Author: A.G. Howard
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal/Portal Fantasy
Source: Thames and Hudson
Goodreads
After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She's determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world--a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that's gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?Review by Nara
While undoubtedly still quite a good book, I feel like Ensnared perhaps lost some of the spark that previous books in the Splintered series had. It still has the wonderfully weird Gothic twist on the original Wonderland tale, and beautiful descriptions of characters and settings, and fabulous character development- but it just wasn't as good as Splintered or Unhinged. I have a feeling that this was because the pacing was just that little bit draggy, with the plot a biiiit too focused on the romance. Don't get me wrong though! This was still a great book, and a satisfying series ending, and I'd definitely recommend that everyone who enjoys the series continues to the end.
With the romance being such a dominant aspect of the series, we all know that one of the main reasons you want to read this book is to find out who Alyssa ends up with: her "Mortal Knight" Jeb, or the Netherling Morpheus. You know, the love triangle kind of goes the way I expected it to, and kind of doesn't. What does this mean? Read the book and find out haha. But, I guess I'm actually pretty satisfied with how it turned out. If you read my previous reviews, you'll know that I was pretty firmly Team Morpheus in previous books (Jeb was just bland as hell). Does this change in this book? Well, I guess you'll find out. We have to keep this spoiler free, people!
I feel like overall, I was quite happy with how the series ended, although as always I would have liked to have seen what happens after the ending of Ensnared- and it seems like my wishes have been fulfilled because A.G. Howard is writing a set of novellas set after the ending of the series! HECK YES GIMME NOW.
Really liked it
Ratings
Overall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Romance: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
World Building: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 3/5
