I've loved the Effigy series from the start, and while I'm sad to see it end, this was a good way to go. It was a rollercoaster watching the girls journey from the beginning until this last book, especially Maia and Belle. The (finally) given backstory about where the Effigies and their power comes from was one of the best parts for me after sooooo many pages of wanting to know how it all came about. It can be very hard to keep track of what is going on here, because this series is so backstory heavy and detail oriented, but if you can stay with it you won't be disappointed.

I have really enjoyed this series. The world that the author envisioned is just so interesting and so like our own and yet different. The ending was also perfect and pretty much what I wanted. I was a little worried that it was going to end with everything being wiped clean, but it wasn’t. This world has a long way to go to heal itself, which felt authentic to me.

Maia continues to be our only narrator, and she goes through a lot in this book. All of the issues I had with her in the last book have disappeared. She still has many doubts about what she is doing, and that is ok. Their are many people doing deals and double crossing each other, that you really can’t tell who are the bad guys here. There were a few moments when I worried about Maia going down the wrong path. But she keeps her head and her sanity and comes out on top at the end. Her relationship with her twin sister, June, is explored in the book, which was interesting and really gave you more insight into Maia.

All of the other Effigies are still around and still fighting, although Belle does go down the dark path. The other two, Chae Rin and Lake, really get their acts together in this book and come to help Maia and support her in so many ways. I like the Effigies powers being elemental and always being girls. The whole back story of how they came to be is explained in this story and I found it to be fascinating. The Phantoms origins are explained in more detail and I found then even more terrifying after learning it.

The plot of this book is very convoluted and at times a little hard to follow. There is a lot of double crossing and conspiracies and it is very hard to keep up with who the bad guys are and who is just pretending or feel like they don’t have a choice or is being controlled. The pacing does get a little bogged down by this, but it is still a riveting read. I especially liked the mix of a little mythology into the story. Every question I had about the Effigies and the Phantoms was pretty much answered by the end of this book, which was great. I hate it when I still have questions at the end of a series.

Overall this was a fabulous series that had a very different take on the superhero plot and origins. Even if you are not into superheroes I think you might enjoy this series, it is very well done and well written.

Legacy of Light by Sarah Raughley is the third book in the young adult fantasy Effigies trilogy. Each book of the series builds upon the last with the story picking up shortly after it had left off so this would definitely be a series you would want to begin from the beginning.

In the first book of the series readers were introduced to high school student Maia Finley who knew that one of her idols must have died because Maia had been chosen to take her place as the new Fire Effigy. There were always four Effigies at any given time and when one died another young girl is chosen by fate to inherit the magical abilities of one of the four elements.

When the city of New York came under attack from phantoms with the protection system down Maia found herself tossed into the middle of battle without a clue what to do. Luckily Belle, another Effigy showed up and saved the day but it wasn’t long until Maia’s secret was out and she was pulled into battle with the other girls and the secret government program, the Sect, that is in charge of the Effigies.

Now the Effigies are split apart as Saul had brought back Maia’s twin, June, to use her to make people believe Maia had been attacking the city. With Belle gone rogue and Chae Rin and Lake disappeared, Maia branded a terrorist and the sect being dismantled the fight against Saul is at an all time high.

The entire Effigies series was really non-stop action from the opening pages of book one. I was hooked on the story from very early on and even at book three the author continued to surprise me at some of the twists and turns in the series. The characters and world building was great and the story ends up spanning generations of Effigies and tying everything together quite nicely after keeping readers on their toes as the girls fought to bring down the evil forces.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.