4.5 stars

Girls of Storms and Silence may have been a bit of a drag, but I'm so glad I stuck with this series! The final installment in the trilogy ties the story and themes together beautifully and is absolutely packed with amazing, action-filled scenes and overwhelming emotions.

Seeing Lei back at the castle, facing her abuser with all the strength and courage she has gathered along the way is so powerful to read about. The compassion and deep affection she shows for others despite what she has been put through in the past truly touched me. I have absolutely no complaints about the ending, all the setup that happened in book 2 flowed together to create a grand finale with a message that made my eyes water.

I understand that this story and its themes may be extremely triggering to some, me included, but there was something therapeutic about it for me personally, too. To find love despite your pain and take the necessary steps to begin the process of healing - I really enjoyed this.

I absolutely loved this book- it was a lovely end to a really engaging series that i'd been a big fan of for a while. I was very grateful for the lgbt representation and i felt extremely satisfied by the conclusion!

It is here. The final book in this over all wonderful series.

The tone of this book is much darker than that of the last one. Where the characters were the main focus of the previous book, here the plot is driven by war and vengeance. It is the final chance, the last chance, not only for the Paper Clans and their revolution, but also for our beloved characters, mainly Lei and Wren (although quite a few awesome side characters have their moments, too).

For the first time, we get chapter written in Wren's POV but compared to Lei, they are in third person, as if Ngan wanted to keep a distance between Wren and the reader. Fitting, if you ask me, because Wren isn't as open and trusting as Lei and always keeps a part of herself hidden from others. Thanks to Lei, and this is obvious in this book, Wren lets a few of the walls around herself fall.

This last book ist full of action, but doesn't shy away from adressing trauma and the ability of coping with said trauma. It shows us the price of war, the decision made which are sometimes terrible and cruel, the price you have to pay, the risks you take to survive and fight for what you believe in and what you love.

A good, entertaining and a bit heartwrenching conclusion to a series that will stay in my thoughts.

WOW😳

Amazing way to end this series!
The epic romance of Lei and Wren comes to a breathtaking conclusion in the explosive finale to the acclaimed
New York Times bestselling Girls of Paper and Fire series.It’s a fantastic series finale that emphasizes Ngan’s focus on healing, trauma, and agency.

Girls of Fate and Fury is about reclaiming ourselves and our choices. Of taking a stand in our own narrative – the labels we put onto ourselves and our stories.

Absolutely loved Girls of Fate and Fury. It’s a stunning finale to one of my favorite YA fantasy series ever.

This series is so beautiful and the writing is absolutely enchanting and lyrical and I love this style of writing. It took me a while to get through this one but it wasn't due to lack of enjoyment, it just took a beat.

I didn't like this one as much as the first but I enjoyed it more than the second and I think it was a lovely, fitting ending to the trilogy and closed it nicely. The characters are well-developed and multi-faceted and the world-building is extensive and immersive.

This was a pretty emotional read and had a lot of stakes but it was lovely. I really enjoyed this and thought it was a beautiful final book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I am so sad that this series is over but I loved it with all my heart. I loved being back in this amazing world with these loveable characters who have developed throughout so much. I've loved watching them grow and learn from their mistakes.

This book was the perfect send off, it was raw, emotional and dark but it needed to be. This book stands for so much and deals with so many topics that I honestly think everyone should pick this series up.

I cannot wait to read what Natasha Ngan comes out with next.

This series has been such a rollercoaster, emotionally. The first book I think I read in a single day, enamoured by the female-female romance and fun fantasy world of hybrid creatures. By the time the second book came around, YA fantasy exploded with both of those things and suddenly everyone else was doing it as good, if not better. So whether the second book was a flop for me because of that, or because it deserved to be, is up for debate. Which puts a world of pressure on this third book.

Here’s the thing: the issues I had with the last book, which were largely an inability to connect with the characters and a dragged out plot, were mostly better in this final novel. And actually these things were also replaced by the writing and grit that I’d loved in the first novel. But something remains to be missing.

