The Last Wizard's Ball (Gunnie Rose #6)[July 30, 2025]

[Yanique, Thread Master]

This is a Buddy Read for The Last Wizards' Ball by Charlaine Harris starting on July 30, 2025.


Happy Reading!

[Diana Stormblessed]

In

[Nirkatze]

Thank you!

Old links to rest of series BR:
1. An Easy Death (Jan 2) [Link]
2. A Longer Fall (Feb 2) [Link]
3. The Russian Cage (March 2) [Link]
4. The Serpent in Heaven (April 2) [link]
5. All the Dead Shall Weep (May 2 2024) [Link]
6. The Last Wizards' Ball (July 30 2025)

Availability?

[Nirkatze]

Gonna be real late to this one... I keep hoping my library hold will come up, but it's saying 8 weeks at this point...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'll be reading like tomorrow or over the weekend...

[Diana Stormblessed]

My library hold came in! Starting this one next.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Started this towards the end of my work shift this morning... Finishing it near the start of my work shift tonight... The gist of the plot relies on miscommunication, as has become the norm of late... Really annoying...

If the blurb hadn't said 6th and final installment, I wouldn't have thought so for 95% of the book...

Kinda just glad it's over and I can cross it off my series list... I abandoned Sookie Stackhouse after 6 books... I was getting close to abandoning Gunnie Rose after book 5... Only Charlaine Harris series I've loved is Midnight Texas...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I finished the last 5%, and I don't think Charlaine Harris knows how to write a satisfying series finale for a series longer than 3 books... As one reviewer noted, they liked this series more at the end of book 3 and that was a better ending than this one...

My ratings for the series are 4/4/5/4/2/2-3, I haven't decided how negative I want my rating of this book to be... If I rate it 3 stars, it's mostly because the sour taste of book 5 prepared me for this book...

[Diana Stormblessed]

Timelord Iain wrote: "I finished the last 5%, and I don't think Charlaine Harris knows how to write a satisfying series finale for a series longer than 3 books... As one reviewer noted, they liked this series more at th..."

You’re making me scared lol

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

It reminded me of the True Blood finale, which I don't think matched the Sookie Stackhouse finale...

It does make a good point that Lizbeth is only 21 at the end of the series, and really has her whole life ahead of her, still...

The main reason this didn't feel like the end of the series for much of the middle, was WW2 plotline heating up out of nowhere, with Magic Hitler on the rise... that seemed like the potential of a second series arc or a whole series of it's own...

[Ann-Marie]

The ending was TERRIBLE! I also read the blurb and as I was reading I was like there's no way this is the finale to the series, the blurb was wrong! but yup, it was and what a rushed, unsatisfying and disappointing ending to the series it was. If there is a spin-off series I don't see me rushing to read it because clearly it would be a waste of time to invest in getting to know characters, see how the relationships develop and such because they will possible (likely) just be written off and discarded in like a chapter or two! I am annoyed I spent what was thankfully just a few hours listening to this today lol

[RachelG.]

With two of you not enjoying this book I am really thinking of just skipping it once my library hold is available.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I forgot Ann-Marie was part of this series BR, or I'd have seen that rating coming a mile away... Ann-Marie is a stickler for endings :D

It really is/was the worst...

I feel the same about reading future Harris series... I've had enough failures to maybe pick up a series starter on heavy discount, and that's about it...

[Ann-Marie]

I can't believe it has a 4.15 star rating currently, like did those people read the same book????? I had to log in to do some work since I took Friday off and I sat here in silence for like an hour because I was so annoyed and I didn't want to start a new book lol

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Most of those 5 star ratings didn't read the book...

Charlaine Harris is popular enough to have people rating before the book released... if you look, most of the reviews are 3 stars at best... that's not a good sign for page 1 reviews... actual stats say 700ish ratings and 100ish reviews... I'd be surprised if half those ratings read the book, it just came out... plus some ARC readers...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Ann-Marie wrote: "I can't believe it has a 4.15 star rating currently, like did those people read the same book????? I had to log in to do some work since I took Friday off and I sat here in silence for like an hour..."

Those hours are usually when I pop in music, podcast, or youtube videos... been doing that alot more recently, after work... not ruining my average too much, still read 1000pgs/day in July, just not 1150 pages...

[Ann-Marie]

The ending here reminded me of the ending of How I Met Your Mother and I assure you that is not a favorable comparison, I am STILL mad at how that show ended and it's been more than a decade lol

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

That's a great/terrible comparison :D

[Diana Stormblessed]

Just finished. This book was a mess. Nothing happened for 3/4 of the book. The whole Hitler thing was out of left field. The ending was… wrong. I’m giving it 2 stars cuz I am still attached to the characters but I had to speed it up at the end to get through it.

