"13" by Kelley Armstrong

Release Date: July 24, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 480

From Goodreads: "The exciting, page-turning LAST episode of Kelley Armstrong's acclaimed, bestselling Women of the Otherworld series!Savannah Levine, a young witch of remarkable power and a dangerous pedigree, staggers away from a bomb blast in New Orleans, glad that she's managed to rescue her half-brother Bryce from the supernatural revolutionaries who'd held him captive. But everyone and everything she holds dear is still at risk. The reveal movement has shaken the Otherworld to its core and the resulting chaos has thinned the boundaries between dimensions, allowing creatures of the deeper realms to break through and wreak havoc on supernaturals but also on innocent humans.

Although she's been temporarily stripped her of her powers, Savannah knows she has a crucial part to play in this war of survival. In fact the fate of her loved ones--of Adam, the friend she hopes will become a lover; of Paige and Lucas, her guardians; of the werewolf Pack and Jaime Vegas; of a pregnant Hope; of her brothers Sean and Bryce--and of the human world rests on her shoulders. If she can find the way and the will to defend them.

Only in the final battle will Savannah find out her true capacities, and what lovewill drive her to do. In 13, Kelley Armstrong brings her powerful and unique saga to a deeply satisfying end: thrilling, surprising and harrowing." 

Being a readaholic I have faced many of my most favourite series ending, but I just come to realize that I haven't been all that affected by them ending- it's just something I've learned to accept, not giving much thought to it. That is, until it came to this series. These characters, Clay, Elena, Jeremy, Paige, Lucas, Savannah, Hope, Karl, and the likes of have been my friends for a very, very long time (much longer than my current IRL friends). Not only have I seen the characters grow, from Savannah at 12 years old to 21 year old Savannah, but the birth of the twins, marriages, and the likes of, but they've also seen me grow. I can remember being sixteen years old and saving my allowance every week so that I could purchase these books. Now, at 22 years old, as you can imagine, I'm having difficulties letting them go (I'm not ashamed to admit that I am totally tearing up while writing this review, not unlike how I did when reading the last couple of chapters). I think that this is a testament to just how amazing of an author Kelley is- that she has created characters that her readers connect to on a level quite unlike what any author has been able to do (and now that I think about it, I can't even recall feeling this emotional when the "Harry Potter" series drew to a close- mainly because I was so turned off by the latter books).

Now onto the book itself. Admittedly I have never been an uber fan of Savannah, my heart has always belonged to the originals- Elena, Paige, and Jamie. However, I really started to come around to Savannah in the previous book, "Spellbound". I think that was in part to her changing relationship with Adam- I have rooted for them almost as much as I did for Elena/ Clay, Hope/ Karl and Jeremy/ Jamie,  but also because of her growth, learning that her powers didn't define her (not unlike that now clique saying, "It's not powers that define a person, but what they do with those powers"). As a result of, this book was one of my most favourite in the series (probably ranked around the 5th or 6th- not bad out of a 13 book series).

Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed was the changing perspectives (which is quite shocking as changing POVs usually drives me batty) and seeing all of the characters come back for a sort of last hurrah, of sorts, from the aforementioned characters to Sean, Benico, Kristof- hell, even Troy. That being said, I loved that Kelley didn't just throw in a character for the sake of doing so, to appease her readers, each character played a specific role and they did so to a tee.

All in all, I cannot say enough good things about this book, nor this series. I think that this is one that everyone should experience for themselves (and now you don't have an excuse not to, considering all 13 books are now available ;) ). For me personally this is a world that I continuing coming back to time and time again.

Rating: 5/5