I was stepping into this with no expectations at all because I had heard that the last Sevenwaters books isn't as good as the other ones. Oh boy was I wrong because I ended up loving this so much! Maeve is another brilliant heroine that grows during the novel and actually one of my favourite Sevenwaters heroines. Flame of Sevenwaters tied together the series beautifully and I will miss this world so much now that I have finally finished it.

4.5 stars
Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Awwx2atXw

Beautiful as always. I had waited so long for this book, and when I finally began to read it (I had to wait until I finished the one I was already on), I immediately began to wonder which direction it would go. Juliet's Sevenwaters series has a basic formula for each story that I thought this might follow (not that formulas and structures are bad in any way, I adore them), but Flame constantly surprised me.
I fell in love with the characters, I adored Maeve- although, being different from her personally, I was annoyed by her attitude on and off; but we, as the readers, always feel as though we know better than the protagonist, don't we?
And I thought I knew what was going on.
But I didn't.

In this novel, Juliet delivered another beautiful story that had me worried, infatuated, suspicious - oh, incredibly suspicious - and loved every page of it, no matter how often I wanted to tell the characters NO, WRONG WAY, GO BACK!

And the ending was to die for.

I cannot express how much I adore this series.

Katharine is a judge for the Sara Douglass 'Book Series' Award. This entry is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.

I won't be recording my thoughts (if I choose to) here until after the AA are over.

I can't tell you how much I love this series. I have loved almost every single one of the books in the series. I was heartbroken to hear this might be the last. I bought this book back in November when it was first released, but have held back from reading it.

Maeve is a character that has been mentioned briefly in the past few books in the Sevenwaters series. She was badly disfigured in a fire ten years ago, and was sent to live with Liadan and Bran. At Harrowfield she learned to live with her disability. She is no longer able to use her hands and requires a maid to dress and feed her. Throughout this she still remains fiercely independent and refuses to accept anyone who pities her.

Maeve is an an amazing character. She didn't let herself be held back by her disability. She was strong, but vulnerable at the same time. The author knows how to write such strong, likeable characters, and I think that's what has made the series so successful.

My second favourite character in this book was Finbar. He was so wise for his age, but it didn't come across as fake or pretentious. He was a quite and odd little boy, who with the gift of a seer knew too much. Finbar and Maeve's relationship was strong from the start. He was like any other little boy who looked up to his older sister. He saw her as a heroine, even before she become one.

"Going home now is giving up the mission. You're brave. You'd never give up a mission."

This wasn't a traditional love story. There wasn't even an inkling until almost the end. I did love who the author chose for Maeve in the end. The ending was a perfect ending to the series. I hope there will still be another book (there was hints in the book about maybe Elis?) It brought the Mac Dara storyline to a close and he was a terrific enemy for the Sevenwaters clan.

"The tale was one thread in the complicated family tapestry of Sevenwaters"

This was, frankly a disappointing wrap up for the Sevenwaters clan. It was predictable, which isn't always a bad thing, but I kept reading not because I wanted to know what happened to Maeve and Finbar, but because I wanted to see what happened to Cathal and Ciaran, who weren't even major characters in this book until the last 3 hours of the audiobook. Artigan, when we actually met him as himself was sweet, but there was absolutely no development of him as a character or the relationship between him and Maeve, so it just felt trite. I know Ms. Marillier has done animal to man as a romantic lead before in Wildwood Dancing, and it worked there because we actually got to see Gogu as a rational thinking creature with thoughts and feeling like a human's. Where as Bear acted like a dog in pretty much every way until he conveniently wasn't one anymore. It was kind of frustrating and disappointing, especially when she tried to force a flimsy sort of triangle with Tiernan as well. I know these books are long, but this one really felt like it could have been shorter, or important parts could have been developed better to make the length worth it. I'm pretty sure I counted at least 5 times Maeve has to go to the privy over the course of the book, used as a way to move the action on, and there are better ways to do it.
I know a lot of people who didn't like this book also didn't like Clodagh or Sibeal's books, but I actually really liked those ones, more in ways than I liked the original trilogy, whihc just makes this one that much more of a bummer.
Finbar however, is adorable and I'm glad we got to see him and Beccan again

The plot was a little too predictable for my taste, but I adored Maeve.

I love it. I love it.