I have one word for this book...BRUTAL! This finale was so much darker than the first two books that it left me speechless multiple times. It was brutal on Roselle and brutal on my heart but I may have loved every minute.

I love Amy. I love all her books. Book one and two felt solid. Book three, Rebel Born, felt a little different. Kind of like a fly ball. Like it went a little wayward. But it was a fantastically fun read. I loved it and I love the Secondborn series.

I have loved everything Amy A. Bartol has written so far and Rebel Born did not disappoint. She has a way with creating something you can't put down. Her words are magic you'll never want to stop reading.

This was such a fantastic way to end the series and I was not disappointed! Each of the. Main characters had their own “happily ever after,” and all loose ends were tied up by the final page. I highly recommend this novel and final book of a amazing fantasy series!

This was not a very satisfying ending to the series. Book three Roselle has gone a long way since book one, but it feels rather anticlimactic. And Roselle is mostly annoying in this book. 
An okay dystopian series with a forgettable ending. 
I rate it 2,5 stars.

This conclusion to the three book series Secondborn lacks the intrigue, politics, and mystery of it's two predecessors. As the series progressed into book 2 it held most of these elements with a slight increase in the science fiction aspects of the story. But our lead gal remained the same and her narrative was very compelling. Unfortunately book 3, Rebel Born, by Bartol is a bit of a mess. It takes our fantasy world and adds too much technology, too quickly. 

Pet Peeve
Nothing bothers me more in literature than convenience. If your character needs all the stars to align every chapter for events to move forward, and you always make that automatically happen, then it's boring. Compelling stories have tension, excitement, uncertainty, etc. A good author keeps the line between what needs to happen, versus what does, very thin and always ensures that the events and outcomes are plausible (inside their worlds rules), logical and intricate enough to surprise the reader at times. Events that are curated too tightly, because the plot heavily relies on them, and don't easily fit cohesively in the story are frustrating and make me twitch. Reading is difficult when your twitching so much your eyes can't keep their place on the page. 

Characters
There is one strong aspect to Bartol's trilogy however: the characters. She has a strong heroine, and sultry compassionate men whom all feel genuine. From sentimental quotes like: 
"life is lost without love”
To downright evil thoughts like: 
"I merely strive to annihilate weakness. Isn’t that the very purest form of evolution?”
Bartol keeps the reader entranced by having authentic and honest people in her story. If only a book could stand entirely on the shoulders of it's characters, and didn't need believable plot, then Bartol might have a hit on her hands. Unfortunately, as much as character studies are one of my favourite types of reads, a character can't save a book entirely. We are not saved by our characters from  Rebel Born being stupendously unbelievable and leaping technological barriers too quickly. 

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Combos
As a reader of both the science fiction and fantasy genres I often love when they merge together. But it's tricky to balance the need for magic to be well 'magical' and science to be technical. Unfortunately these types of books are rarely done well. It seems to be quite the literary challenge to set up parameters for both science and magic that don't contradict each other or feel out of place in the same world. Bartol falls to the same trap I've seen in countless other books that merge sci-fi and fantasy together. In Rebel Born magic does X and technology does well... everything else. In fact magic becomes insignificant at one point and science the 'supreme ruler' of her world. This would be fine if the science used didn't resolve every single plot issue by just being. Where's the ingenuity of the characters in the resolution? Giving all the glory to magic or science is never satisfying for the reader. I want books to be clever and represent events in a compelling way where our characters are critical to the outcome; not just have science (or magic) make everything resolve by default.

Overall
Bartol has the writing style and character development skill needed to write good books; but she needs to work on her plot resolutions. I want to see our characters analyze and sort out situations on their own more; without the power of magic or science creating a perfect fix. The resolution can involve magic or science, don't get me wrong, but it shouldn't just be a 'wave and everything is better' scenario at the end of three books. Overall I wanted more from Bartol's series. I'll look for her publications in the future but will be a little wary of investing into any large series by her until I've seen a trilogy that doesn't rely on the flip of a magic wand (or press of a button) to make everything all better. 

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Loved it, the pacing was great compared to the first two books. A little disappointed there wasn't more character development.

Great story that makes readers question identity, existence, and what humanity truly looks like and feels like. Highly recommend to all interested in a new, captivating read.

I have to say that I did not like this book at all.  I felt like I was reading an entirely different book.  Many plot twists and changes to the world were introduced but had no foreshadowing or even hints in the first two books.  Technically the book was wrapped up but it seemed very abrupt.

FIVE FATED STARS!

I love love loved this conclusion to the Secondborn trilogy! Amy is one of my favorite authors and this book wrapped up the story nice and tight in a way I feel will make everyone happy, no matter whose team you’re on. 😏

That said, the story went in a direction I never could have anticipated but was definitely on board with! Roselle is the strongest she’s ever been and she knows what and who she wants. The revelations in this were so cool and I could have read even more about Spectrum and the anchors and all of the possibilities there (Kricket series anyone?).

