Surprise surprise. I actually enjoyed this final book in the series. Hardin really cleans himself up, gets the help he needs, and respects Tessa enough to give her space. This definitely isn’t the same man from the first two books and I can see how much he’s grown and changed over the years. While I know that some people wanted intimate details about everything that happens to them in the end of the oil, I was thoroughly satisfied with the time jumps. I think that everyone just got used to the long developed books that only covered a couple of months so the adjustment to hearing about their lives in jumps of years was pretty big. I think in this final book, Tessa and Hardin learn a lot about themselves which is something the needed. They were both so young when they met that they needed the opportunity to grow as adults and become healthy mentally and emotionally as individuals before furthering their relationship. I love and I mean I love that Tessa calls their relationship abusive and tells Hardin that they’ve been abusive to each other because honestly it’s the truth. They’ll it reaffirmed my faith that Todd was attempting to illustrate that these two never had a healthy relationship but they were willing to do what was necessary to get themselves healthy and in a position to have a healthy relationship. I love that while Hardin doesn’t lose his edge he does become more considerate of those around him. He’s more self aware and not as selfish and really thinks about how his decisions could affect the people around him. I’m proud of him for working on his problems and re-building relationships with people who he’s hurt and who have hurt him especially his mom. I know he was taking it slow but that’s all I could ask of him. This is the reason why we stick with series sometimes when we don’t like them because as readers we hope for a change and I must say that Anna Todd did give me what I wanted in the end. I’m glad I stuck with the books.