Crystal Storm (Falling Kingdoms) by Morgan Rhodes- 10 out of 5! AMAZING

The Queen Morgan Rhodes never ceases to amaze me. This book was as epic as all the other books in the Falling Kingdoms series.
That cliffhanger though... my heart is in tatters! I AM NOT OK WITH THE ENDING! What's up with the queens of YA this year (Sarah J Mass and Morgan Rhodes) and their 'thing', 'obsession', 'prone to torture tendencies', or whatever it is you want to call it at the end of their books? 2017 is going to be, to us YA readers, a year of healing. And a well needed one! Between Empire of Storms, A Court of Mist and Fury and now Crystal Storm I am truly done with book series and their mean cliffhanging endings for a while. I shall only read stand alones this january. I need a brake! Luckily for me my tbr list is huge and I can give myself that time. Seriously guys... the ending is very disturbing! I am with Cleo 100%: "I don't think this world will survive my grief".

Ok. so...the book...
It starts with King Gaius 17 years prior and than it picks up where Frozen Tides left off, beginning with Jonas.  All the characters stories move forward towards one epic ending.
Not much happens to Jonas until half way through the book. He is an important piece of the puzzle and I guess we will have a lot more of him on the last book in the series. The same can be said about Lucia, and since their lives are somewhat connected, even more so.
Cleo and Magnus work in their new found relationship, but needless to say there are complications. Also, Cleo is very careful with her feelings and her heart, a lot more than Magnus. He wonders at times if she is playing him, not without reason may I add...It is not until the very end of the book that things change (although who knows... might be too late for that. Hurry up Nov 2017!).
Ashrur is an idiot. The only time he does graces us with his presence is to do something utterly stupid.
Amara is still trying to take over the world. That being said, I like her. She has sass and determination and she is not straight up evil. She has her reasons to be the way she is. Not good ones...but still!
King Gaius is still as evil as ever. But just like Amara, not without reason. I love how Morgan Rhodes made the evil characters in the book somehow relatable and hard to hate. The only evil character easy to hate is Kyan.

Now lets go back to Magnus... this whole book is worth reading just because of him. The man has been through a lot. Changed so much and so little at the same time. His smartass comments are priceless and every time you finish one of his chapters you are dying to get to the next.
I must say I particularly love that it is Magnus and Felix that have the sass in this book. There is a whole 'girl power' thing going on on YA lately and the boys are sometimes just the broody males and nothing more (don't get me wrong here peeps, I like the girl power too, just not all the time). I like how Morgan Rhodes portrays him, how much heart she gives him. How much light she gives to his inner thoughts and insecurities as well as to his dangerous-broody-moody person! The complexity of Magnus' inner battle between his more soft side and his prone to violence side makes for a very compelling read. He is a well though character from every angle.

Conclusion: I hate you (due to the ending) so very much Morgan Rhodes that the saying love and hate walk hand in hand must be true. Because gosh I love yah woman! Yet another amazing book and I can't wait for the Falling Kingdoms finale! Hail to the Queens of YA!