Jim Gaffigan's love affair with food spans the width and breadth of America as he renames each geographic area of the country by the types of food they eat (Seabugland was a personal favorite) and describes in great detail his opinions on the fare. Having recently driven from Cleveland to Phoenix I took great delight in his affection for Panini's and green chiles eaten in New Mexico. This book will make you laugh and make you want to go out to eat.

Will Scarlet takes a turn narrating sections of this book, and while it makes for a more entertaining read than the first volume due to his relatively high spirits and colloquialisms, it takes away from the time of other characters and in the end this book drags just as much as the first. Bran is still severely underdeveloped, the Normans don't get enough page time to show their stories, the romance didn't fit in with the story, and the battles were lackluster. Lawhead has a wonderful grasp of history and a lot of great ideas, but his execution is poor.

Oh no. OH NO, was this bad. How bad, you ask? So, impossibly bad.

Mia's shitty husband is verbally and emotionally abusive, a liar, a cheater, and very secretive, and all her friends and family hate him (there is no good explanation for why she married him, or why he married her). I expected a cute girl power book where Mia tells the other woman that Jack is a jerk and a liar and they tell him to fuck off. Instead, Mia and her horrible friends team up with Jack's ex-wife to concoct a cruel and elaborate plan to involve the other woman in a twisted scheme that will cost Jack his job. Meanwhile, Mia herself cheats on Jack, starts dating another guy whom she didn't have any romantic feelings for from high school until age 33, and then lies to his face about cheating -- despite everything Jack has done to her. The sex scenes read like a virgin who read one issue of Cosmo and doesn't know how condoms work. The only good thing about this book was that it ended.

Bran has been injured by those more powerful than him for the last time, and he spends this book doing everything in his power to once again rest as king of his own family lands. There is a lot of fighting and a lot of zany plots, and it would be fun if it weren't so long. I liked that Lawhead introduced each section with a part of an old ballad about Robin Hood; I wish he had done that from the beginning since so much of it seemed out of place in the final book. Overall it was an interesting series with a lot of cool ideas that was just executed very poorly.

Snicket writes with a great mischievousness and joy for language and story, and it is almost more fun to enjoy his writing than it is to enjoy the story. That being said, this was an excellent conclusion to a series that at once illuminates and shadows the character of Lemony Snicket, and briefly foreshadows the events that take place before the lives of the unfortunate Baudelaire children. It was a solid ending, but I can't help but wish for more books about the VFD.

I wish Mark Watney was my best friend. Not only would he be the guy to show up in his pickup to help you move, or fix your flat tire, he'd also cure your hangover, help you start a compost pile, and find a way to make you dinner using three ingredients (as long as none of them were potatoes). This book alternated from thriller to humor right back to thriller and held it all together with the convictions that human beings are good at their core and will work together to save one man's life, no matter the cost.

A thrilling conclusion to a curious, sarcastic, and inventive trilogy. I never knew what would happen next, but I always knew Cassel would surprise me with his blend of dark heart and good intentions. Would definitely recommend this trilogy to someone looking for a new kind of fantasy adventure grounded in crime and the importance of family.