[RachelG.]

I am going to skip this one after seeing you three dislike it so much. I'm kind of sad because I was looking forward to it. I had high hopes for a good ending!

At least I have the next DCC to start!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

RachelG. wrote: "I am going to skip this one after seeing you three dislike it so much. I'm kind of sad because I was looking forward to it. I had high hopes for a good ending!

At least I have the next DCC to start!"

It's basically unHEA... (view spoiler)[ Lizbeth is unhappy that Felicia and Eli want to fight magic Hitler in WW2, and gives an ultimatum... fakes death, ends marriage, returns home to Texoma, and hooks up with a local from childhood/book 1...

THE END... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Reddit agrees: https://www.reddit.com/r/urbanfantasy...

[Ann-Marie]

lol:

"But I guess Charlaine Harris is the queen of shit endings. "

[RachelG.]

With the reviews on GR and Reddit, it seems like the majority of people who read the book felt negative about it.

[Ann-Marie]

I admit I am very critical of series endings but I feel vindicated with this one :D

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

It's been awhile since we read books 1-5, but I'm glad reddit vindicated my feelings that book 5 felt like the first half of a larger 2 part story, then this book kinda just did it's own thing... on top of everything else...

[RachelG.]

I just went back and re-read the comments we made about book 4 (All the Dead Shall Weep) and for the most part there were low ratings for that one as well. I only remembered how unfinished that book felt and it seems like this one didn't fill in the holes.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

book 4 was the Felicia book that added alot of stuff about her family...

book 5 was the one where Lizbeth and Eli had an offpage fight and split up, and then the book happened, then they reunited at the end in a shootout/barfight, and Eli fought and broke up to go investigate Russian stuff I think?

[Diana Stormblessed]

Timelord Iain wrote: "book 4 was the Felicia book that added alot of stuff about her family...

book 5 was the one where Lizbeth and Eli had an offpage fight and split up, and then the book happened, then they reunited ..."

Book 5 also annoyed me cuz of the lack of communication. And just when you think at least that horrible trope is out of the way and they learned their lesson, book 6 does the same thing.

(view spoiler)[ And then she’s just like, well, I’ve been separated from the man I love and MARRIED but I guess it is what it is. Guess I’ll just go sleep with this random dude and ignore the fact that my world just got turned upside down. Not like normal people would feel some kind of emotion about that or anything (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Lack of communication is a seriously annoying trope.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "book 4 was the Felicia book that added alot of stuff about her family...

book 5 was the one where Lizbeth and Eli had an offpage fight and split up, and then the book happene..."

(view spoiler)["I faked my death and was declared legally dead yesterday, time to move on with my life" (hide spoiler)]

[Ann-Marie]

But she might "consider" visiting Virginia!

/eyeroll

[Diana Stormblessed]

😂 (view spoiler)[ her mom is all, I just want you to be happy. Dude, her life just fell apart. She lost her husband and had to fake her death not to be hunted and this rando she hooked up with the next day is going to give her a happy life? (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

C'est la vie ;)

[Nirkatze]

My library hold came in in the nick of time last week. I think I enjoyed it more scene-by-scene than y'all, but I totally agree--the ending sucked. I am with Ann-Marie's rant 100%. (view spoiler)[WTF? She's ditching her husband and running off with some Virginian? Seriously? And all because she doesn't want to fight magic Hitler? Or can't adult enough how to have a conversation on relationships?

EVERYONE should want to fight Magic Hitler.

I did think it was interesting having Magic Hitler in the book--the alternate world changes are some of the more interesting bits. I also enjoyed seeing all the characters coming to court Felicia, though her fixation on the masked man was rather... young adult romantasy emo.

Also, the person who got randomly pregnant--wasn't that the gay couple who married to hide the fact that they were each gay? Or one was gay and one was asexual? WTH? That came out of left field, and then just ignored with all the other plotlines... (hide spoiler)]

[Diana Stormblessed]

Nirkatze wrote: "My library hold came in in the nick of time last week. I think I enjoyed it more scene-by-scene than y'all, but I totally agree--the ending sucked. I am with Ann-Marie's rant 100%. WTF? She's ditch..."

(view spoiler)[ yeah about Felix and Lucy, wtf indeed. He’s very gay and she’s very asexual. The whole point of them getting married to each other was so they didn’t have to sleep with people off the opposite sex. Them getting pregnant was just so ick to me (hide spoiler)]. So much wrong in this book.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

This was the worst book I read in a long while, from a plot perspective... Maybe since Gunnie Rose 5.............

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The longer I marinated on it, the more I was willing to go full Ann-Marie, and drop the rating all the way down to 1 star... this is honestly one of the worst books I've read in a long time, as I said above...

At least insofar as it viscerally pissed me off...