The story resolved well though, despite the last section of the book feeling very dragged out, especially considering the conclusion was 60 odd pages before the close! So we are definitely closer to the joy I felt in the first book, but still dabbling in the disappointment of the second.

Mixed bag. 3 stars from me!

ARC provided from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was the perfect conclusion to a series that I adored since I picked up an ARC of Girls of Paper and Fire at YALC a few years ago.

Everything about it was fantastic, and I loved everything about it, including that we got to see both Lei and Wren's point of view. It was also great to see the other paper girls again and really see how they had fared since the beginning of the series.

This is definitely a series I will be keeping as a favourite, and I will definitely recommend it to everyone.

I absolutely loved this final book in what's been an incredible trilogy. This YA fantasy has sweeping world-building, memorable characters, a beautiful w|w relationship, and a gripping plot. I particularly appreciated the exploration of disability in this instalment and the various aspects it portrayed.

This sadly did not work for me! I’ve been a big fan of the series and have been highly anticipating this finale for the last two years. I unfortunately did not enjoy my reading experience with this book. I found the characters completely different to their earlier depictions, this was a lot of telling and not showing and I found it quite boring to be honest.

I've been sitting on writing my review of Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan for a while now. It's been difficult to know exactly what to write. This isn't the kind of book where I can just talk about plot, characters, pacing, etc. like I normally would (though obviously they're brilliant, as I knew they would be going on the previous two books in the trilogy, or I'd be writing a very different review). Because this trilogy is so much more than just a story to me. As a sexual assault survivour, it's very close to my heart, and I anticipated this third and final book eagerly, but for more than just seeing how things would turn out, but also for a kind of closure, I guess. Lei has been fighting the person who hurt her, which I was never able to do, and I was looking forward to her triumphing. And I wasn't disappointed.

Before I get too much into how emotional this book was for me, there are a few other things I should touch on. When I finished Girls of Storm and Shadow, I was absolutely livid with Wren. Enough time had gone by that I had forgotten mostly why I was so amad at her, but thankfully these things were briefly covered in the book. Girls of Fate and Fury is narrated by both Lei and Wren, which I think was a very clever move on Ngan's part. I didn't finish the book having forgiven Wren for the terrible things she had done, and in some cases, continued to do, but I understood her. She has been brought up by her asopted father her whole life for the very purpose of defeating the Demon King. Her father, Ketai, is quite cold and calculated - which we knew, considering he gave Wren up to being a paper girl knowing full well she would be raped by the King - but we actually see more of what this looks like. Wren believes this is her duty, and making her father proud is almost the only thing that matters to her. She's done what she knows her father would say needed to be done. There is a bigger picture here, and defeating the King is the goal, by any means necessary, whatever the cost. Ketai had a fanatical obsession, and he forged Wren into his weapon. A lot of the things Wren did still don't sit right with me, but I understand her more. I understand why she did those things, and how she could believe there was no other choice. Still, I really don't know how certain characters were able to be in the same room as her by the end of the book.

When Girls of Storm and Shadow had ended, Lei had been caught and was to be taken back to the Hidden Palace. Girls of Fate and Fury starts with her there. I have to say I was horrified at her being caught, and was dreading the things she might go through in this book. But Lei is not who she once was. There is a fire in her, a determination to do whatever damage she can, to get out, so save her friends. Time and again, she is put in impossible situation after impossible situation, where it would be so easy just to give in to despair. But she is not alone, and there are others to protect, and her strength sees her through. That's not to say she's not fearful, or that she isn't living constantly on edge, waiting for a blow that's sure to come. Or that it doesn't take more than you could imagine to be in the presence of the King. But there is a bigger picture. While she's there, whatever she can learn could be helpful for when she gets out - and she will get out, along with the other paper girls, because you can't let herself imagine any other possibility. She is on a mission, and despite how dire her situation is, she doesn't lose sight of what they're all fighting for, and it's what keeps her going. And I was in complete and utter awe of her the entire time.

