Yep, this was the one that did it for me. The first two books of the series were good and I enjoyed them, but it was this book that convinced me.

Obviously since it's the same author, this book was reminiscent of the best parts of the Story Thieves series. There's a lot of chaotic energy with time jumping and going into people's inner minds and stuff like that, but it doesn't make the plot confusing or convoluted. I honestly think that's the James Riley way, and he does it well.

But what made this book stand out?
1) The satisfying conclusion of (main) character arcs. Jack is a very interesting character to me personally, and I liked how we saw him mature and learn that he deserved to be good to himself :,)
Phillip grew immensely from his "perfect" persona that we saw in the first book, gaining kindness and courage (that final battle with the giants tho!). As well as coming to terms with his betrayal and how to grow from it.
And of course, May. It would have been very easy to fall into the trap of making May a caricature of a strong heroine, but that doesn't happen. May learns so much throughout the books. She is strong, yes, but also emotionally mature. At the end, we are shown that May does still love the Evil Queen despite everything, which was a very human touch. She also finds the courage to do the right thing no matter the personal consequences. Honestly, SHE WENT OFF in the throne room scene I was SHOOK.

2) I felt like the plot of this book was more cohesive than the second one? Maybe I read that one too fast but I liked the pacing of the story and there wasn't too much happening for one book.

3) The ending was not depressing and was, in fact, happy!
...even though Jill interrupted our kiss scene but o well >:(

I just felt hyped up and excited to keep reading the whole way through and I was rooting for all the main characters so 5 stars :)