Book Review- Foretold by Jana Oliver

So the world didn't end... yay!

Title: Foretold

 Author:  Jana Oliver

Series:   The Demon Trappers

Published:  2 August 2012 by Macmillan

Length: 416 pages

Warnings:  non-graphic sex, violence

Source: Publishers

Other info: The other books in this series are Forsaken, Forbidden, Forgiven. Foretold is the last in the series. Clicking on names leads to my reviews.

Summary :  Riley faces the final battle for humanity and Beck's heart—and Hell is the least of her problems
Now that Riley’s managed to (just barely) fend off Armageddon, everything’s changed. Well . . . most things. After their passionate kiss before the big battle in the cemetery, Beck is back to treating her like a little girl, as if nothing ever happened. While she’d love to just tell him off and move on, Riley vowed to take care of Beck the way he’s taken care of her since her father’s death—but she’s about to get a whole lot more than she bargained for. When she’s commissioned to go with Beck to his hometown and help him care for his dying mother, they stumble too close to a dark and murderous secret, one that Beck fears will drive Riley away from him forever. As chaos breaks loose, Riley may be Beck's only hope for redemption . . . and survival.

Meanwhile, up in Atlanta, it’s quickly becoming clear that Heaven may have won a battle, but the war is far from over. Riley and Beck face a stormy future, as Lucifer's ex-right-hand-man, Sartael, proves himself to be more resilient than anyone thought. He has Atlanta in his grip and is about to begin a brutal war with the prince of Hell. As the seconds tick down toward a final confrontation, it's up to Riley and the man she loves to finally defeat their old enemy, or lose everything they've fought for.

Review: I’ve been with this series from the start, so it’s really odd going into this book knowing that it’s the last one. So...yeah. Riley’s come back and the demons are planning their big uprising  and that’s all going to happen.  More important is Beck and Riley, and their relationship. They both realise how much they love each other, but that means that they also can’t hide from their pasts. 

Of the four, this is most definitely the most character driven book. And when I say that, I mean, by one person. Beck really gets the spotlight here, which is nice seeing as he goes through a lot of stuff in the earlier books and we now finally learn all the ins and outs of his backstory-his relationship with his mother, how he was generally brought up. I liked this, but I must say, it felt a bit different in the series. Compared to all the action, it’s both nice and a little bit “oh” to go back to relatively mundane events.

The second half is where it all really kicks off. There was so much happening! We got a lot of demons, both regular pyrofiends and geofiends and such, and a some other things. There’s a huge amount of action- fighting demons, Riley and Ori, and Beck learning to go his own way. There’s some rather intriguing things about the workings of the trappers and the Grand Masters and whatnot, which is good. And Jana’s depiction of Hell is really interesting-a little more on the emotional side of things.

Riley whines a lot in this one. I understand why, with people going missing and nearly dying and the fact that she’s now being expected to fight with Ori randomly and such. But it was a bit annoying. She has matured over the course of the series though. Beck, you just really feel like you have to give him a hug. His characterisation is the best-lots of attention to detail for his personality and thoughts, mainly his pronunciation but also his action tics in general. Ori also has really good scenes. I didn’t like him to start with because he was a bit stalkery and in the first book, useless, but Jana assured me that we’d see more of him further on-and we did. He was handled really well in Foretold and I loved his last scene, even though it was a little sad. But it fit so well with him . All the characters really have developed.

Riley and Beck are perfect for each other! *shipping them hard* They go through lots of things,  but get so much closer and happier.

The ending!!! It works and is so sweet and is also circular format with the start of the series. I’m glad Beck gets his happy ending and is doing well in terms of being a Trapper. The best thing about the ending of this book (and the series) was that it ended in the right place. Jana hasn’t been irritating and dragged out the series longer than it needed  to be. It ended at the right time-when the main story is over we’re satisfied, but still have space for headcanons.

Overall:  Strength 5 tea to a great ending to a great series. Though we won’t get any more of Riley, I’d definitely like to see more from Jana.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |