relatable (in some ways at least) teenage girl who are also extraordinary in their individual way. Ally also has this great skill of blending action and suspense, with developing friendships and tantalizing hints of romance. Take the Key and Lock Her Up was another great Ally Carter book, following this signature story style, that I love.

This book picks up on Grace's story a short-time after the dramatic ending of book two with Grace, Jamie and Alexei now on the run for their lives. Within the first quarter of the book I could really feel the love and fear that the three of the of them had for each other, as they try their best to protect one another.

It took a while for Megan, Rosie and Noah to get dragged into the action, but one the 'gang' was back together it felt like a more life threating version of their adventures from the first few books. Although as I think about books one and two of the Embassy Row series, it is not hard to see how these characters have changed and grown-up.



There we moments when I began to question how Grace was going to survive the dangers coming her way from multiple directions. As I got nearer the end of the book I enjoyed the tense and heart racing moments as Grace digs ever deeper into her own family history, and uncovering some of Adria's best kept secrets.

Although I very much enjoyed this book, and love this series, there were a few things which I couldn't work out, and so I had to take away that 0.5 star. Firstly, Grace and Jamie's dad! I know that he was supposed to be a busy man but you would think with both of his children in life threatening danger he might have lent a hand? Maybe he was kept in the dark, if so why? Secondly, when Grace disappears to try and solve their issues peacefully, why does Jamie stay away? With his determined personality and love which he clearly holds for his sister why does he suddenly step back?

Despite these few things, I really enjoyed this series and look forward to Ally Carter's next project. She has definitely become an auto-buy author for me.