The third book in an exciting fantasy trilogy. Rebellions need rebels, but rebels don’t always see things the same way. Sylah, Hassa, Anoor and Jond have all come a long way. Now on they forge their own separate paths. Mis-truths and lies continue to be thrown at them, making them doubt each other and themselves as the fight a war to bring the Warden’s Empire to its knees. In this story all routes lead to The Ending Fire. Will the friendship and love that started this epic adventure be enough to survive it.? Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

2024 had and has so many amazing releases that I've been eagerly anticipating, but The Ending Fire was undoubtedly number one.
Even before this, I knew this series would be a forever favorite, and I had a feeling that this had a very good chance of taking the crown as my favorite read of the year. There might be four months left this year, but I really don't think anything can dethrone this.

The Final Strife blew me away and I could not believe this was a debut novel. It is undoubtedly one of my favorite books with trials, and I just immediately fell in love with absolutely everything.
The Battle Drum was even better, I loved the expansion of the world and seeing all these new places and characters.
And The Ending Fire really was the culmination of everything that made this series so brilliant.

The writing is fantastic, just as the first two books of course. I especially love the epigraphs and the interludes at the beginning of each part, it's so good.
The characters have so much depth and complexity. Some I absolutely love despite or maybe because of their flaws, and the villains I still can't help but feel for because we got to know their side of the story so well.
The world is one of the best I've ever read about. I also really love the progression of the magic; I really cannot recall another series that had such a transformation when it comes to the magic.
The story progression was fantastic too, the pacing was so well done. Usually the emotional part of me doesn't love when characters are separated for too long, but here everyone had such distinct story arcs that I didn't even mind, and it made me look forward to their reunions even more.

Truly, everything about this was fantastic and I am very sad that this series has come to an end, but now I can undoubtedly say that this is one of my top 3 series of all time and I still cannot believe this was a debut series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I set the bar for this books so high after how epic The Battle Drum was.

One of the biggest surprises for me with this book was how I completely fell in love with Jond. His character development was phenomenal and the romantic tension was perfection. Also, Rascal. Be still my beating heart. We love a cat sidekick and that softening of Jond over Rascal was so sweet.

One of El-Arifi’s biggest strengths is her world building. I am in awe of how she is able to fully flesh out such a unique world with so many different cultures without insane info-dumping.

I was stressed out my mind reading the final battle scene! I loved the addition of all the different POVs. I often struggle with extended battle scenes and this was an excellent way of giving full scope to the battle, whilst maintaining the tension, and keeping the reader completely engaged.

I loved Hassa throughout this book, as always. I really enjoyed getting to know her more and, without spoiling the book, to see her history. I do wish that the big reveal for her arc wasn’t spoiled with such an obvious clue just a short while before in the book. One of the reasons I loved The Battle Drum so much was because of how masterful El-Arifi was at weaving in foreshadowing and building up to massive plot twists. I don’t want to know the reveal before the character pieces it together. I want to be with them in the moment they find out! I was very conscious of this happening as it was one of the major differences between this series and Faebound, where everything seemed to be spelled out and there were no reveals.

My only real critique of this book is that it should have been longer. I feel like there were some missed opportunities where I wanted to know more about the other lands. I also really think Anoor’s storyline would have benefitted from having more time spent on it as her ‘switches’ felt quite abrupt. I felt like I had to fill in the gaps a little on my own with how what she went through led her to where it did and back again - all the major points were there but it missed a little nuance and, therefor, believability. I also felt a little cheated with her and Sylah’s ending. I wanted a little more ‘ever after’ with them. I feel like I can picture the life that Jond and Hassa went on to live but Anoor and Hassa could be in Kabut’s realm, for all I know.

Overall, I did really love this book. It was a good ending to a great trilogy. Hopefully, the lack of conclusion for Anoor and Sylah just means that we will get more from this world and characters in the future.

This was such a massive miss for me. I found every single story beat to be either contrived, predictable, or just plain annoying. I don't even have the words to express how disappointed I am in this conclusion. If this was earlier in the series, or a standalone, I would have DNF'd it, but after the time and money investment I had put in to get to this point, I wanted to know what happened. A project possibly too big and ambitious to manage for a first trilogy, all I can say is that my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined lol. Nothing but love to the author, still think there is great promise for future works, but yeah, just a shame for me this time.

A strong 3.5 stars for this solid finale to this series!

One of my favourite things about this series is the recaps at the start of each book - normalize this, please! And the recaps in the Ending Fire trilogy are very cool, done in a very relevant and fitting way for the series, so that just adds to it.

Anyway, the story itself picks up right where we left Sylah, Anoor, Hassa, and Jond (if we must), and we're thrown right back into it. "It" being more preparing for war and more moving the pieces around the board.

