A review by yvo_about_books
End of the Lie by Diana Rodriguez Wallach

3.0

Finished reading: January 18th 2019

"This time, they were all going to burn, without any beasts rising from any ashes."

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Entangled Publishing LLC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

Spoiler

I read the first two books of this YA spy thriller series last year and enjoyed the international feel and pace of the story, so when I saw the third and final book mentioned I just couldn't resist. I was looking forward to another bout of country hopping and finding out how Anastasia's story would end... And End Of The Lie manages to deliver both. While I do have to say I enjoyed this last installment a tiny bit less than the previous two books, overall it was still a solid read. The pace took a little while to pick up and I have always had my struggles with the main characters, but the story is easy to follow and we still get our dose of international travel despite the slow start. And I just LOVE that not one, but two places we were able to visit during our Europe trip last year were mentioned! Seeing Krakow and Prague described brought back great memories and made me feel as if I were transported back to those places again. It shows that the author used personal travel experiences to describe the settings! This international feel of End Of The Lie is without doubt one of the strongest features of this spy thriller. Once the pace picks up, the plot goes fast as they are trying to end the whole situation before things spin even more out of control. There were cliches involved and I'm not sure about the credibility of some aspects, but I can't deny it was still an entertaining read. I could have done without the romance and the bitchiness, but overall the Anastasia Phoenix trilogy as a whole is an entertaining interntational spy thriller for fans of the genre.



WARNING: Possible spoilers! Please don’t read this summary if you haven’t read the first two books of this trilogy yet. I’ll keep the summary super short but it’s impossible to keep it completely spoiler-free…

Anastasia Phoenix and her friends thought everything would be better now everything was out in the open, but those thoughts turned out to be too good to be true... Lives are still in danger, and the only way to stop it all is to destroy Department D completely. This is easier said than done, because they have no idea where their parents are and how to end things completely. Will they be able to stop all this madness before it's too late?



I love a good international setting where it seems like reading a story comes with free travel. Add the fact that this story visits two places I've recently been able to explore and love myself, and it's easy to say that the international feel of End Of The Lie was a huge bonus for me. I still struggled with the main characters, the bitchiness and the romance (although I liked some of the romantic developments), but the writing reads like a train and once the pace picks up things get interesting. Fans of international YA spy thrillers will have a great time with this trilogy.

P.S. Find more of my reviews here.