(also ... TEAM REYKIN FOR LIFE)

Amy Bartol has done it again. Another satisfying end to a fabulous series! I could have read this in a day but I took my time as I just wasn’t ready to leave this world and these characters behind. As usual this author just balances perfectly a interesting fast paced plot, with unique world building, and addicting storytelling. I can’t wait to see what she writes next! 

*Thank you to 47North and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review*

This is definitely not my genre, but I enjoyed this series nonetheless. This last book wasn't my favorite, but still a fun ride.

I absolutely bloody loved this, so many surprises I didn’t see coming, just gobsmacking twists, amazing. Such a fabulous series and this book didn’t disappoint, in fact I think it far surpasses the first two which I already thought were brilliant. I am looking forward to Amy’s future books even more now.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2M5HA6Q35JATC/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8

How can anyone not like Amy Bartol's writing? I absolutely love this series and was not disappointed. Must read! Can't wait to read more books written by this author. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rebel Born was a book that I was so excited to dive into. It has been a while since I've read the previous books in this series but I honestly didn't care. Again, I was just so excited so I figured that hey - things might come back to me. Yeah, they didn't.. it was rough.

YET, I still enjoyed this one. It did start off a bit slow for me and I just kept waiting for it to get better. Unfortunately, it was just okay. Not going to lie, the first two books were way better in my eyes. That being said, I did enjoy the route of going more sci-fi-ish this time around but I just ended up being confused in some places. 

If I could change one thing about this book it would be the 'villain'. Agent Crow just seemed lame to me this time around. It didn't surprise me that it was a computer program with hopes of taking over the world and everyone in it BUT it's like I wanted more. Something was missing for me and that's probably why I feel meh towards this one.

Ugh, I hate that I fell meh! Overall, I really wanted to like this so I'm disappointed that it didn't turn out how I wanted it to. Maybe with a series re-read my opinion might change?

Next year. Maybe.

Dang. This book. I am deeply disappointed in how Amy A Bartol chose to end this series. This is the third book of the Second Born series. I don’t usually write reviews for sequels unless I really loved it, but in this case it’s the opposite. Obviously, there will be spoilers in this review for the first two books, but there is some for the third as well, another thing I don’t usually do but I really needed to vent.

Spoilers below, seriously. Stop reading now.

What. Just. Happened?!??

This series went from a dystopian novel with touches of sci-fi to a full blown sci-fi/fantasy novel. Dragons? Gods? Other dimensions? Humans made immortal with literally almost no weaknesses? Why?

The book started almost immediately with massive info dumps of very complex sci-fi ideas, which was necessary I guess since we hadn’t been introduced to any of these concepts before the final book. I had to keep rereading parts of this because it was so confusing.

Traitor Born (book 2) was one of my favorite reads last year, easily in my top 5. I was obsessed! This book just didn’t fit. It’s like the author wrote an entirely different world with the same character names thrown in there as an afterthought. Also, a pretty lazy way to dissolve that love triangle 🙄. I won’t go into it, but if you’ve read it you know what I’m talking about.

One of the new characters introduced felt like a cheap version of Drax (from guardians of the galaxy). He’s my favorite character in GotG so I did enjoy this character’s scenes and quips, but still. The whole book just felt like lazy writing, which is a damn shame because Amy A Bartol is a great writer. I’m not sure what happened here.

I have a theory though. I think this is a poorly executed way to bridge a gap between the Second Born series and a potential “spin off” (in quotes because if it is, it’s only a spin off of events/the world from book 3).

Oh, and the epilogue was weak and felt like another info dump.

I hate writing less than favorable reviews because I understand that authors pour their soul into their work and know how much of a time commitment writing is. So here are some good things about this book to end on a high note:

-Roselle is still a bad ass

-Reykin saw more character development

-The action scenes are well written and engaging

-My ship still sailed (kind of?)

Honestly, this wasn’t a bad book. It had promise to be a great book had it been the first book in a new series, but it was just too disjointed from the first two novels to be a satisfying conclusion of the second born series. I’m still going to read what Amy A Bartol writes next because I do enjoy her writing, despite Rebel Born not being what I had hoped for. 

Rebel Born is the final book in the Second Born series by Amy Bartol. Futuristic fantasy is not necessarily my genre, but I really, really enjoyed Rebel Born. The book is full of complex characters and heart stopping peril. The characters are well developed and captivating. 
Ms. Bartol is masterful in bringing this story to life. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I wanted to love this book but there were so many choices I didn't agree with. So many character continuity issues. Too many overextended attempts to make the plot more interesting and bigger. The book feels novice, kitchy and just strange. Also, minimizing and early killing off of Clifton early left a permanent bad taste in my mouth.

The over-arching themes are also problematic. The faux feminism, female leads minimized for male love interests and erasure of all POC.

This was mediocre and I didn't really love it. I think if I had read the other two books it would have been a better experience. I liked the characters overall and the first portion of the story but the more I got into this book, the less I enjoyed.

Amy Bartol always keeps me in guessing.  This book was one that I did not see the story going in that direction.  The story was exciting and kept me reading throughout the night just because I wanted to see what would happen next.   I hope to be able read more of her books but this series is another of hers that I will read multiple times.