Book Review: Promised by Caragh M. O'Brien

Title:  Promised
Author:  Caragh M. O'Brien
Series:  Birthmarked trilogy #3
Genre:  YA dystopian
Pages:  304

Rating:  B

Synopsis from goodreads.com:  After defying the ruthless Enclave, surviving the wasteland, and upending the rigid matriarchy of Sylum, Gaia Stone now faces her biggest challenge ever.  She must lead the people of Sylum back to the Enclave and persuade the Protectorat to grant them refuge from the wasteland.  In Gaia's absence, the Enclave has grown more cruel, more desperate to experiment on mothers from outside the wall, and now the stakes of cooperating or rebelling have never been higher.  Is Gaia ready, as a leader, to sacrifice what--or whom--she loves most?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I was both anticipating and dreading this final book of the Birthmarked trilogy.  Part of me was so excited to see where Leon and Gaia's romance would lead, while another part of me was reluctant to have the series end.  And even though Leon & Gaia's romance is awesome in this book, overall Promised disappointed me.

As soon as I picked up Promised and saw how much thinner it was than the previous two books, I was nervous.  Usually a series' final book is bigger than the previous ones because there's so much to include, so many ends to tie up.  O'Brien's finale seemed so short and choppy and rushed.  The beginning half of the book felt like it was building up to something more dramatic, but then it felt like the author ran out of ideas and threw together an ending.  It was just too abrupt.

The characters, rather than the plot, were the real draw to the story.  Gaia's brother Jack returns, and their other brother "Pyrho" is introduced.  It was really nice seeing them as a family unit.  Gaia frustrated me at times though.  She just made some of the worst decisions, and sometimes she acted like a spoiled little girl.  She seemed to have forgotten how to be a good leader.  Her relationship with Leon was perhaps the one thing that kept me connecting with her.  It was pretty much the only part of the book that I really enjoyed wholeheartedly.  (Mostly because I love Leon!)  But the way the author handled how things ended between Peter and Will and Gaia was such a cop-out.

I also thought that the addition of the "baby factory" plot-line could have provided tons of interesting story ideas, but it fell flat.  The synopsis led me to believe that it was a huge deal to the story, but it was nowhere near as dramatic or as integral to the plot as it originally sounded.

As the final book of a trilogy, Promised should have been way more climactic, with more action, intrigue, and drama.  The only thing it really delivered on was the romance.  And even though I did enjoy reading the book, of the three books in the series, this is my least favorite.  B