One of the strengths of this series has always been its mythology and worldbuilding, and that does not change in this book. You can tell the author put a lot of thought into the world itself, and I loved seeing the different societies and countries.

The other strength has been in its characters, which is also where I started to get a bit letdown while reading book two, The Battle Drum. My basic thoughts were the same from that book to this one: do we really need more Jond?, Sylah and Anoor are each much less annoying when they're together, and Hassa is perfect, no notes.

I did appreciate Jond's POV chapters in this if only because he was in a different part of the world for so much of the book, and so his POV lent itself to exploring other characters and political factions, which was very much appreciated! However, his POV also lent itself to Jond being horny in literally every POV chapter, which was much less appreciated. Kara is great so I'm glad we got more time with her, but good lord, I am not exaggerating when I say every Jond chapter had him longing after a woman (mainly Kara) and/or being horny. And I just . . . don't care that much about Jond? Look, I'm a Scorpio, I hold grudges, or something like that.

Sylah is a character that I find fascinating, perhaps more in theory than in execution at times. Mainly in the latter two books, where so much of her motivation became simply Anoor (she even admits this! Multiple times!) and so much of her chapters was taken up by longing for Anoor. When you get out of the almost-all-encompassing part of her head, she remains a pretty fascinating character! I love that she's tough and raised to be such, but still raw and still makes mistakes.

Anoor was a challenging character for me in this book. I like that she's so different than the other characters, and that all the POV characters have very distinct personalities and voices. One of the main ways Anoor was different than others in this book was her naivety. Which isn't a bad thing, and in fact, is a fascinating part to a character in her position, but she was perhaps too much, to the point of being exasperating. (Once again, any of my annoyances about either Sylah or Anoor went down tenfold whenever they are actually together and not just spending 80% of their chapters longing for one another.)

Hassa remains an amazing character. Nothing I could say would do justice to her, and would just be me endlessly gushing. What a star.

I found the last quarter of the book both the best and the worst section of it. It was the actual battle and it expanded the POVs to many secondary characters, giving glimpses into other parts of the war where our four leads were not. Which was very cool! I enjoyed seeing those parts! But also kind of upset the pacing and emotional beats a bit? So I'm torn.

Overall, this series has been one that I struggled to truly connect with, especially with books two and three. I can never quite pinpoint why, as it has a lot going for it, but I've always found it a challenge to fully fall into this world and this story. There's a lot of good to be said for it (and I haven't mentioned the writing, which also falls squarely into that category), and if you liked the first two books of the series, this one should be a fairly solid bet for you as well.

Thank you to the publisher, Harper Voyager, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗲 • 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗿𝗮 𝗘𝗹-𝗔𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗶
★★★★★

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁
- Epic fantasy
- Sapphic romance
- Multi POV
- Revolution is coming

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
IT CONCLUDES. Revolution has arrived and lit the sky on fire. This series has burrowed so deeply in my heart that I couldn’t even fathom giving an installment less than five stars unless I was utterly disappointed. Spoiler: I wasn’t.

The Final Strife gave us a drug addicted chosen one, and The Ending Fire gives us a different drug addicted chosen one. I loved this almost poetic cycle, even if both the character arcs unravel completely differently. Circumstances shift like sand in this series and yet the characters are some of the most solid I’ve ever read.

This installment gave us a multi POV story that was flawlessly executed. The main voices were Hassa, our favourite Ghosting whose disadvantages make her the perfect person to bring down the kingdom. Anoor, resident royalty turned outlaw in a misguided attempt to please her grandmother. Jond, trained assassin with charm as strong as his swordplay. And Sylah, the thread that links them all together yet her role to play in this war was smaller than I thought.

Honestly, if El-Arifi ever wanted to write a companion novel, please give us more Hassa.

This book explores classism, drug addiction and extreme weather events. Although it didn’t have as many twists as the other two books in the series, this was expertly written, explosive, extremely immersive, and I’m excited for my copy to arrive to take its proud place on my shelves.

𝗤𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀
“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘴. 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨.”

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩. 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵—𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘶𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭, 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦. 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵.”

“𝘍𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢, 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳.”

A story about a world with discrimination against blood colour and religion. It is written in third person, but each chapter follows a different character which I personally think works well as each storyline interlinks to create a bigger picture.

I haven't read the first two stories so felt a little lost at the start and struggled to get into the story at the beginning as there as so many names and unusual terminology. However, I think it would have been easier to get into if I had read the first two books as the world building has already been done.

The glossary and the character list at the end I'm sure would be helpful to some people. I'm not the biggest fan of using them.

I liked that religion although a strong theme in the book wasn't too pushy and cringe worthy. Most likely as it portrayed different religions that is more like the real world.

The storyline once you've understood the characters and their roles and relationships is very interesting. I haven't read a book quite like it. It wasn't a complete shock story as things were a little predictable, but for a fantasy book, I don't mind that.

