Spoilers ahead: Really lame ending after the build up. The repeat emphasis on Alina being a simple girl who wants to just go back to being a simple girl again is quite grating. After building up to what appears to be an epic battle the book ends on a lame note of Alina losing her powers (are we expected to be happy that she is a commoner again) and then stabbing the darkling (apparently all these years after surviving the fold, the cathedral and countless battles, a stabbing was all that was needed. So much for a thousand year life). The author appears to relish grinding down her primary characters to weaklings who just chanced upon some power only to run away from it as fast as possible leaving the business of ruling to the princes and other self confident people of the world. Over the course of the novels I had expected Alina to develop some character. Both she and Mal end up like whimpering weaklings running away from responsibility, hiding away in an orphanage, happy to lose their powers and be anonymous Is this the story of a hero or some pathetic frightened rat