Champion

This is one of the best conclusions to a series!

The very best. *wiping tears*

Seriously! And it felt so ..right, you know?
Not all butterflies and cheers and happiness, but right and real and beautiful and raw.
The action, the suspense, the dramatic romance, the bittersweet ending… every moment and every page, every single word in this book.. EVERYTHING was perfect.

I couldn’t have imagined a better ending for this series, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Sometimes, the sun sets earlier. Days don’t last forever, you know.
But I’ll fight as hard as I can. I can promise you that.”

June and Day’s journey has been filled with so much heartbreak over these 3 books and I sobbed a bit near the ending for all that they’ve been trough, for the injustice of life, for how much they have lost (especially Day because -as I’ve said a million times already- June has had it so much easier than him). But I have hope, there’s a bittersweet taste in their new beginning and I loved those last few pages for giving me some sort of peace of mind, for leaving my heart feeling this light. I also loved the ending for the lack of selfishness, for taking its time such that those souls could heal, for filling me with so many emotions.

It’s true, endings make me happy and sad all at once, they bring a smile on my face but also they tend to leave me with foggy eyes. And this story has grown so much on me since I first read LEGEND, quite a while ago. I would’ve been devastated for finishing this book if it weren’t for all 3 book standing on my shelf, ready for me to pick them up again. And I will, believe me when I tell you this. Because the story of Legend holds a tiny piece of my heart, and I wouldn’t feel complete without it.

I am definitely giving away more than I want to, but for once I don’t care because I’ve been holding my breath the whole time waiting for Day and June to meet again, hoping for them to find a way back together, crying inside for all the things that have put a world of a wall between them, dropping my eyes into my mouth at some mind-blowing turnarounds and crying like a baby when things went terribly wrong. What more do you want from me? How much a heart can take without breaking?

“Without emotion, what’s the point of being human?”

There are books that I love and I want to scream for the whole world to know just how amazing they are.
And yes I’ve been reviewing only the books I liked lately, but emotional stories like CHAMPION drain my soul so much that it’s hard to gather energy even only to say how much I love them (how can I gather the strength needed to talk about the ones I didn’t like?). And if somehow you’ve missed the point here, I did love this book to pieces and I have no words left if you still are not convinced of its worth.

So yeah, I will miss it. I will miss them all.
I will miss June and her strength, her need to be on the field again, to fight for what’s right. I will miss her passion, I will miss even her moments of insecurity. I will miss Tess even, imagine that after how much I hated her in PRODIGY.

I can’t really say my goodbye to Day. I loved this guy even before reading Legend. There was something about this character that was calling to me. All his pain, all he’s been through, all the deception, the mistrust, his love for June, for his brother, for Tess even.. All these made him so real – I simply loved him from the first page to the last one, and my love still carries on.

You know what else I loved about this story? The world building. The Republic, the Colonies, Antarctica with that madness of advanced technologies and IT culture, the bits of history, the differences between them, the complexity of the plot based on this world building. I really had no idea how things could end up for any of the characters and I was so immensely satisfied with the outcome.

Day, the champion of the people, the one who can’t bear to see those around him suffer on his behalf, who would gladly give his life for those he loves. Except it’s not his life that we need […]

So this is me, falling in love again with a breathtaking series. This is me saying again my goodbyes (and oh, my poor heart! This year will be full of book-goodbyes, I should get used to the heartbreak). This is me telling you once more: Go read this book and then come back to talk about it 😉

Happy midnight reading!

Visual Quote:

Cover love:

After reading this book I just have to agree with this statement:

“Oh man, I’m absolutely in love with it — this cover is such a thing of beauty. […] The gritty rose, the flames, the bullet hole! Every piece of it perfectly symbolizes Champion‘s contents. ” ~ Marie Lu

… Well, somehow my copy has no bullet hole unfortunately, but the blood is there to give the hint of one, so we’re fine 😉 The cover is indeed perfect for this story!

Question time:

Q: “Tease the grand finale of Champion using only one word.”

A: “I’m going to go with “closure.” Hopefully there won’t be any open-ended questions left for anyone by the end of the book.” ~ Marie Lu

Q: “What will we learn about their relationship in this last book?”

A: “There’s still a little bit to go for both Day and June to understand their place in the world and whatever that means for their lives and their place in the bigger picture, as well as what they want to aspire to become. They’re hitting that last stage of development where they step over the line from adolescence to adulthood.

Especially with June, there are some scenes about what exactly makes a good person change into a bad person. The Republic was not always run by a ruthless dictator. I don’t think anybody starts off thinking, “I’m going to be the horrible tyrant that destroys the world.” Everyone starts off thinking they’re right, they’re doing something great for the world, and how do you twist out of that? June, in particular, and Anden, the young Elector, go on that leg of the journey to figure out what exactly that means.” ~ Marie Lu