Girls of Fate and Fury is a fast paced book, and a lot goes on. It's full of action, and strategising. Characters we love return, and charcters are lost. For those who are reading just for a high fantasy story, it ticks all the boxes as the tension builds to the climax. For me, it was also hugely emotional. Because while there is this bigger picture, it's also very personal. For Lei, for Wren, for the other paper girls. It's a fight for justice, and seeing that justice handed out. I honestly cannot find the words to describe how I felt reading those final chapters. There was triumph, and anger, and vicious joy, and relief, and a hollow emptiness, and, still, the loss. But then hope and joy and love. I got to live vicariously through Lei, but healing isn't necessarily over once there is justice. Lei is getting there, though, and I'm getting there, and these books have helped immeasurably.

I'm never going to be able to fully articulate what these books mean to me. Nor can I ever thank Natasha Ngan enough for these incredible books. They ahave, internally, changed my life, and I can't give any higher praise than that.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features ableism, starving, drugging, violence against women, discussion of rape and sexual assault, torture, and war.

The Girls of Paper and Fire trilogy is the empowering story of Lei and Wren. Who were taken as Paper Girls for the demon king but become the bane of his existence. If that doesn't spell kick ass girls I don't know what to tell you.

In this last installment our two girls have been separated, neither of them knowing if the other is still alive. Where in the previous two installments they gained a lot of strength from each other, now they are back on their own. And it causes a lot of self doubts. Especially for Wren who wonders if maybe she is a monster that doesn't deserve Lei.

Lei on the other hand has to deal with what happened previously when she was in the hidden palace. The trauma that the demon king and its inhabitants caused her have left its marks. And while I would rather she didn't have to relive some things I did think it was empowering to see for her as a character how much the Demon King feared the girl she had become. Because Lei kicks an insane amount of butt.

Another thing I was happy about was to see the other paper girls again. I'm glad that they weren't forgotten about in this finale because they all played their part in the first book and it wouldn't have been right to conclude this series without them.

More than that I don't want to share because it wouldn't be right to share too much of this conclusion. All in all this was a good conclusion to a strong empowering trilogy

Unfortunately after reading and DNFing the first book in this series I won't be able to provide a review for this book. I also didn't realise this was the third book when requesting.

Of the 3 books, that’s not my favorite. I thought that the first half of the book was too slow. Apart from that, the plot is good, and the character are still very good

It was so good to read the conclusion to Lei and Wren's story especially because we got Wren's point of view! The final book in the trilogy really impressed me with the way it handled the girls' trauma and their recoveries.. All of them from book one made appearances and dealt with their pain in different ways. It was particularly interesting to see Lei, Wren and Aoki as they all had different experiences with the King.

Overall the final book is a solid ending with lots of ends wrapped up. The ending itself is really beautiful and I couldn't imagine a better one.

This 3rd volume was awesome !
I read GOPAF in 2019 (loved it) but I’ve wait the end of 2021 fo GOSAS and I was… meh. I haven’t a lot of memories of the story and it was difficult to enjoy my reading. Even if after pages I remembered. It wasn’t as good as GOFAP so I was anxious about GOFAF. A good reading or a meh. And it was a super good reading !

This volume is intense, with a lot of drama, suspense, great scenes, action ! I really like the choices Natasha Ngan did about her caracters and their storylines. It was super interresting and iI had chills during a big part of the volume.

I’m really happy to have the possibility to read it and glad how this story finish.

A delicious ending to a series with a satisfying tie-up of all loose threads. The epilogue lasted a bit too long for my liking but I'm so happy with the overall roundup.

It was difficult to read in places due to the heavy topic but I also felt the topics were dealt with in a very respectful way and not over the top in either a good or bad way. Reading the author's note, in the end, explained this feeling I had of "this feels personal".

Loved this series a lot and it will stay with me for a long time :)

I have waited so long for this book and it didn't disappoint, the first book in the series was one of the first that I started reading when I first joined Netgalley and I loved it.

The series is overall fantastic with so much action but somehow comforting at the same time!