To concept of bloodwerk is new to me but I feel it has been written well, as it could have been much darker.

If I had read the first two books then my reading may have been higher; they have now been added to my TBR list!

I would definitely recommend reading this to anyone who enjoys dark fantasy novels, but to look at trigger warnings first.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

*Gracias a Netgalley y Harper Voyager por la copia adelantada de este libro*

Me apena mucho escribir esta reseña, ya que muches sabeís que "The Final Strife" y "The Battle Drum" son de mis libros favoritos y nunca me he cansado de recomendarlos. Sin embargo, "The Ending Fire" no ha cumplido las altas expectativas que tenía.

En comparación con las dos partes anteriores, he sentido que la trama era muy caótica y poco definida. Los personajes se pasan el 80% del libro dando vueltas y yendo de un sitio. Aunque todos tienen propósito claros (la guerra contra los Zaalam), en muchas ocasiones sus acciones no quedan claras y como lectora he sentido que la historia no avanzaba. La autora peca de exposición en la parte final de la trilogía y el ritmo es intermitente, por lo que la lectura se ve entorpecida.

En cuanto a los personajes, volvemos a re encontrarnos con Sylah, Anoor, Hassa y Jond, los cuatro puntos de vista que ya conocíamos. Aunque siempre he alabado la creación de personajes de la autora, en esta tercera parte quedan desdibujados y no nos enseñan nada nuevo. Todos los puntos de vista se mueven por la inercia y la cadencia de la propia historia sin aportar grandes revelaciones. Me duele especialmente con el personaje de Anoor, quien creo que durante las dos últimas partes de la trilogía ha estado perdida y escondida detrás de otros personajes. Su conflicto en este tercer libro, bastante dramático e interesante desde mi punto de vista), se resuelve en apenas cinco páginas, sin darle más importancia. Su arco dramático se detiene de manera abrupta y el personaje queda en un limbo del que la autora no sabe salir.

El último 20% del libro es especialmente confuso. La autora introduce puntos de vista nuevos y puntuales, intentando dar una visión extra de la batalla final, sin conseguirlo. Es en el final de la historia cuando más quieres saber de los protagonistas, sin embargo, son relevados a un segundo plano como meros espectadores.

A pesar del final agridulce para mí, considero que hay muchos detalles destacables en la trilogía y que está llena de representación (queer, disca, nb, trans, racial...), por lo que animo a la gente a leerla y a conocer a la autora.

3/5

What an ending for this trilogy!
The plot and pace were great and the new characters introduced were too… but what truly made it absolutely fantastic was the new depths our main characters reached and how they evolved to fit into the shoes destiny had designed for them.
While I wasn’t a big fan of the direction Anoor’s arc went in book 2 and the first 50% of this book, I totally get it was needed for her to achieve the ending she did.
I can honestly not recommend this book and this series enough, and I know it’ll be one of my top books of the year!

The Ending Fire started off with a little tale of what had gone before in the Battle Drum and I enjoyed the way this delivered.

We continue with our main characters and multiple points of view of Anoor, Sylah, Hassa and Jond. Saara El-Arifi has already made you care for these characters and there were many points where I was heart broken for each one and felt the emotional turmoil they were going through.

Anoor has ended up manipulated and on the wrong side of the war led by her grandmother. There were some parts of this that were very frustrating because although she has always been a bit naive, this was hard.

Sylah has fought her way back to Anoor to find she has gone and she now finds herself deciding if she goes in search for Anoor or stays to help fight the impending War.

Jond has found himself a home in Tenio and has become a teacher preparing for war. He spends time with Kara recruiting people to their cause to save as many people as possible. The miscommunication here had me throwing my iPad (not actually because it’s precious).

Hassa continues to develop her bloodwerk and fight for all the ghostings who have been silenced.

There is only so much that can be said without revealing anything and it is something you need to experience because it’s damn good. The battles, the creations, the god beasts, the side characters were done really well! This was a satisfying end to the series. To be honest I wished there was a bit more.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

So far I've read everything by Saara El-Arifi and she's yet to give me a 5 star read.
Such a great ending to a great story.
I loved the character, the unique magic system, the great world building.
Can't wait to read more from El-Arifi!!

After being disappointed by Faebound, I was cautious about this final instalment. There was no need. El-Arifi proved her skill through her beautiful writing and incredible, thoughtful world-building with complicated characters.

Home isn't the opposite of not belonging. It's choosing where you belong.

Anoor has been caught in the spider’s game, joining The Sandstorm’s Yona - Wife, grandmother. Anoor is prophesied to be the saviour of the Zalaam, to bring the Ending Fire. But the disciples, her new allies, aren't what they seem.

