“The Last Star in the Void” by Melissa Caruso

The Echo Archives ends as it began: by being incredibly fun to read.

These three books have a formula, no question. There’s some kind of Echo shenanigans that Kembral has to deal with. She has friends to help her, Empyreans to mess things up, and she’s tired from single-mothering. The single-mothering is less now that she’s in a relationship, but still. But “formulaic” doesn’t equal “bad” if it’s a good formula and it’s well-executed, and this is both.

The Echo shenanigans Kembral has to deal with this time is a fun one: her own murder. More specifically, her echoes are dying in some kind of timey-wimey way from near-death experiences Kembral barely squeaks out of. So she’s got to find out who is trying to kill her, and why.

She also has to deal with all of this while being In A Relationship. Rika is obviously less than thrilled that someone is trying to murder her girlfriend and feeling overprotective, and Kembral doesn’t want her to worry and also habitually thinks she can and should take care of it herself … anyway, they’ve got some issues to work through. Oh, and this all takes place during the traditional time of year where people propose.

And this book has a lot of the one and only Jaycel Morningray, darlings. 

So we get swashbuckling, banter (flirty and otherwise), exciting swordfights, chase scenes, daring escapes - all exactly what I wanted out of this book. Caruso remains a go-to favorite when I want something that is pure and unapologetic fun.