So, a content warning before anyone reads this review. The Girls trilogy deals with themes of sexual assault, trauma and PTSD, and so this review is also going to contain mentions of this. If these are your triggers, or if you are feeling a bit fragile, please be kind to yourself and give it a miss.
I won’t go into too much detail in regards to the mentions of sexual assault. It happens mostly off page, and is not excessive or gratuitous in any way. Ngan has written about why it was important to her to include these themes, and several people way smarter and more articulate than me have written in detail about why it can actually be part of the healing process for readers to be able to recognise their own experiences. Representation of people who are have experienced trauma and are healing is important, as well as representation of those are still experiencing the effects of it. It is okay to not be okay, and I have a lot of respect for authors like Ngan who are able to write delicately and intelligently about the subject.
However, actual book review! As the final book in the series, I am sort of reviewing the whole thing in one. Spoilers are everywhere, so don’t read it unless you’re ready. Two young women in a highly stratified, magical, Asian inspired fantasy world are forced into concubinage. Against all the rules, they fall in love and conspire to take down not only the brutal emperor who thinks that he can own them, but the whole social and political structure as well. Within this world there are three distinct physical castes. There are pure humans, the lowest and least powerful. There are pure Demons, who have animal-like characteristics and are bigger and more physically powerful than humans. There are also mixed-blood hybrids who have some animal features, but not all. Quite obviously, the Demons see themselves as superior and god-chosen, and having the power of flight, or six inch razor sharp claws would seem to back them up.
In book one a young woman named Lei is taken forcibly from her father’s shop by a soldier wanting to curry favour with the Emperor, Her unique golden eyes are seen as a sign from the gods, and even though the Bull Demon Emperor normally only takes eight human concubines at a time, he makes an exception. Unfortunately. Some of the girls are willing, but, well, Lei isn’t the only one who doesn’t want to be there. The “paper girls” are groomed, trained, and pretty much brain washed while waiting to be summoned by the emperor. During this time Lei gets to know Wren, a beautiful girl with secrets and the two of them become lovers. Wren has been trained in martial arts and magic since she was a child, and has sent by her father to infiltrate the Hidden Palace, and to assassinate the emperor. Both girls are brutalised during their time there, and it leads to Lin agreeing to help Wren with her plan. Conspiracies, and chaos, and mishaps later, Lei ends up stabbing the emperor and she and Wren escape thinking that they have succeeded in killing him. Oops, wrong! He’s is alive and hell-bent on revenge.
Book two is harder to read in a way. There are no further assaults, but both girls are dealing with their trauma. They are free from the palace, in love, and working for the rebellion, but they are also struggling with what all of that means, and who they are outside of the extreme situation in which they met. They are also struggling with the morality of what they are being asked to do. And with Wren’s super-hot, Big Cat demon ex—girlfriend… Arguments, misunderstandings, and betrayals all come between the girls, and in the end, Lei is recaptured and taken back to the emperor in chains. Gigantic cliff-hanger alert!
Time for the Fate, and for the Fury! Newly captured and terrified, Lei is reinstated in the Palace. Although she expects nothing but torture and further trauma, the myth of the god chosen girl with golden eyes has reached every part of the empire, and the emperor decides to turn it to his favour by making it seem as though Lei has chosen to return to him and to the Hidden Palace. Desperately scared, Wren tries to balance her need to free lei with her responsibility towards her father and the rebellion. It will take Wren learning who she truly is, and what she is willing to sacrifice to bring her back to Lei. And it will take Lei learning what she is not willing to sacrifice, and what she will fight to the end for.
This is not a series that is always easy to read. The triggers and the trauma are a part of it, and anyone who is just hoping for a good sapphic fantasy may have a little trouble. However, I have a lot of respect for what Natasha Ngan has done. She has written the books that she needed to read when she was younger, and there are many readers for whom this series will be healing. When we say representation matters, this kind of representation is important. And while it’s not a five out of five throw this at everybody for me, it’s definitely one that I will put into the hands of the right readers.

Such a great final instalment it had me on the edge of my seat. I cannot wait to see where this author goes in the future with the rest of her works!!