K's Reviews > Ascend

** spoiler alert ** One thing I truly appreciate about the author's writing is that she doesn't draw out her books with endless filler-words. I never find myself wanting to skip past parts in boredom of endless elaboration of feelings or a situation. Her writing always seems to flow at a nice pace, keeping the reader's interest throughout the entire book.

As for Ascend, I felt it was the perfect ending to a wonderful trilogy!

In this final book, Wendy finally takes over the Trylle kingdom, after her mother passes. Before Elora passed, I was pleased to see that Wendy and Elora shared some tender and heartfelt moments together. Elora had, for the most part, come across cold and never truly expressed love towards her daughter, Wendy. After her passing, Wendy was surprised to discover that Elora had painted numerous paintings throughout her childhood, confirming the motherly love that Elora held for her. -Especially considering that Elora sacrificed a portion of her longevity, so to speak, with each painting she did.

The much-talked about love between Wendy/Finn or Wendy/Loki was a complete surprise to me. At first, I thought I wanted to see Wendy and Finn together, after their brief almost-happened love scene. When Wendy abruptly called it quits before they went too far, I was really disappointed, and didn't understand why Wendy would give up the opportunity to *finally* be with Finn. But as the story progressed, I realized what Ms. Hocking had in mind :) and my opinion completely changed. Wendy and Finn shared an emotional final "break-up" of sorts, in which she tells Finn why she moved forward with Loki, and gave up on the hope of a Wendy+Finn future. Finn never fought for her, to be with her, or just not enough. He was too driven to abide by the rules and with making her Queen, and that always seemed to get in the way of any future they would have had together. Loki, on the other hand, had gone through hell and back, essentially, for Wendy. As the story progresses with more Wendy/Loki moments, I had no disappointment what so ever about the final love outcome. They truly do seem perfect together, and though it was sad to see both Wendy and Finn have a little heartbreak, it was worth it in the end to see the final outcome.

The ending of this book was perfect, and I would not change a single thing! Wendy's tyrant of a father is put to rest, thanks to Wendy, for the majority, and both Kingdoms are finally at peace with one another. The Epilogue, especially, was just absolutely amazing. It ended so well that readers won't be left sad at the end of this trilogy, but rather happy with how things are left. It was everything I was hoping, and more!