I thought this was a satisfying ending to the trilogy. After a bit of a slow start, the last quarter or so was brutal, but excellent. I thought things came together really well in the end. It's important for me that books about empire are critical of those power structures. It's a tough balance to strike when one of the main characters is the literal queen, but I was happy with how that tension was resolved here.

Some of the things I found frustrating in the previous books persisted here - Touraine's motivations and loyalties were unclear to me (and, arguably, to her) for most of the book. I also really wanted more forward momentum the the development of both Luca and Touraine's relationship and their individual characters. Also, I'm always here for a non-monogamy storyline rather than a love triangle, but with that as with so much of Luca and Touraine's relationship, I was desperate for them to communicate more and better.

I liked the evolution of the storyline following the Fingers and Fili, although I felt like the racism and xenophobia of the movement got dropped at some point and was never explored again. I assume the reasoning is the change in leadership, but that's never made explicit, and I don't think that would be an adequate explanation for a systemic problem anyway.

I listened to the audiobooks of the first two, and I missed that here. I really liked this series in general, but I think the audiobook performance elevated my experience of the first two books. Still, this is a great series and I'll be reading whatever CL Clark writes in the future.

One of the most satisfying finales to a trilogy I have read.

The character arcs from book one to here was spectacular. My complaint in both the first books were about my disappointment about consistent development compared to my expectations from other reviews. This book brought it together in a spectacularly brutal finish.

<b>Touraine didn’t need to break herself to fit, ignoring the ways it cut into her flesh. She was changing it, not by erasing herself but by staying, by making them reckon with her presence. With what it said of their shared history and what shapes their shared future could take.</b>

This book was a three stars like the other two for me, until after the 70% which then brought all these moments and realisations together in a beautiful, devastating way.

Every single character in this series wants to prove something. This dictates their own ambitions. Every single one realises they are a pawn and a player and a master.

Even Pruett, who I have said I disliked following her pov, had such a compelling arc. Pruett could have easily been the hero of this series in another narrative.

<b>”Even ticks can be burned out.”
He smiled knowingly. “A tick can burrow so deep within a deer that it never comes out.”
“Aye, true enough. But the ticks that bury themselves so deep? They die there. The deer may die. It may not.”
</b>
We get a threesome for the ages (one of my complaints was the sudden horniness and steaminess compared to previous instalments, but I think this was a personal ‘Oh’ rather than anything else).

Oh, and we can’t forget the cannibalism.

Physical arc gifted by Orbit.

I can't believe that they went with that scene for the cover and that multiple people presumably signed off on that.

The Sovereign is a satisfying conclusion to the very strong Magic of the Lost trilogy - but putting it that way does a great injustice to pretty much everything that it takes to get to that conclusion. This has never been a series that is interested in giving its characters an easy time, or even doing things like making its characters "likeable" (an overrated trait). This is a series that likes to put its often-toxic characters through the wringer and also put your heart through the wringer while it's at it.

(I cried during two out of the three books.)

(The Sovereign is one of them.)

Are Luca and Touraine good people? Are they good for each other? Who cares! They are flawed and compelling as hell. Which is true of all of the characters in this series, except maybe Sabine, whom one could argue is flawless.

I do think the characters are the emotional backbone of this series and the driving force, but all the same, this is not a quiet, reflective, character-driven story. It is very much about politics and war, and it's just as messy as its characters.

I'm going to miss this series, but I'm glad its characters can finally rest, one way or another - they deserve it.

Thank you to the publisher, Orbit, and to NetGalley for the ARC.