The Sweet Far Thing has been sitting on my bookshelf since the last week of December. I’ve been putting off picking it up for that long, but couldn’t wait any longer. Because, while I have been waiting for this book for what seems like an eternity, I didn’t want the trilogy to come to an end! This is the series that got me back into reading YA, so it seems like such a shame that it’s finished now.

I don’t want to say too much about what this book is about for those who haven’t read the first two in the trilogy, but basically Gemma Doyle is a teen attending a boarding school in Victorian England. She and her friends found a way into the Realms in the first book, and in this book, all the magic of the Realms is contained within her. Some of the evil creatures in the Realms are starting to find their way into our world, and there are many people and groups who want part, or all, of Gemma’s magic. Gemma and her friends have to try to make things right in the Realms again, while still preparing for their debuts into society.

Overall, this was so much more intense than I had expected. It’s been such a long time since I read the first two in the trilogy, so perhaps I’ve forgotten how intense they were. It was darker than I had expected, but in the end was filled with so much hope. I love series and books that end like that – bad stuff has happened to the characters but they have such strong hope for the future that you can feel it seeping through the pages.

It also held so many surprises in it. So many things happened that I would never have guessed. People weren’t who I had thought them to be, events happened that never would have crossed my mind. It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat and needing to know more about what was going to happen next.

I loved it. The past three days I have done very little in my free time aside from reading this book. And now I’ve given myself a complete book hangover.