Quintana of Charyn (Lumatere Chronicles, #3) in Aussie Readers

Oct 28, 2011 Lauren rated it really liked it

I had no idea that Froi of the Exiles wasn't a self-contained story. Oh the pain!! Hurry up time! ...more

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Sep 05, 2012 Bree T rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc, australian, fantasy-sci-fi, headcase, aww2012, young-adult, saving-the-world

Froi and Quintana have been separated, driven apart by betrayal. Froi was nearly killed but time and care have healed his horrible wounds and now he travels the length and breadth of Charyn, searching for the woman he loves and the unborn child of his that she carries within her, breaking the curse of Charyn.

Searching for Quintana isn’t the only thing that is keeping Froi busy. The powers that be have decided upon the advisor to the King who is not even born yet and he will take the role but fir Froi and Quintana have been separated, driven apart by betrayal. Froi was nearly killed but time and care have healed his horrible wounds and now he travels the length and breadth of Charyn, searching for the woman he loves and the unborn child of his that she carries within her, breaking the curse of Charyn.

Searching for Quintana isn’t the only thing that is keeping Froi busy. The powers that be have decided upon the advisor to the King who is not even born yet and he will take the role but first they need to secure the nation. The threat of Bestiano still looms and he is desperate to find and kill Quintana and assume the power of the throne. He is gathering an army fed on lies and Froi, Gargarin, Arturo and Lirah have the job of raising allies to face him. But in their travels Froi encounters Finnikin, his father and Perry who believe that Charyn is about to betray them again. Froi is desperately torn between the woman he loves and the land that sings to his blood and the people that rescued him, took him, loved him, made him part of their family.

Meanwhile Quintana is hiding with her babe in her belly among people that she has no choice but to try and trust. It isn’t easy for her and it isn’t easy on them either. But her time is near and there are people near by and all over that are looking for her to cut her throat the minute she births the next King of Charyn. Quintana is at her most vulnerable, she will need help from the most unlikely of corners to ensure the safety of two lands and lay the bloodshed to rest.

This is it! Quintana Of Charyn is the third and final volume in the stunning Lumatere Chronicles and what an adventure it has been, immersing myself in this world over the last couple of weeks. It’s always very daunting picking up the final volume in a series that has become much loved, because the expectations are scarily high. Will it live up to them? Can it wrap up everything that the readers desire to have wrapped up? And I think the general consensus is that Melina Marchetta has delivered.

According to Danielle over at ALPHA Reader, Quintana Of Charyn is a book that is full of hope. I have to agree with her, we talked about it on twitter a little and that after some of the darkness of Froi there is a lot of beauty, hope, forgiveness and trust emerging within this novel. Quintana is an amazing character, one of the most fascinating I’ve come across in a long time. There’s so much depth to her, her terrible early life, her twin souls and her ‘madness’ ill blends together in such complexity. She isn’t always likeable – she’s prickly, she’s rude, she’s not really got much of an idea of social graces or how to act with other people, but she’s forthright, she’s brutally honest, she doesn’t really have a clue how to lie or deceive. She went to someone she felt she could trust even though she didn’t know them. She placed a huge amount of faith in someone, in more than just one someone actually. I really felt that her honesty about the child she carried was just incredible – she’s frightened about whether or not she can love this baby, about whether or not she will know what to do, about whether or not they will bond. She hasn’t known much love in her short life Quintana, but she’s capable of such powerful love anyway. Both Froi and Quintana are characters who develop throughout these books at a rapid pace, Froi of this novel is such a huge departure from the Froi we first met. He has grown, matured, strengthened, changed and evolved into his destiny. It hasn’t come easily to him at times, he struggles with just who and what he is but his acceptance of it and his duty leads to some amazingly torn loyalties and internal dilemma. Quintana and Froi have such a fraught relationship with misunderstandings and separations and drama that it makes Finnikin and Isaboe’s courtship look normal. What I really liked about this book was that Marchetta doesn’t really attempt to make Quintana mature into ‘normality’ in this book. She’s still paranoid, she’s still a bit crazy really and she’s still awkward around other people with no real thought-t0-mouth filter and I suspect that she will probably always be that way. And I love that about her, that she’s just that little bit insane but Froi loves her dearly (perhaps even because of that, not in spite of it) and accepts her. No one else could have accepted Quintana as she is as a wife. They would’ve wanted to hide her away, or change her. Froi celebrates her and it’s beautiful.

I finished this book and I felt deeply satisfied. Like the whole world had been put to rights and everything was as it should be. I cried in this novel, I turned the pages anxiously, I tried to figure out just how Marchetta would end things so that the two people who deeply belonged together, would be. And as a final novel in a trilogy goes, this one is amazing. It gives so much, it is the journey you want it to be but things don’t feel like they’re contrived. The happy ending is that, but you know there’s still going to be issues, still going to be struggles as Charyn rebuilds, as it forges new relations.

Quintana Of Charyn truly is a book of hope. Of finding yourself and your home, embracing who and what you are. It’s about family and the different sorts of ties that bind through thick and thin and it’s a love story as well, in more ways than one. You’ll fall in love with all of these characters, I know I did. Even though this particular story is done, I’d love to see Marchetta revisit this world sometime in the future.

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Feb 04, 2016 Sanika rated it it was amazing

Wow! What a fitting end to a fantastic series! I pulled on an all nighter to read this.... I found it more interesting that Froi of the Exiles. There were many moments like Finnikin and Froi's meeting, Froi's family bonding, Quintana's blunt obeservations regarding many things, Lucian and Phaedra's awkward moments, which were quite funny and made me laugh.
Kudos to Quintana! and Ms Marchetta!

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Dec 07, 2012 Soph - Lock&Key rated it liked it

Shelves: amazing-story-lines, wondeful-writing, read-in-2013, love-the-cover, wish-i-loved-it

3.5 stars.

Reading this series has been an emotional roller coaster. One minute I was totally into the story, itching to find out what happened, and the next I was bored and my mind was elsewhere. It look me a long time to read this book because I couldn't focus on it, parts of it were absolutely brilliant, but the other parts were lacking. I do love the storyline of these books, they are very unique and well written but...... ...more

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Jan 14, 2011 Janelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult-fiction, fantasy, aussie-author

A beautiful read with such exquisite writing, I was totally lost in the land of Skuldenore and didn't want it to end. My husband asked if he could read it, and I said he had to wait as I wasn't finished with it yet (wanted to re-read it straight away). ...more

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Dec 13, 2011 Lady Jayne *~*The Beach Bandida*~* rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, top-of-to-read-pile, fantasy, author-melina-marchetta, aussie-ooohh-yeeeeaahhh

My darling hubby is so wonderful to get me this for my birthday! *Squeee!* Can't wait to start reading it this long weekend! :-D
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To be reviewed... ...more

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