Goldilox and the Three Weres: Review: The Dire King by William Ritter

We are so excited to be participating in The Dire King Blog Tour hosted by the awesome Fantastic Flying Book Club! Our blog tour post is actually going to go live tomorrow morning and we're really excited to share it with you! That being said, we wanted to squeeze our review of the book in before that.

Spoiler for the review below: Rose Red absolutely adored it!

You can follow the rest of the blog tour HERE. Onto Rose Red's review!

The Dire King
(Jackaby #4)
William Ritter
Release: August 22, 2017
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The thrilling conclusion to the New York Times best-selling series the Chicago Tribune called “Sherlock Holmes crossed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer” sends the eccentric detective and his indispensible assistant into the heart of a war between magical worlds.

The fate of the world is in the hands of detective of the supernatural R. F. Jackaby and his intrepid assistant, Abigail Rook. An evil king is turning ancient tensions into modern strife, using a blend of magic and technology to push Earth and the Otherworld into a mortal competition. Jackaby and Abigail are caught in the middle as they continue to solve the daily mysteries of New Fiddleham, New England — like who’s created the rend between the worlds, how to close it, and why zombies are appearing around. At the same time, the romance between Abigail and the shape-shifting police detective Charlie Cane deepens, and Jackaby’s resistance to his feelings for 926 Augur Lane’s ghostly lady, Jenny, begins to give way. Before the four can think about their own futures, they will have to defeat an evil that wants to destroy the future altogether.

The epic conclusion to the New York Times best-selling Jackaby series features sly humor and a quirky cast of unforgettable characters as they face off against their most dangerous, bone-chilling foe ever.

Review:
I can't believe that this is the last Jackaby book. I'm not ready for it to be over. I've adored each book in this series but this one was darker than its predecessors. It was so action-packed and full of twists that I was all in by page two and it was freaking fantastic! It was also an emotional roller coaster. I legit cried during most of the last 50-60 pages. And honestly, I'm still a bit shell-shocked from that ending. IT WAS AMAZING AND I AM NOT OKAY!

I'm not sure what else to say in this review without being spoilery. This book was kind of a reunion book where we see characters from the previous books. It was kind of awesome seeing so many familiar faces mixed in with the new ones. Throughout this series Jackaby’s motley crew has had their fair share of fights, but none have been as gruesome or as large scale as this final battle. All kinds of supernatural creatures pop up on both sides of the fight. There are some impressive weapons that combined with the paranormal add a colorful, kind of steampunk fairy tale vibe to the story and I need more of that in my YA books. The plot is not as light and airy as the previous books, but the characters and charm of the world that define this series are never lost in the mayhem.

Jackaby and the gang were just as awesome as always and I'm going to miss them terribly! I loved about this book and this series so much! I'm going to miss the quirky characters, the humor, and the mysteries. This book has several funny moments, often thanks to Jackaby, but it also was an emotional ride. I'm going to miss Abigail and Jackaby interacting where her down-to-earthness balances out his more eccentric ways. Storywise, this book just as good as the previous books and I quite liked the twist at the end of the book even though it almost destroyed me. It felt very suiting like everything had been leading up to it.

Overall, The Dire King was an excellent end to an amazing series. It was everything I hoped for and while the ending wrapped a lot of things up, there are still some open ends left. I'm hoping that this means that we'll be getting a spin-off series. I just really, really want to see the characters again some day and I think that ending left it open for it. I'll keep my fingers crossed for more Jackaby and the gang shenanigans.

If you haven't read this series, go and get your hands on the first book ASAP! Believe me, you'll thank me later.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley