out of 10
I kind of lost interest in the series after it continually became more focused on Alina's love triangle than the plot (to a point).
I have mixed feelings on what the Darkling did to Nikolai and what happened to Mal. It feels like watching a movie where everything ends too perfectly - there needs to be some sort of stakes or seriousness to the ending, but I guess to a point this is YA fiction. I also wasn't convinced the author had the ending in mind from the start, but this one's hard to say for sure.