➽ The Rebels of Gold was sadly a huge letdown as the Loom saga series finale! I'm a bit shocked that the series fizzled out like that, as I really enjoyed the first two books. Let's start with the positives. The main plot point is Loom preparing for war with Nova, after the explosive finale of the second book which included a vicious attack on the Guilds. Florence is now trying to get the vicars and all of Loom to stand together, uniting it in a second rebellion. For the most part, I liked seeing her struggle with trying to become a leader and getting people to truly see her. Florence isn't an uncertain student of Arianna any longer and has grown more vicious and determined after witnessing the destruction the dragons caused. Ari's back on Loom after falling from her glider, where she's immediately captured by an old associate of hers: King Louis. He knows her from her time as the White Wraith and wants to use her inventions in order to fuel his own empire. Arianna has no choice but to go along with him for now and seek out Florence.

➽ In general, I liked seeing their shifting friendship dynamic and how both have been shaped by their experiences. Ari and Florence have grown past just being student and teacher, which is difficult for them to confront. Then there's Cvareth, who's reeling from his sister's death and his wicked, cowardly brother Finnar taking her place with deceit. I liked him trying to adjust to the new situation and taking on his sister's responsibility. He has to be smart in how he approaches the situation but is determined to defend his house. Despite being disappointed by the book, I still have a soft spot for the characters!

➽ Now let's get into why this finale was incredibly slow and bland for me. The biggest issue was the pace. The past two books suffered from a slower pace and an explosive finale as well, but it was amplified here. The Rebels of Gold is full of monotonous war preparations, fights between the vicars and Coletta's manipulations of Nova. After the shocking finale of The Dragons of Nova, I expected much more action, but all the chapters were drawn out and technical. The author focused too much on delving into the war strategies, instead of actually showing us some action. I felt like there was no stake and no tension, as nothing shocking happened. The villains were all so easily defeated and even upcoming problems were quickly resolved. Everything was so predictable and the end was pretty anticlimactic. Even though there was a war going on, it didn't feel like we saw many significant losses at all. Major plot points were resolved within a couple of pages and the fights were so underwhelming.

Yveun is killed SO easily after all this buildup. Same with Louis, he wasn't the threat I expected him to be. Arianna kills him so easily, despite being blackmailed by him. Finnar isn't the problem I thought he would be. Cvareth kills him, but never discusses it with Ari, even though she has such a personal history with him. In general, she never brings Finnar up again, not even with Florence. It's like their animosity from the second book was dropped completely.

Also some plot points ended up not being important at all.

Did anyone feel like the whole perfect chimera/dragon subplot went nowhere in the end?

➽ I was disappointed with how things were resolved with our main characters. First things first, I never liked the additional POVs we got in every book (apart from Florence, Cvareth and Arianna), as I didn't care about these characters. Coletta was interesting, as she's the queen of the dragons, but pretends to be weak. She's the mastermind behind her husband, but I never felt attached to her story. Her POV was detrimental at times, as we always knew what the enemy was doing, so it wasn't a surprise anymore. I like Cvareth, but his POV was underutilized once again, especially in the first half of the book. His relationship with dynamic also lost the spark it had at the beginning. Furthermore, I have mixed feelings about Florence's arc. I liked that she was morally grey, but she's so far removed from how she used to be in the first book. It was almost like she turned into a completely different person. I found her a bit annoying at times, as she thinks she knows everything despite being one of the younger people in the rebellion. While I liked that she got a girlfriend, Shannra had no personality or life outside of Florence. Not to mention

the random revelation that Florence apparently had romantic feelings for Arianna?? That came completely out of nowhere and was so unnecessary. At the start of the story, Florence was 16 and Ari was her teacher, so the dynamic is very iffy

. I was also disappointed with how everything ended for our main characters.

Florence and Ari give up on their relationship for the most part which was so depressing. Florence and Cvareth don't even meet or have any meaningful interaction. They were friends in the first book, what happened to that?

The reveals regarding Arianna keep on coming and the more they come, the more disengaged I get from the character and attention goes more to Florence who feels the more fleshed out character of the two in this book and Flos is satisfyingly steampunky and that I loved.
The relationship Ari and Flo may or may not have had in the past irritated as I do not think that sexual  teacher student relationships are ever okay.
With the continued body harvesting a Frankensteinian element came into the story that raised some interesting questions, however, remained unresolved within the story.