Heart of the Storm (Undertow #3)
Author: Micheal Buckley
Published: 2017
On Goodreads
My Rating: 
Rated U for underwhelming battle against the undertow
Their survival is destiny
For three months, Lyric Walker was missing, having been taken by the Alpha Queen, Minerva, and put at her slaving whim. Now free, Lyric reunites with her best friend and parents on the eve of another battle, the battle to end all battles. She instantly realizes that she’ll need more than a couple Alpha and hybrids to take on these new enemies.
Before the remainder of the country is destroyed, she’ll have to wrangle together an army from those she loves, those who are afraid of her, those that hate her, and those that will follow her to the end of the earth. Though life keeps throwing her curveballs, she won’t bow down to defeat.
Undertow Reviews
The premise of the final installment of this trilogy started out good, bringing Lyric home to where it all began, and then dissolved into a sad, incoherent mess. Okay, not so much incoherent as a jumble and mix of confusion. While catching up on Lyric’s activities while she was away was interesting, the big bad of the book, a hive of monsters that have been awakened in the Great Abyss that the Alpha pray to. So much was happening at once and it didn’t mesh well for me. Not at all. There’s a great battle, a new leader of the Alpha, a baby surprise, and a sad attempt at a love triangle. All great attention grabbers except that they didn’t fully get there. With the pace of this story being fast, there wasn’t much time to take each of these in.
Lyric grows up too fast. By that I mean, she figured out exactly who she wants to be with, ending this attempt at a tringle between her, Fathom, and Riley. Herself, not Fathom and not Riley. I praised that so hard! Yes! Awesome! Buuuuuuut. Ugh. Still, there was unfinished business with Fathom and it didn’t feel solved. Not even when she said found “closure”. Where was it? It was cut and dry and after everything, including her complicated condition in this book, I feel like it’s not that easy. Her romantic relationships were cut off like chopping off the end of a flower. Blunt and it made everything that came before pointless.
The ending came too fast. The build-up of this book was great and I was totally in love with the time Lyric got with her family and how she rallied everyone. Bex’s character had tremendous growth! But as the peak—the great battle everyone is gearing up for—of the book came, so did the end. The peak should not be at the end of the book. LOL. I was hoping to relish in the settling after it all, but there was no settling.
Overall
I was bummed. With an overly large amount of angst and awkward, I was beside myself. This one just felt unfinished and hurried. However, I really do think this trilogy would play over very well if it were made for a TV show. It would kick some serious ass on The CW or even on Netflix. I just didn’t feel much for this one, which isn’t good since the final book of any series/trilogy should be epically satisfying. Not a horrible trilogy, but I don’t think it’s one of the best either.
Quotables:
“The Nix have a saying. The day offers problems. The night provides solutions.” (Husk to Lyric, p. 219)
“The tide washes everything away.” (Lyric’s mom to Lyric, p. 222)
More to come soon…
-K.
P.S. Song today? Open Your Eyes by Bea Miller.
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The Scarlet Reader 
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