I really enjoyed this one, though not my favorite, I think I like the first book best. This one took the story to interesting places and I really didn't know how it was all going to end. I liked that we got to see the story of Sophia and Agatha's parents and how their parents story played a huge role in theirs. There are some major reveals in this book that I definitely didn't see coming. I went back and forth on my feelings for part of this book just because of the message I thought it was portraying. At one point in the story, it seemed like the message being portrayed was that you HAVE TO have a prince or a boy to have a happy ending and you can't be happy by yourself with just your best friend. Also at one point it seemed like the message was, you can only have one person/"soul mate" to be happy and if you can't be with them, then you'll never find love and have a happy ending. Of course, I didn't like or agree with either of these messages but thankfully that's not the message that's portrayed by the end of the story. I also really liked seeing Cinderella's backstory. I love the twist that they gave to her story, even though it's a tragic one. I preferred that version of Cinderella to the original. I would love to see more twists like this to the original fairytale stories. Overall I really enjoyed it, 4.5 stars. ( )

I had not read the 2 books before this in the series although that did not matter as this book can be read as a standalone book. It does cover events that happened in the past so I knew what had gone on before this book.

At first I took a disliking to Agatha, as it seemed she stole Sophie’s true love (Tedros) away but in the end I liked her, I liked all of the characters.

It was lovely to read about so many fairytale characters in this book but how they are many years from their stories, old and completely different. My particular favourite had to be Merlin he was just the same as I could ever imagined him to be.

In this book the sun is dying evil is trying to take over, Sophie has the School Masters ring on her finger and her Ever After seems to be in place. The problem is that Agatha and Tedros’ Ever After was meant to finish but it hasn’t and it is their quest to save the Readers World and get the ring off Sophie’s finger which in turn will get rid of the School Master.

Wow this book had so many twists and turns, just when I thought we were ‘out of the woods’ something popped up and things started getting bad.

I really enjoyed this book, it was a little longer than I am used to but the story flowed well throughout and it was a fast paced read.

I look forward to reading more from Soman Chainani. ( )

I really really loath Agatha.
Tedros too but to a lesser degree, though not by much.

And the only reason this book gets 2 stars is because of Sophie, who was the most human and psychologically complex, and like a breath of fresh air after those two morons.

This is so... I'm just so...
I don't even have words to...

This book was so terribly disappointing. I can't even.
Gods, what a nightmare of a book!

I skimmed Agatha and only read Sophie. And I admit to feeling vindictive joy at Tedros' fainting.

I think it's better to pretend there was only [b:The School for Good and Evil|16248113|The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil, #1)|Soman Chainani|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1369559695s/16248113.jpg|21599439] and no additional sequels. Saves much heartache. ( )

The School for Good and Evil series continues to be in equal parts entertaining and ridiculous. The beginning of this book starts off with some problematic aspects, a lot of the same homophobic/transphobic things that appeared in the last book. Fortunately these things go away after the first couple chapters, but Tedros’s confused feelings about his attachment to Sophie-as-Phillip were not handled well. Nor were the sex change scenes… in general, Tedros’s homophobia and transphobia are extremely off-putting, particularly in a book intended for younger readers.

I want to say that up front, because while there are some great aspects to The Last Ever After and overall I enjoyed it as a book, it’s important to know from the beginning that there are problematic attitudes. Unlike the last book, these attitudes shade a very small percentage of the story – forgotten after the first 10%. But they are there.

That aside, The Last Ever After is a much better book than A World Without Princes. Sure, it’s got a lot of repetitive themes and the plot from all three books in this trilogy has been, well, essentially the same. Agatha and Sophie are placed on separate teams and the same stuff happens. If you’re read The School for Good and Evil and A World Without Princes, the story in The Last Ever After won’t be a particular surprise. For those who haven’t read the series and are interested, I won’t say anything more here. But the plot is repetitive as a whole and the ending is predictable from the first moments.

Unlike the other two books in the series, The Last Ever After brings something new to the table. This story is bigger than Agatha and Sophie. Chainani brings in the fairytale heroes we know from lore – Peter Pan, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and more. This is a fun twist and it adds a level of depth to the storytelling. However, with that comes more fatphobia, another thing which has been a problem since book one. Dot has regained weight and Sophie in particular spends a lot of time looking disdainfully at the retired fairytale heroes. I found it less alarming here than in The School for Good and Evil, but it’s another thing that was unnecessary in this book.

What I didn’t find in this book and expected to was ageism. There are a couple moments of doubt about the heroes’s ability to assist, but a lot of that was due to their own uncertainty, and I feel like they all grew in the course of the story. It was interesting to see the meshing of the Old and the New within the story. It also helped with the repetitiveness of the plot.

There are… a lot of things that are wrong or don’t work in The Last Ever After – a theme in this series. There are a lot of missed opportunities and unfortunate twists. The character growth is fairly limited, especially in Sophie. It’s why Agatha is my favorite characters: she actually grows a little. And I do like Agatha. And the coven of witches. And I was totally rooting for Hort. Because despite all of its faults (and there are many faults), The Last Ever After managed to pull me in and keep me entertained for all twenty hours of its runtime.

As such, it makes it difficult to recommend The Last Ever After. It’s incredible entertaining, easy to read, and a light-hearted story with some fun characters and interesting relationships. But it’s riddled with concerning material and repetitive storylines. It’s something to keep in mind if you choose to pick up any books in this trilogy, but I do think The Last Ever After is the best of the three. ( )

This review was originally published at The Children's Book and Media Review

Once best friends, Sophie and Agatha are now bitter enemies. Both of them, however, are questioning their happy endings with the School Master and Tedros. Tedros and Agatha decide to return to the world of the school to save Sophie, but Sophie is not sure that she wants to be saved if it means that she doesn’t get a true love and a happy ending of her own. Because she was able to love the School Master when love was always on good’s side, evil villains from classic tales are coming to life for another chance at their happy endings. Sophie embraces her evil and Agatha embraces her good, leading to a dramatic war between the ones who believe in keeping the balance between good and evil and those who want nothing but evil.

The last book of the series makes up for the confusing messages of the second book. This book deals a lot with the issue of age while still tackling issues of gender and good and evil like in the first two books. Secondary characters like Hort and Dot were given a chance to shine and be more important that they seemed in the first two books. The main characters can still be frustrating with Sophie’s total selfishness and Agatha’s unwillingness to do what needs to be done to keep herself and the people around her safe. In spite of being in a fantasy world that seems to have no connection to the real world, the characters occasionally reference pop culture things that take the reader out of the book’s universe. The book is a few hundred pages more than the previous book and the plot lags at some points, but curiosity about how it ends will keep a lot of readers pushing towards the end of this new fairy tale. ( )