Sylah has returned, reuniting with Hassa who spreads the news that the Zalaam use bone marrow to shift the balance of the world and they are bringing war.
Even if the Zalaam don't kill them, the weather, made worse by Bloodwerk, eventually will.

Sylah’s mind is loveclouded. She cannot see beyond Anoor, much to Hassa’s chagrin who wants Sylah to see beyond one person and for the rebellion to succeed.
Sylah reverts back to her cruel self she was in book one. Similarly, we see Anoor changing, becoming disillusioned and losing her heart.

The pieces of her weren't the same: where they had once been as pliable as warm sand, they were now glass, fragile but sharp.

I was worried all the character development would unravel, but El-Arifi handles her arcs with such care, you can see the threads, temptations, and relationships linking from the first book to the finale.

Even till the end, my heart was in my throat.

I do wish this might have been four books long to spend more time learning the different parts of the world, their knowledge, culture, and lore.
This is clearly a compliment to El-Arifi’s world-building, being aware of so many different aspects which weren’t explored but were there.

I am wavering between three and four stars. ⭐️

This is one of my favourite series of all time and I am so happy to have read the finale! I can't believe it's actually over.

All of the extra world-building and expansion from book 2 came into play here as we follow our four main POVs as each try to prepare for the upcoming war in their own way.

This book is gripping, devastating, hopeful and humorous and I already want more from this world. The characters are flawed and realistic and I routed for all of them. There were definitely a lot of times where I just wanted to shout at one of the characters and shake sense into them but their actions made sense given their personality, history and the events in the book.

The final quarter or so of this FLEW by as everything built to a dramatic climax. I was hooked! I particularly loved how in this section we were given POVs from other characters too (my favourite being the cat) which was a really nice way of seeing what was going on elsewhere in the war in locations far away from our main characters.

I will never stop recommending this series to people! I find the world so fascinating and really hope we get more from this world in future, whether that be set in the future or the past, I'd be interested in either. There is so much scope for more books, this world and its history (and I'm sure future) are vast!

Thank you to Harper Collins and Netgalley for this eARC to review.

How did one singular book break every single sheet of my soul then repair it back together in about four chapters? I don’t know, ask the author of this bloody trilogy.

The perfect ending for the perfect trilogy, for once every book in it I rated five stars 🌟

Multi POV but easy to keep up with? Oh yes.

There’s even a POV from a cat, a bloody cat, it was amazing.

An epic battle and epic redemption arcs? High stakes and high fantasy? Yes yes yes


I cannot wait to own the physical copy when this book releases and I cannot wait to re read the trilogy and be broken and pieced together again. Reading this before release was truly wonderful to experience and I now envy every person who gets to read the magic of this trilogy for the first time

A great ending to this amazing trilogy. Book 1 will forever be a favourite fantasy. A fantastic build up to the final climax… such a fun read.

I've loved this entire series and this was a great conclusion. Honestly, after staying up most of the night finishing this I probably need time to digest it fully. However, it felt that the major threads were tied off. Anoor and Sylah's arcs were satisfying and the final battle which has been building for three books now was satisfying. Overall, I really enjoyed this and it's cemented the series as one of my favourites.

After eagerly awaiting the end to this trilogy for over a year (I was lucky enough to get an eARC of part 2 as well!) I'm sat here sort of dazed after the ending! A lot of the book was given to getting the POV characters back together so that an almighty battle could occur to overthrow the Zalaam and end the global problems such as floods, tidewinds etc that using bone marrow for powering magic had caused. Anoor went off with her grandmother at the end of book 2 as she was declared to be "The Child of Fire" - I love Anoor as a character but all throughout the series she has been shown to be incredibly naive and that doesn't stop in this book. Sylah has made her way back to the Warden's Empire after failing to defeat the Tannin and is feeling down in the dumps when she realises that Anoor has left to go off on a spiritual quest, this upsets Hassa who thought that Sylah should get on with the larger plan at hand of helping battle the people seeking to continue the history of segregation and servitude that has befallen people purely due to the colour of their blood. Jond is still hanging around with Kara and a cat he rescued (because sure, why not). So when the battle actually happens, down to it being largely essentially robot based the overall genre of the book seemed to flip - magic has been used for weapons throughout the series but now it's used en masse to have thousands of spider monsters wanting to trash the place and kill everything in sight as well as a SUPER ROBOT that will be powered by a sacrificial lamb. It was really strange to me that from something so historic fantasy feeling in the previous two parts that there was such a focus on these mechanical creations - I know they'd been introduced in book 2 but the scale of them was immense and what was the endgame for the Zalaam if they won? Just that they'd have cleared out all the non-believers and could just sit around praying to a God that really really enjoys sacrifices?! I did really enjoy the book, but did feel that section was quite jarring. I loved the extended POVs we got for the great battle, and I loved that there was a clear ending for all our main characters throughout the series.