Hello everyone!
It's book review time again this week, but seriously, I need to take two seconds to focus after seeing the Shadowhunters summer finale trailer.
Like, OMG.
I mean I've read the first trilogy, obviously - I'm working on the second one - but that doesn't mean that what I see Freeform putting out isn't amazing. They've taken a step beyond what Cassandra Clare's written and made it their own, and the actors look like they might have pushed all the boundaries, ever.
I can't wait for next Monday!
But, ahem.
It's time for the actual review to begin, and considering it's August, suffice to say there is no other book to talk about but J. R. Ward's Devil's Cut, the conclusion of her Bourbon Kings trilogy.
How did I say it in my previous two reviews?
The love child of Santa Barbara and Dynasty, married to Dallas, proud parent of CSI: Kentucky, is BACK.
For the final time.
And MAN was it a ride!
It was like the bucking bronco of the first two books suddenly decided he had a little energy left, which meant I was holding on to the saddle with both hands and both legs and praying I wouldn't fall off before he finally had enough.
Literally!
Anyway, to briefly summarise: William Baldwin, patriarch of the Bradford company, is dead. He's been murdered, and his frstborn son Edward has been taken to prison as primary suspect with a confession under his belt. Meanwhile, Lane, the youngest son, is trying desperately to plug the leak where all the family money's funneling into, because otherwise they'll definitely be broke, not baroque. Luckily for him, he has Lizzie King on his side, but luck isn't on his sister Gin's side as her marriage to Richard Pford is getting more and more violent, potentially careening towards a bloody ending.
In book three, the plot lines come to a close, but not necessarily to a satisfactory ending, I wouldn't say, as I felt that some still remained open-ended enough for the Warden to maybe someday come back and write a spin-off somewhere. Or, you know, just another book down in the South where manners are the term of the day and bourbon is the beverage of choice.
Lane & Co have to deal with burying the remains of their patriarch, which they literally just stuff into the family mausoleum, and all is semi-well until the arrival of Chantal, Lane's estranged soon to be ex-wife who is carrying his half-sibling (because you know, his father was a bastard all around). Unfortunately for her, stress brings about a miscarriage and she takes herself off to Virginia and her family estate, never to be seen again.
So that's one down, and many more to go.
Jeff, Lane's best friend and current Bradford Burbon Company CEO, is fielding accusations and threatening banks left, right and centre, trying to keep the company going. The master distiller offers to sell the yeast strain he'd concocted to save the entire thing, knowing it's priceless because no one's ever made that kind before, but Lane sits tight on the decision for now.
He has family drama to deal with.
First up, his older brother Max, who seems to be careening out of control and who Lane has to rescue from a dive bar in the middle of the night, but he also learns that William wasn't Edward's father in the process.
Meaning that Little V.E., the family matriarch who is under drug influence and occasionally goes for a nighttime stroll around the manicured lawns, had an affair with someone prior to her marriage, but William couldn't really do anything about it except hate Edward even more and try to have him killed in South America with a failed abduction since Edward had sniffed out the money leak before it all happened.
Edward's real father?
Gary McAdams, head groundskeeper, who's loved Little V.E. from afar for years now, and who strolls right along with her in the middle of the night, every night.
Lane lets that one be. After all, even his mother deserves some happiness.
Second is Gin, who I honestly can't believe occasionally but she DOES step up to everything in this book, deciding to be a better parent to her daughter Amelia and coming clean about the girl's parentage, namely, that Samuel T., family friend and lawyer extraordinaire, is her father. Samuel is definitely pissed off with Gin, though, but I'm banging my head against the headboard because what he believes is Gin being Gin is actually Gin saving everyone from her ludicrous husband because she'd pilfered the diamond from her engagement ring to make sure Amelia would be taken care of should something happen to her.
Naturally, Amelia finds this out and shares the secret with Samuel T., who suddenly has an #epiphany.
But Gin also has to have a near-death experience with her husband, who would LITERALLY have killed her and I thought Samuel T. would for sure not get there, though THANKFULLY he changed his mind and did in fact go play knight in bowtie armour.
And by the end of the book, he's decided the past is in the past, and the three of them - that is himself, Gin and Amelia, should start life as a family, together.
AWW.
Third, Lizzie King, who realises she's pregnant in this book and nealy causes Lane's meltdown because he's terrified of being like his own father was, and that he'll hurt the child. But they eventually decide that won't happen, they'll deal with things as they come, and that they WANT this baby, damn it!
Fourth, the combination of Edward and Miss Aurora, the family's black cook who practically raised the children herself ... and who is dying of severe leukemia in this book.
Also, she was the one who killed William, after learning he'd impregnated Chantal.
WUT.
You read that right, a nice, southern lady with manners like you wouldn't believe, went and made sure the man would be six feet under after her death, but Edward covered for her and went to jail instead, despite multiple attempts by Lane, Officer Ramsey, their friend, Sutton Smythe, the love of his life, and others, to convince him to give up whoever he's hiding.
In the end, Miss Aurora makes the confession herself, and makes sure Edward is released - and what do you know, he's finally not going to be stupid anymore and tells Sutton he loves her, so the pair can ACTUALLY have a relationship now.
Also, Lane asks his big brother to come back to the BBC - Jeff needs to deal with finances, but after discovering that William actually made ONE good investment (in a mobile phone game app, of all things), they need a CEO who knows the tricks of the trade, and Edward had been raised for exactly that purpose.
So, after discussing it with Sutton, who seems thrilled that they'll be butting heads professionally (since, you know, her family owns the second largest bourbon making company), Edward agrees and heads back into the fray.
The inhabitants of Easterly then celebrate the culmination of all their efforts: with the monetary injection of 1.2 BILLION dollars from that game thing, there's no immediate danger of the BBC sinking, or the family going into poverty, and while Max woos the daughter of the local reverend (again, because apparently they have #history together), Edward and Sutton meet with Gary to welcome him into their lives, Samuel T. and his new family have a heart-to-heart, and Lane and Lizzie look out across the lawn thinking all's well that ends well.
After all, Miss Aurora is now at peace - and they buried her right.
The past is in the past.
FIN
MAN I loved this trilogy! Occasionally, I felt like the dialogue was a little weird since they all spoke much too grammatically correct for my tastes, but hey, that was the one thing that would prick my eyes every once in a while. Everything else?
Pure perfection.
If you have yet to read about this dynamic, dysfunctional family, make sure you pick up the books! They're SO worth it, and Ward has outdone herself with this modern day mystery, southern style.
I'll miss these Bradfords. They sure know how to complicate things!
xx
*image not mine
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