Review: Endure (Need #4)

Title: Endure (Need #4)
Author: Carrie Jones (See Interview Here)
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Release Date: May 8th 2012
Pages: 272
Where Acquired: Amazon
Buy at Amazon Here
- Best Book Price: £2.25 Kindle Price: £3.60 (as of when posted)

UK Cover:


My View on the Cover:This cover is stunning, as said in my recent Top Ten Tuesday, I do love swirls and shiny bits.  The orange iris is bright and eye catching (Excuse the pun!) and the gold represents the pixie dust and magic of the novel perfectly. I am also a fan of the font, it's simple and elegant but also pretty. I am a fan of some of the other covers in the series more however as even though the orange iris is beautiful I am not so sure about the chopped, sideways face....

Goodreads Description:
Zara is at the center of an impending apocalypse. True, she’s successfully rescued Nick from Valhalla, but it simply isn’t enough. Evil pixies are ravaging Bedford, and they need much more than one great warrior; they need an army. Zara isn’t sure what her role is anymore. She’s not just fighting for her friends; she’s also a pixie queen. And to align her team of pixies with the humans she loves will be one of her greatest battles yet. Especially since she can’t even reconcile her growing feelings for her pixie king . . .

Unexpected turns, surprising revelations, and one utterly satisfying romantic finale make Endure a thrilling end to this series of bestsellers.

My Review:
This review has been a long time coming so I'm sorry for the delay. I have had this book on my shelf for a long time but I was reluctant to read it as it means putting a great series away for good... However, I did finally find the courage to read this novel, and although it is sad to see another series go this year after already loosing Morganville Vampires, Wings, Divergent and Heroes of Olympus later in October, I was glad to have read it and finally seen a resolve to Bedford's pixie problem, the looming apocalypse but more importantly the love triangle. It is probably well known by now that I am a great hater of love triangles that seem to be everywhere these days so I was very glad to see it resolved early on in this book. Zara finally got with Astley, the guy I was rooting for all along, so that left me all happy inside. Especially because Astley is such a boyfriend worthy, sweet, gentleman and Nick turned out to be an annoying, jealous, control freak!  However the romance did take a small step back in this book because our characters were too busy fighting an army of evil pixies and Ragnarok. For this I was grateful as the plotlines surrounding these major problems were spectacular and well deserved the full attention of the reader. The pixies are, as always an interesting race, not shown often in the world of YA. Therefore I was interested from the start of the series, the more original book, the more I like it! However the pixie problem seemed small compared to the end of the world, apocalyptic, Ragnarok. The self sacrifice it took Zara to end Ragnarok made her into one of the bravest, strongest and one of my favorite heroines. One of these sacrifices meant that she had to give up a meeting with her dead father in order to get an idea how to end the apocalypse. However one of the most touching and heart breaking scenes, in my opinion, insured from this when she was allowed to see her father anyway. I literally had tears in my eyes! That's not the only thing that manage to touch my heart however, I also loved the strong, loving, friendships that dominate this novel. They are so sweet and amazing that I really wish to have my own friendships like that! My favorite thing about this novel for me though was the Norse mythology. You all know how much I love my mythology and Norse was one rarely explored even by Rick Riordan the self proclaimed Myth Master who Isn't starting his Norse series until next year. So that explains why I was so pleasantly shocked to find a strong mythology plot in a book I primarily picked up for the already original theme of Pixies. The Norse theme was stronger in this book than in the others of the series (Excluding Entice which held Odin and Thor among others) with the theme of Ragnarok and Loki! (Ok...Ok... I admit I read all of Loki's dialogue in Tom Hiddleston's Voice)

 

Norse mythology is an old part of our heritage so it was interesting to learn more about it, but even better to see it come alive in the form of fiction surrounding some very strong characters. To be honest I loved all of the book, put together it was very original and captivating and this series held me from the start.

Quotes:

“We teleported," Issie finishes. "Like in Star Trek or Harry Potter, sort of. No! Like in Dr. Who in that episode with the Sontarans and the brilliant human boy, or really any Dr. Who ever if you think of the Tardis! Holy canola! That is just the coolest thing ever! Wowie, wow, wow!”

 “I give a little wave back because it's more mature then giving him the finger.”

“Zara White, since when has love ever not mattered?” 

Rating:

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-The Reading Rose