Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy Book 3)

Third book in the Lynburn Legacy series: Everything is going very badly for Kami, Jared, Ash, and the others in Kami’s friends and family; the evil sorceror controls most of the town and only the fact that he’s Jared’s father holds him back from doing even worse. As usual, there’s plenty of

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Buffy-sharp banter during tense situations—Kami lampshades it as her method of coping—and missed connections with somebody longing for someone else (but thankfully not allowing it to interfere with the business of saving the town). Ultimately I think I liked the Demon’s Lexicon books better, but this was certainly an engaging read.

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In a village in England there lives a community, there's also a big house with a family who have been the ancestral power in this town, the Lynburns. What is different about Sorry-in-the-Vale is that this family are magicians and that the village powers them, sometimes with their blood. The family

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went away for a while but now they're back and they have plans, plans that will cost people dearly.

Oh man, this was a great end to the series. Satisfying and well done I enjoyed it hugely.

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In a village in England there lives a community, there's also a big house with a family who have been the ancestral power in this town, the Lynburns. What is different about Sorry-in-the-Vale is that this family are magicians and that the village powers them, sometimes with their blood. The family

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went away for a while but now they're back and they have plans, plans that will cost people dearly.

Oh man, this was a great end to the series. Satisfying and well done I enjoyed it hugely.

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The Lynburns ruled the town of Sorry-in-the-Vale for generations, and now they're back and demanding blood sacrifices. One of the Lynburns is a boy Kami always knew, but never knew was real: their minds have been linked since they were born, and they know each other as well as they know themselves.

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(The imaginative way Brennan presents the weirdness and challenges this entails make this the best published take on soulmates or telepathy that I've read yet.) Together, Kami and her friends create alliances against Rob Lynburn who is bent on controlling the entire town.

The magic in this book is very exciting, and there are a number of moments that made me want to pump my fist in the air. The flipside of these exciting magical battles is the examination of grief and death that runs through this whole book. The undercurrent of what it means to be in love, what it means to know someone else and treasure them, builds to reveal an unexpected but much-appreciated climax in this final book in the Unspoken trilogy.

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I enjoyed this because of the way it explores family and friendship. The character's interactions - amongst the team of good guys - are both poignant and laugh-out-loud funny.

But the whole community is, from the start, in a situation which CANNOT go on. There's torture and human sacrifice involved.

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There's no point where you-the-reader think (putting yourself into the shoes of the characters) if nothing goes wrong, we could carry on like this, we'd be okay, no then we got to Rivendell and thought we could go home moment, although there's almost one before everything goes up in flames.
It's not as gruesome and graphic as it could be - in fact, I think it's quite understated and that's horrifying enough.

It's just not quite... my kind of Gothic fantasy. I think I'd prefer to read about these characters if they were all stuck on a desert island together...

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There were certainly good parts in this book (even a couple scenes that made me laugh), and in the trilogy as a whole, but it was all overshadowed by the soap opera-like relationship between Kami, Jared, and Ash, and between other characters as well. There were far too many places where whole

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plotlines hinged on lies or misunderstandings, miscommunications or outright refusals to communicate at all. Overall, it was a frustrating and unsatisfying trilogy and I don’t recommend it.

content warnings: animal harm, kidnapping, attempted murder, murder, suicide, torture, drowning,
major character death, jokes about incest/inbreeding

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Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

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*applauds* Unmade, to me, deserves much applause. I can’t say that this book or series is flawless, even by my limited measure. It’s not. However, it’s brilliant in two major ways: 1) every book in this

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series improves on what came before and 2) this book mucked about with my feels like I was a piece of clothing in a washing machine. This is not so easily done. For fans of the series, Unmade will make you an emotional wreck and even prouder to be a fan of the Lynburn Legacy.

I’ve read the full series over the last two months. I’m really sad to be done with it. The fact is that I’m not ready to let Kami, Angela, Jared, Holly and Rusty go. I’m sorry, Ash. I wish you well, but I still am able to let you go happily enough. These characters have come to vibrant life for me and closing out their story leaves me feeling separated from friends, in a way that’s perhaps not unlike Jared and Kami’s severing; I know they’re still there, but I don’t know them as intimately and have no way of tracking their actions.

Once again, I must praise the brilliant bantery writing. It’s perfection. I bonded so hard to Angela and Kami and Rusty because they all major in banter. They’re my favorites for a reason. I know everyone isn’t into wordplay, but nothing’s better for me than that. The tone of this series changes so perfectly. With each installment, the tone gets darker. By Unmade, things are pretty heavy. You actually get to see what Sorry-in-the-Vale is like without banter and it’s a sad place made of pain. Finding humor in the situation is the only way that Kami’s gang get through the tough times.

Now I know I’ve mocked Ash a bit. He can sort of banter, but he’s ultimately just not someone who interests me. What I do enjoy about Ash is that he’s the more obvious love interest in a lot of ways. His appearance is perfect, where Jared’s is marred by a scar. Ash is polite and thoughtful. On paper, he’s so great. With Kami’s connection to him, the reader gets a view into Ash’s mind and I like that he’s very different under the surface. Unmade makes him a bit more real, which is cool. I did find the scene where he suddenly confesses love to Kami a bit strange. Later it became clear what was going on but it was very abrupt. Also odd was Rusty doing the same thing in the next scene. Like, DAMN.

Discussing this book without spoilers is a challenge. All I can really say is that I think the plot worked pretty well. A lot of it was predictable on a larger scale. Choices were set up and not a surprise. Except for one. I think the predictability works fairly well, since Kami is the sort of person to research a bunch before taking action. Things that she does are not going to come out of left field, and I like that about her. Even when she does something impulsively, it’s a whole different realm of impulsive than Jared’s or Lillian’s. This is why Kami’s plans turn out much better in general.

The romance is very sweet. All of the couples’ romantic problems are not due to the larger scenario. I’ve praised this before, but I continue to be so glad of that. The romantic fate of Kami and Jared has very little to do with Rob. Yeah, they might die because of him, which would put a damper on the relationship, but that’s it. The struggles of all of the couples are those of trust; they need to learn to believe that the other person truly cares. My one sadness ship-wise is that I ended up with a bit of a crackship, which usually does not happen to me. Damn you, Jon and Lillian, and your adorable banter, for not being meant to be.

Also, the star of this book? Jon Glass. I love this man so damn much. He’s one of the best fathers in YA. He’s loving and caring and also completely hilarious. Kami is so much like her dad and we finally get to really know him and he is impossible for me to not love. It’s rare to see the parents’ relationship get development, but that happens here. I adore Jon Glass.

The series lacks for me in a handful of ways that are inconsequential in terms of my emotional enjoyment, but do keep me from quite swooning utterly. The lack of Britishness is pretty consistent, with one or two scenes per book that remind you that this is not actually America, as much as it reads like it could be. Rob never became anything more than a psychopath. He lacked motivation and development. He’s fine as a villain, creepy certainly, but I wanted more from him. View Spoiler » I also thought that Henry’s character ended up being narratively pointless. I like Henry okay, but I think the only thing he actually accomplished was to be a source of romantic confusion, since people thought Holly might be into him. View Spoiler »

This series was magnificent in the feels and some of the best banter to exist ever. Might I casually suggest a spin-off series about Angela and Holly? Pretty please?

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This was a very satisfying series conclusion, even if I didn't love every single bit of the way things tied up at the end. And I may have mentioned it before but: KAMI. Ahem.

Last of trilogy about Sorry-in-the-Vale, Kami and her family and friends, and the Lynburns.